WildEarth Guardians

Friday, May 23, 2014
Western Colorado Coal Mine Expansion Threatens Clean Air, Climate

Guardians Files Suit to Overturn Interior Department Decision to Keep Coal-fired Power Plant Operating
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

Denver—WildEarth Guardians today filed suit to overturn a U.S. Interior Department decision to expand a coal mine in western Colorado and to keep a nearby power plant in Utah operating for 16 more years, a move that promises to saddle the region with more carbon pollution and more smog.

“The Interior Department is sacrificing the west to dirty energy,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.  “More coal mining means more carbon pollution, more air contamination, and no clean energy. At a time when climate change is wreaking havoc on the west, the last thing Interior should be approving is more coal.”

Filed in federal court in Denver, the suit challenges the expansion of the Deserado coal mine, located in Rio Blanco County in northwestern Colorado directly south of Dinosaur National Monument.  The mine is the sole fuel source for the 500-megawatt Bonanza power plant, which is located 30 miles west in Uintah County, Utah, and connected to the mine by a dedicated electric train. 

The area where the mine and power plant are located is called the Uinta Basin. The Uinta Basin has been struggling with out of control smog and particulate pollution for several years due to unchecked oil, gas, and coal development. A monitoring site in Rangely, Colorado, near the mine, shows that Rio Blanco County is violating federal smog limits.

The Bonanza power plant’s 600-foot tall smokestack is the largest source of smog and haze forming nitrogen oxide emissions in the region.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the power plant has been releasing illegal amounts of air pollution since the early 2000’s.

The power plant and mine are also major sources of carbon pollution.  The Deserado mine practices methane venting, where wells are drilled above the mine and methane gas, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is blown into the air.

A report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicates the Deserado mine releases 459 cubic feet of methane per ton of coal produced, or 19 pounds of methane per ton of coal produced (see EPA report at 5-20).  The mine produces between 2.5 and 3 million tons of coal per year meaning every year the mine vents more than 23,000 tons of methane every year.

That’s the equivalent of more than 575,000 tons of carbon dioxide on top of the fact that the Bonanza power plant already emits more than 5 million tons of carbon pollution every year.

In 2013, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management leased 21.3 million tons of coal under 3,000 acres of public lands to the mine’s owner, Blue Mountain Energy, a subsidiary of Deseret Power, the owner of the Bonanza Power Plant.  The lease would keep the power plant, which was originally slated for retirement in 2016, operating for another 16 years, or until 2032.  In late 2013, the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining approved mining.

“More coal mining means more coal pollution, an outcome we can ill-afford,” said Nichols.  “With the skies of northwest Colorado and northeast Utah smoggier than ever, the last thing the Interior Department should be doing is rubberstamping more coal.”

The suit challenges the Bureau of Land Management and Office of Surface Mining over their failure address the air quality impacts of the Bonanza power plant, as well as monitoring data showing that the region is violating ozone standards.