PROVO — The proposed 1,100-megawatt power plant that Calpine Corp. wants to locate on the northwest corner of the abandoned Geneva Steel site will emit the most dangerous kind of air pollutant, according to a local pollution expert.
C. Arden Pope III, speaking to the League of Women Voters and a crowded room of concerned residents in the Provo Library on Tuesday, said the power plant will be putting out fine particulate pollution — "the most dangerous, the kind that penetrate into the lungs, the more chemically toxic, the kind that last longer and travel longer."
Pope, a BYU economics professor whose studies have been used to set national pollution standards, said the fine particles — known as PM2.5 — can't be seen by the naked eye except when hit just right by sunlight but effectively disrupt the body's lung cleansing process and cause significant heart and respiratory problems.
The fine particulate is generated by smeltering or burning various types of material, Pope said.
The Calpine plant will burn natural gas, but according to the permit applications submitted to the state Department of Environmental Quality, it will still generate 201 tons per year of the larger air particles (known as PM10), 260 tons per year of nitrogen oxide gas, 204 tons per year of sulphur dioxide gas, and 83 tons per year of volatile organic compounds.
The volatile organic compounds contribute to ozone pollution and could become hazardous air pollutants, said Regg Olsen, permitting manager for the Utah Division of Air Quality.
Olsen said the pollutant amounts are estimated by Calpine and have not been verified yet by his office.
"Nitrogen oxide is the big one for them," Olsen said.
Pope said nitrogen oxide gas and sulphur dioxide gas are precursors to the formation of fine particulates and therefore something to be concerned about.
"The (smog) problem in Logan comes from nitrogen oxide from cars combined with the ammonia from agricultural sources," Pope said, referring to a recent air pollution situation in Cache Valley.
Pope said fine particulate pollution seems to be driving all the health effects "so we need to be concerned about this with a power plant."
Olsen said the Calpine plant application is in process and expected to come up for public scrutiny later this spring or at the start of summer.
He said if the power plant can prove it meets federal and state air quality standards as they currently exist, by law the division will have to issue an approval order.
Calpine officials have already purchased or negotiated with area businesses to obtain the necessary pollution offset credits, he said. Offset credits are banked when a company stops operating and become available to others as long as the new company's operation won't cause the area to exceed air quality standards.
Calpine is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and is the world's leading geothermal power producer. Calpine Corp. owns 1 trillion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves and has 88 facilities in operation with a total capacity of about 22,000 megawatts.
According to a survey reported in 2002 in the New York Times, Calpine ranked as the second-lowest emissions producer of the 100 largest U.S. power companies.
According to the company's Web site, Calpine's natural gas-fired plants produce 95 percent less nitrogen oxide, 99 percent less sulfur dioxide, 64 percent less carbon dioxide, 98 percent less mercury and 83 percent less particulate matter than the average U.S. fossil-fuel plant.
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