Davis power plant proposal is under fire

It doesn't take much to get people riled up about a proposed power plant in West Bountiful. The potential for a few hundred tons of pollutants a year is enough to do it.

Davis County residents and a group of doctors are protesting the Utah Division of Air Quality's intent to approve a permit for Consolidated Energy to build a 109 megawatt co-generation power plant at 400 S. 1100 West in West Bountiful, just west of the Holly Oil Woods Cross Refinery.

The main boiler of the plant would be powered by petroleum coke, a flammable and dirty byproduct of the crude-oil refining process.

On Thursday, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment will host a community meeting to talk about the potential health effects of the power plant, which is on track to be permitted to emit just under 100 tons each of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide a year.

The division's permit would also allow 60.9 tons of particulate matter 10 microns in size and 49 tons of volatile organic compounds to be emitted each year, as well.

Already, comments have been pouring into the division, and Consolidated Energy's file is currently one of the most popular files being reviewed by the public at the DAQ.

The division is holding a public hearing on the issue on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at 168 N. 1950 West.

Public comment will be received on the permit until Jan. 15.

Some of the comments express disbelief that the division could permit a new source of pollution despite existing pollution levels along the Wasatch Front.

The Wasatch Front is already too polluted with particulate matter 2.5 microns in size and with ozone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Consolidated's plant, however, isn't expected to generate significant amounts of those two pollutants.

According to the division's analysis of the plant's plans, emissions won't exceed state and federal clean air requirements, even combined with other polluters in the area: refineries, a medical waste incinerator and the 218,000 cars that drive through Davis County every day.

Ty Howard, major new source review permit manager for DAQ, said Consolidated Energy has chosen one of the dirtier substances to burn to generate power, but the company is expected to guarantee compliance with the permit, if approved, by installing state-of-the-art pollution control equipment and by limiting the plant's operating hours.

The plant would be classified as a synthetic minor source of pollution, but only minor compared to a coal-fired power plant, such as the one owned by Sevier Power, which emits two times, or more, the pollutants the West Bountiful plant would emit.