San Juan EPA deal reached (Four Corners Air Quality

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | February 15, 2013 | Michael Hartranft

[CedarDave]

A settlement announced Friday is expected to end the state’s long-running dispute with the EPA over mandatory controls to reduce haze-causing pollution at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in northwest New Mexico.

The agreement, which incorporates most of a compromise plan proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department to the EPA last year, calls for the closure of two of the plant’s four units by Dec. 31, 2017. They would be replaced by a 150- to 200-megawatt natural gas-fueled unit.

The two remaining units would be equipped with state-proposed and less expensive pollution controls using selective non-catalytic reduction technology and permitted to operate indefinitely.

[CedarDave]

The San Juan Basin contains a lot of gas, much of it on Indian land. Previously it was produced from hydrocarbon-bearing formations using conventional technology or from coal gas. Some of it is in tight shale formations which can be recovered using fracking. Expect the environuts, who should embrace this compromise, to do what they can to slow natural gas production. Though they may well scare the local Native-Americans, the Navajo, Apache and Southern Ute tribal leaders are smart enough to see through the hype and count the dollars that will flow to tribal coffers --due to the remoteness, casinos are scare in the area.

[CedarDave]

The above chart illustrates the compromise. The red line is the federal proposal, the yellow the state proposal and the blue line the compromise.

[CedarDave]

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[elkfersupper]

The real problem is that most of that electricity goes to California and the nut cases that inhabit and control California want to extend their crap to other places which provide their necessities of life.

I hope these goofballs starve to death in the dark.

Good riddance.

[DJ MacWoW]

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[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

When I lived there the most pollution came from the APS power plants just south of there on the Navajo reservation.

Farmington had it’s own little power plant on the Animas river, but may now use PSNM power. I don’t know if the Navajo Dam produces power or not.

My favorite hunting area near the Pruitt Mine north of Farmington near the Colorado border was strip mined. I believe they got all the recoverable coal they could. They had their own road from the mine near La Plata to the power plant.

[CedarDave]

When I lived there the most pollution came from the APS power plants just south of there on the Navajo reservation.

That's correct - I don't know their status, maybe EPA is after them too.