Ruling held up on power plant near Grand Canyon

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The owners of a coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation won't know until at least next year whether they'll have to install expensive equipment aimed at clearing the air around places like the Grand Canyon.

The U.S. Environmental Protection agency said it will begin consultations with tribes next month on the potential impact of further reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from the Navajo Generating Station near Page. Those consultations and a study from the Interior Department will better help the agency reach a decision that was expected this summer, EPA officials said.

The delay also gives the plant's owners more time to secure lease agreements and right-of-way grants that will determine if they're willing to invest up to $1.2 billion in the plant should the EPA decide to require controls beyond the low nitrogen oxide burners that recently were installed.

Conservationists are pushing for a transition to renewable energy at the 2,250-megawatt plant, which will be part of the second phase of the Interior's study.

Regional EPA administrator Jared Blumenfeld offered the new timetable in a letter this week to the Interior Department. Interior officials had asked the EPA for an assurance that a proposed rule wouldn't come until after the department submits a study on the benefits of the plant and the effects of a potential shutdown. A draft is expected by Dec. 1.

The EPA has been considering how to reduce emissions under a regional haze rule since 2009 for the Navajo Generating Station and a second coal plant on the Navajo Nation near Farmington, N.M. The agency sought public input on the cost effectiveness of pollution controls and visibility benefits, but does not yet have enough information on the non-air-quality impacts like water, said Colleen McKaughan, associate director of the EPA's air division in San Francisco.

"Any information that helps us better understand the water questions we have — and we do have a lot of questions — that's good," she said Thursday. "We have gaps in our analysis that we're trying to understand. It would be useful for us to have the time to do that."

The Central Arizona Project, which uses power from the Navajo Generating Station to deliver water through a series of canals to 80 percent of the state's population, has said energy and water rates would soar if the plant's owners were subject to further controls or the plant were shuttered and it was forced to seek other sources.

Gila River Indian Community Lt. Gov. Joseph Manuel said during a congressional hearing in May that the tribe would sue the United States if it no longer had access to affordable water that's delivered through the canals under a 2004 federal water settlement.

Three tribes, including Gila River, have reached out to the EPA for face-to-face consultations. McKaughan said the EPA has sent more than 20 letters to Arizona tribes and to one along the Colorado River in California inviting them to talk about the rulemaking process commonly known as BART, or best available retrofit technology.

The Navajo Nation has held to its position that the effect of low nitrogen oxide burners on air quality should be studied before requiring any more controls at the plant. Hundreds of Navajos also are employed at the power plant and the coal mine that supplies it. And royalties from coal and lease payments factor in largely to the Navajo and Hopi budgets.