WildEarth Guardians Wins on Challenge to Xcel Energy Coal Plant Permit

EPA Rules Colorado Failed to Ensure Hayden Coal-fired Power Plant Would Protect Clean Air

Denver-In response to a petition filed by WildEarth Guardians, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday ruled that Colorado failed to ensure Xcel Energy would comply with the Clean Air Act in operating the Hayden coal-fired power plant.

“This is good news for clean air and public health,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “Xcel’s coal-fired power plants are the largest sources of air pollution in Colorado; this is an important victory against dirty energy.”

The Administrator’s ruling overturns a state-issued permit allowing Xcel to operate the Hayden coal-fired power plant. Specifically, the Administrator found that Colorado failed to ensure that particulate matter emissions would be sufficiently monitored to continuously meet the required limits. The Administrator stated, “I grant the petition on the issue that the permit does not contain sufficient monitoring for assuring compliance with the PM [particulate matter] limit.”

“This ruling ensures that dangerous particulate mater will be kept in check at the Hayden plant as required by law,” said Nichols. “This is a critical step forward in cleaning up Colorado’s skies.”

Particulate matter poses myriad health and environmental impacts. Particulate matter includes soot, condensed acid gases, and heavy metals, often at sizes so small that they can get deep into the lungs and the bloodstream. Particulate matter from Hayden has been linked to visibility impairment in the Mt. Zirkel and Rawah Wilderness Areas of northern Colorado, and in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The 465 megawatt Hayden power plant, located in Western Colorado near the town of Steamboat Springs, consists of two coal-fired boilers. According to Xcel’s own data on file with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, every year the coal burning plant releases:

15,547,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide pollution-which forms smog and haze-as much as is released by nearly 407,000 cars (according to the EPA, a car releases 38.2 pounds of nitrogen oxides).

445,460 pounds of particulate pollution, which scars scenic landscapes and can trigger asthma attacks.

5,360 pounds of hydrochloric acid, a toxic chemical.

8.52 pounds of mercury-a potent neurotoxin-enough to fill more than 5,500 household thermometers. Just one household thermometer can contaminate all the fish in a 15 acre lake.

4,300,000 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is fueling global warming, nearly 5% of Colorado’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2009, Colorado issued a permit allowing Xcel Energy to operate the Hayden plant under Title V of the Clean Air Act. Under Title V, permits are issued by states, but citizens can petition the EPA to veto them if they fail to comply with the law. In the case of the Hayden plant, WildEarth Guardians petitioned the Administrator to object to the issuance of the permit. Although Xcel can operate the plant for the time being, the state has 90 days to either fix the permit or face revocation by the EPA.

View our petition here

View the EPA's ruling here


 

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