July 15, 2008

Toquop comments still being sifted

Patrice St. Germain, Desert Valley Times

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection is still sifting its way through comments received on the Toquop Energy Project and it may be several months before it makes a decision on the facility's permit.

Dante Pistone, public information officer for the division, said once all the comments have been reviewed, the division will decide if any revisions need to be made to the draft air permit for the proposed 750-mega-watt coal-fired electric power plant to be located 12 miles northwest of Mesquite in Lincoln County.

"The division can accept, reject or modify the draft permit," Pistone said.

Pistone said there is no timeframe for the division's decision and said initially it was expected to take six months; however there is no deadline for reviewing the comments and making a decision on the permit.

Meanwhile, Sithe Global, which has proposed the power plant, is still moving forward with the project.

"We are still planning that this will be a go, has to be a go in that area, because there is an urgent need," said Toquop spokesman Frank Maisano of the law firm Bracewell and Giuliani.

The company dropped an option for water rights with one supplier, but Maisano said the company still has options and is still discussing water.

"The timing on that one didn't work out," he said. "It's all part of the regular timing of projects."

Discussions with the contractor of Desert Rock, a proposed coal-fired plant near Farmington, N.M. are also taking place.

Numerous concerns have been raised in Mesquite and in Utah’s Washington County region raised about the coal-fired plant and its environmental.

A rally last week at Zion National Park by the National Parks Conservation Agency was about the park being impacted by the proposed plant and increasing the air pollution in the Class I air shed area.

The National Parks Conservation Association said a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule will weaken laws that protect air quality in national parks and wilderness areas.

According to a report called Dark Horizons, Zion National Park is one of 10 parks most threatened by new coal-fired power plants.

The report states five coal-fired power plants have received permits or are in the active permit process that would affect Zion.

Of the five, three are in Nevada, two are in Utah and the one closest to the park is the Toquop Energy Project.

Jeff Holmstead, head of the environmental strategies group for Bracewell and Giuliani and a former EPA employee, said the proposed rule change by the EPA would have no impact on national parks and said air quality near the parks is getting better.

"This actually has to do with technical modeling issues and it is true that the environmentalists don't like what the EPA has done, but as far as impacts on the environment, there aren't any," Holmstead said.

The EPA is proposing changing the rules for emission monitors, which ends up washing out spikes and making the readings deceptive, said Karen Hevel-Mingo, senior program coordinator with the Southwest Regional office of the National Parks Conservation Association at the Zion rally on July 2.

Holmstead, however, said if the EPA goes forward on the rule, it would be impossible to notice any difference on parks. He said one reason the environmentalists don't like the proposed ruling is because the change would make it more difficult to bring legal challenges.

"As a practical matter, it (the proposed rule) would make it harder for NIMBY (not in my backyard) groups to oppose specific plants," Holmstead said.

Holmstead said Toquop emissions would be very small compared with the plants already in the area and the plant would be required, over time, to reduce emissions.