AP reports the federal government is proposing new limits for pollution from a coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation that it says will improve visibility at places like the Grand Canyon, but it could come with a price tag of more than $1 billion, according to the plant’s owners.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave notice in 2009 that it was considering whether to require upgrades to pollution controls at the Navajo Generating Station in Page. The proposal unveiled Friday would reduce haze-causing nitrogen oxide emissions at the 2,250-megawatt plant by 84 percent, or 28,500 tons per year.
“When Congress created the national park system, the goal was to provide natural beauty in wilderness areas,” said EPA regional administrator Jared Blumenfeld in San Francisco. “That would be an experience that would be very different than from in a city, that you would be able to see natural beauty unimpeded by smog, unimpeded by levels of pollution. If you can’t see the vistas that the park was founded on, that’s an issue.”
