(ABC 4 News)
ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC 4 News) - There is new concern in Utah over the generation of
power, and there's a smoldering debate over coal-fired power plants.
For years, Utah and the rest of the country have relied on coal-fired power plants for electricity,
but times are changing.
Coal may be cheap and plentiful, but its use comes at a cost, especially where air quality is
concerned. Two controversial plants are getting a lot attention.
In Washington County, residents will get a chance to have their voice heard about a coal-fired
power plant proposed to be built just a few miles west of St. George, just across the Utah-Nevada
border and north of Mesquite.
It’s a plant whose emissions would drift over southern Utah, but whose power would go to
southern Nevada.
Coal Fired power plants…there are 440 of them across the U.S., providing more than half of the
country’s electricity. Coal is a domestic fuel, cheap and plentiful here in Utah and across the
country.
But at what cost do these power plants cause to human health?
According to the EPA, these plants are responsible for 60 percent of the sulfur dioxide
emissions, a chief cause of acid rain.
The EPA claims these plants are responsible for up to 40 percent of mercury emissions, traced to
brain damage in fetuses, neurological problems in children, and 22 percent of nitrogen oxide
emissions; a key component of smog.
Combined, these airborne chemicals take a deadly toll: 24-thousand annually in the U.S. alone,
and 22-thousand of them are most likely preventable.
59 proposed plants have recently been canceled, delayed, or blocked due to these environmental
concerns. And, in Utah, the same pressure is being brought to bare.
85 percent of the power here in Utah is coal fired. Ed Kociela is editor of the Spectrum
newspaper in St. George. In a recent editorial, he added his voice to a growing chorus of utahns
against a coal fired power plant planned just west of St.George and across the border in Nevada:
the Toquop power plant.
“I think there is an awful lot of suspicion...an awful lot of questions that need to be answered,”
says Kociela.
Toquop, where they want to put the power plant doesn’t offer much in terms of outward
resources. Admittedly, there is not much around in the area a few miles north of Mesquite,
Nevada, but here is why utahn's are concerned. Looming in the distance lay the Pine Valley
Mountains of Utah, just north of St. George.
"This isn't a sleepy little village anymore that you can just blow an atomic bomb downrange and
tell everyone its okay. And a power plant is not going to work either," says Paul Van Dam,
Utah’s former attorney general.
Van Dam now lives in Washington County and leads as executive director of "Citizens for
Dixie’s Future". The group’s leaders met last week in an Ivins home to plan their fight against
Toquop.
"I don't think they are willing to take a step back into the past of old technology of more
pollution of more illness of more exposure to children to mercury and other pollutants. It just
can't happen,” says Van Dam.
If Washington County commissioners have any sway, the plant will happen.
“Coal fired power is economical power. We have a bounty of supply of coal especially here in
Utah,” says Washington County Commissioner James Eardley, who adds, “Why not take
advantage of it?”
Eardley is chairman of the Washington County Commission. He and the other commissioners
recently signed a letter in support of the Toquop Power Project, saying:
"We see no alternatives to the combustion of fossil fuels, in the near future, for satisfying the
energy and electrical requirements of our citizens."
Eardley went even further saying, “…but the information we've been receiving, and from our
own observations, these coal fired electric generation facilities are clean and there is not a
compromise between clean air and power."
"Everything we do causes a little bit of pollution,” says Sevier County Commissioner Ralph
Okerlund.
Okerlund and the other Sevier County Commissioners are facing a similar situation. A Utah
company is proposing a coal fired power plant in the middle of the Sevier Valley, a mile west of
the town of Sigurd.
"We believe that this is a clean technology plant, much cleaner than the old technology; small,
and will not have an affect on the area here,” says Okerlund.
"It's cleaner than it was 20 years ago. That doesn't mean it’s clean,” argues James Kennon, who
heads up the group "Sevier County Citizens for Clean Air and Water".
"We have the town of Sigurd here and it seems like they are being sacrificed for this one
project,” adds Kennon.
The mayor and Sigurd town council are now on record opposing the power plant.
They say the power plant will release thousands of tons of pollutants per year into the
atmosphere, degrading the quality of life and adversely affecting human health.
Health providers are also concerned the power plant will result in a rise of illnesses.
The Sevier County Commission will hold hearings for public comment March 18th and 19th
before they make their final decision.
A public hearing is also planned for Wednesday in St. George. The Toquop power plant has
spurred some Jr. high students from Springdale, Utah into activism. They began posting fliers
last week to get people to Wednesday night's hearing.
Speaking of Zion National Park, one student reasoned, “If it gets too smoggy up there, we're not
gonna get too much tourism. And, tourism is basically the motor that runs Springdale,
Rockville… maybe even Hurricane."
The town managers of Springdale have also joined the fray, passing a resolution opposed to the
Toquop plan, pointing to the pollution they say would mar the spectacular landscapes that
tourism depends on.
The air quality studies for the Toquop plant only measured impact 30 miles out. Concerned
citizens in Washington County and beyond worry the potential damage could reach much farther.
But beyond tourism, the people who live in Washington County have immediate concerns over
their own health and that of their children and grandchildren.
One of those most concerned includes a former governor of Utah who suffers her own
respiratory ailment, one that's cut her breathing capacity in half.
“Even though they've improved it 80 percent, which they readily say, there is still that 20 percent
of pollutants going in the air,” says former Utah Governor Olene Walker. “I think for this
generation and for future generations we should look at cleaner air.”
And the people of Washington County have not forgotten what happened to past generations.
“We have a long history here of being downwinders,” says Van Dam. “And to become
downwinders again under these circumstances is totally and completely unacceptable to the
population of this part of our state.”
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality will hold a public meeting Wednesday night in
St. George to gather comments on the Toquop project. The meeting will be held at Dixie State
College in the Dunford Auditorium located in the Browning Building at 225 South 700 East. The
meeting is planned to last from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
