Clean air groups file suit to block Comanche work

FROM STAFF, WIRE REPORTS

Environmental groups in Boulder and Pueblo have sued to block the air quality permit issued last month for Xcel Energy's expansion of its Comanche Station power plant.

Clean Energy Action and Citizens for Clean Air and Water in Pueblo filed a complaint in Pueblo District Court charging that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment failed to follow state law in granting the permit.

Margaret Barber of Citizens for Clean Air in Pueblo said, "The purpose of the lawsuit is very specific, to get the state to follow its own regulations. When they issue a permit, they're supposed to follow a process and they skipped over these issues. They didn't consider a previous violation by Xcel. They basically accepted a settlement that was worked out between Xcel and some of the groups, without doing their own research."

Neither group was a party to a settlement worked out by Xcel and environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, in advance of the Public Utilities Commission approval of the project last winter. In that deal, Xcel pledged to clean up the two coal-burning units now running at Comanche so that with the third unit there would be a net reduction in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

The company also promised to take steps to reduce mercury emissions.

"The fact that a company works out a settlement with some of the objectors doesn't absolve CDPHE from its duty to follow the law," Barber said.

The settlement calls for Xcel to install better antipollution controls than it planned and work to reduce emissions from other sources along with pushing for conservation.

Doug Benevento, director of the state health department, said the earlier agreement would be jeopardized by the lawsuit.

‘‘In the event that this unfortunate lawsuit were to win, it would have the opposite effect and increase emissions there,’’ Benevento said.

The state would ‘‘rigorously defend’’ the air-quality permit, he said.

‘‘We’re confident that we have a permit that was legally issued and will reduce emissions in Pueblo.’’ Benevento said.

Xcel also hammered out an 11th-hour agreement with labor groups to use a project labor agreement that would mean all construction workers in the project would come from unions. Some saw that as crucial to the city of Pueblo's approval of a complex annexation deal. Dan Friedlander of Clean Energy Action defended his group's actions, saying, ‘‘We’re fundamentally challenging the construction of a coal plant in an environment where there are better solutions. It’s not just a question of right and wrong - government regulations were ignored.’’

The complaint charges:

The state health department failed to investigate an EPA notice of violation issued three years ago. Xcel and the EPA argued over whether work done at Comanche constituted new equipment, which would have required new pollution-control equipment or maintenance which didn't. The EPA did not push the issue.

The state failed to investigate whether the promised controls would really cause a net reduction in pollutants, something its own regulations require.

The state didn't consider effects on visibility on national parks and wilderness areas. The health department is in the early stages of such a study of haze coming from all power plants and factories in the state because of new clean-air rules.

Xcel was issued a permit allowing land preparation activities in 17 days without public comment, even though public comment was clearly warranted.

Pueblo's status as an environmental justice community, bearing more than its share of the state’s pollution aggravates all of the other issues.

Margie Wood, John Norton and The Associated Press contributed to this report

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