If five of Utah's older power plants were to meet the standards imposed by the Clean Air Act, it would have the same environmental cleansing effect as removing 2.2 million cars from Utah roads, according to a study released Thursday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
But, the study noted, Congress exempted those older power plants from the regulations, as well as hundreds of other older coal-fired power plants around the nation. The result is millions of tons of deadly air pollution emitted every year by 559 of the nation's dirtiest power plants that would not be released without the exemption."While the public breathes dirty air and eats toxic fish and the threat of global climate change looms in the future, it is perfectly legal for these old, dirty power plants to operate under ancient or no pollution controls," said Darren Speece, a spokesman for the research group.
But those claims have officials from Utah power plants scratching their heads in bewilderment.
"There are no exemptions for older power plants from the Clean Air Act," said Reed Searle, general manager for the Intermountain Power Agency, named in the study as Utah's worst power plant polluter. "In fact, I don't know where they come up with the numbers they did. We could increase our emissions dramatically and still be within compliance of clean air standards for the year 2000."
The five Utah power plants that made the group's list of dirtiest power plants included the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Deseret Generation near Bonanza in eastern Utah, and the Carbon, Hunter and Huntington power plants, all owned by PacifiCorp, in central Utah.
The Intermountain Power Plant, which provides power to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, was 34th worst in the nation in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and 79th worst in terms of nitrogen oxide pollution, the study found.
The Hunter Power Plant in Emery County ranked 57th in carbon dioxide emissions and 97th for nitrogen oxide.
"We call upon the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to clean up its plant in Utah and upon Congress to close the lethal loophole in the Clean Air Act," Speece said.
Dave Eskelsen, a spokesman for PacifiCorp, had not seen the study, but he agreed with Searle that there are no exemptions for older power plants, which are inherently dirtier than newer plants because the technology for cleaner burns was not available when the plants were built.
But even older plants spend millions retrofitting to meet clean air standards. At PacifiCorp's Utah power plants, 25 cents of every dollar spent on operations and maintenance is spent on environmental controls to meet the federal clean air standards.
In some cases, Utah power plants were on the leading edge of environmental technology. The IPP plant was the first to install a new technology to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions when it was built in 1986. New federal standards for the year 2000 will require all power plants to have similar technology.
"We are among the cleanest in the nation in terms of size vs. emissions," Searle said. "And we were implementing the new technology 14 years before it was required."
The U.S. PIRG report ranked the worst power plants in the nation for emissions of three pollutants. It considered only those power plants that produced more than 20 tons of pollution in excess of what would have been permitted if they were required to meet current standards.
The dirtiest power plants for nitrogen oxide, which is a major contributor to smog, were found in Ohio. Ohio also led the list for sulfur dioxide, while Texas power plants were worst for carbon dioxide and mercury
Utah ranked 30th among the 50 states for excess nitrogen oxide, 42nd for sulfur dioxide and 22nd for carbon dioxide.
The study indicates that if Utah's older power plants were required to meet Clean Air Act standards, it would eliminate 42,888 tons of nitrogen oxides and 9,684 tons of sulfur dioxide - the equivalent of the pollution emitted by 2,199,384 cars.
"Power plants are the single largest industrial polluter in the nation," said Amy Curry, a Utah-based representative of U.S. PIRG. "It's time to make polluting power plants play by the same rules as every other industry."
Officials from Utah power plants insist they already do.