By Todd Glasenapp
Arizona Daily Sun
Backers of the Navajo Generating Station are finding themselves still a bit shellshocked by a Jan. 18 bombshell dropped by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA effectively gave NGS and its owners 10 years to install up to a billion dollars’ worth of new emissions controls. The Best Available Retrofit Technology is designed mainly to improve visibility at the Grand Canyon.
Although the plan carries a 90-day public comment period before taking effect, supporters of the 2,250-megawatt, coal-fired plant expect the terms to stick.
A worst-case scenario has the plant’s operating agent walking away and leaving hundreds of mostly Native American employees out of work. The plant is located just east of Page, in the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation.
Chapter president Irene Whitekiller said the matter has not been formally discussed at the chapter level. But Whitekiller was not reluctant to air her own views, and estimated that 30 percent of the plant’s 400-some workers live in her chapter.
She said she believes NGS is being targeted because environmentalists choose to overlook the impact of forest fires, vehicle emissions and smoke from wood-burning stoves.
“Sometimes I wonder if it’s because it’s one of the richest plants,” Whitekiller said Sunday, and added that EPA is not giving NGS enough time to resolve the issue.
In the wake of the announcement, operating agent Salt River Project also said more time is needed. The utility’s chief resources executive said “uncertainties” must be resolved before SRP can decide if it wants to keep the plant open.
