The operators of the polluting, coal-fired Hayden
Power Plant in northwestern Colorado have agreed to reform. The
pressure began in 1995, when the Sierra Club won a lawsuit holding
the plant accountable for more than 17,000 clean air violations
(HCN, 11/27/95). The EPA followed this year with a notice of 10,234
additional violations.
Rather than fight – and
probably lose – in court, the plant’s three operators, led by
Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), chose to negotiate. The
result is a draft consent decree reached May 22 that has activists
beaming. “We’re wildly excited,” said Joan Hoffman, local Sierra
Club representative.
The draft decree, which
needs court approval after a public comment period, involves big
money. The operators must pay $2 million in penalties to the U.S.
Treasury. An equivalent amount will be spent more creatively: to
convert cars and homes in the Yampa Valley to natural gas, and to
establish a local land trust fund.
Finally, the
utilities have pledged more than $130 million to modernize the
plant’s meager emission controls. Environmentalists have long
blamed the Hayden station for haze and acid snow in the nearby Mt.
Zirkel Wilderness. As stipulated by the consent decree, the power
plant’s output of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides will be cut by
up to 82 and 50 percent respectively. Particulates will be nearly
eliminated using new fabric filters. PSCo and its partners have
until 1999 to implement the redesign plan.
*
Jared Farmer
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Clean air victory in Colorado.
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