Feds Require Utilities Pay For Pollution Controls, Medical Expenses
The federal government settled Clean Air Act claims with Arizona- and New Mexico- based utilities June 24. The settlement will require the Four Corners coal-fired power plant to install $160 million in pollution control upgrades.
The pollution controls would cut the plant’s harmful sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 5,540 tons a year. Arizona Public Service is the operator and primary owner of the Navajo Nation-based plant. APS and other utilities that own the plant will also pay for clean-burning stoves and insulation in 250 Navajo homes. Another $2 million will go to pay for medical exams and oxygen tanks for the many Navajo people who have breathed the plant fumes for five decades.
“This settlement is a significant achievement for air quality and the health of the people of the Navajo Nation and the surrounding region,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The agreement will require stringent pollution controls as well as public health and environmental projects that will have lasting benefits for the Navajo people."
Four Corners supplies electricity for much of the Southwest and employs more than 350 Navajo workers. APS recently closed three of the plant's older units to cut emissions.
"We believe this settlement is in the best interest of the plant, our employees, the Navajo Nation and surrounding communities," said APS spokeswoman Anne Becker. "This settlement isn't special in any regard. We are the 29th electric utility to settle with the EPA under its coal generation enforcement initiatives that it started in 1999."
