Power plant won't use petroleum coke in West Bountiful

WEST BOUNTIFUL — The news, though not perfect, seems to get better and better for West Bountiful residents concerned about a 109-megawatt power plant proposed for their city.

Robert Wood, vice president of finance for Consolidated Energy Systems, told city officials in a letter Thursday that the company will not use petroleum coke as a fuel source for any future power plant designs in West Bountiful.

"We will limit our fuel to heavy residual oil currently produced by the Holly refinery and natural gas (if necessary) as a supplement fuel," the letter states.

The letter also states the company plans to work closely with Holly, West Bountiful, Ustar and the University of Utah's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health to redesign a new power plant and that no permit application will be made to the Utah Division of Air Quality until the city agrees to permit a redesigned project.

Earlier this week, Consolidated Energy announced that plans for the plant were "on hold" while the company worked on designs for a cleaner facility.

Rep. Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, has sponsored HB393, which would place a two-year moratorium on certain new power plants in polluted areas.

News that the current project has now been scrapped is reassuring to Cecilee Price-Huish, who had been concerned that the same project would "rear its ugly head" in two years if the moratorium is enacted.

But Price-Huish is still concerned about a power plant's use of residual oil, which, like petroleum coke, is a dirty by-product of the refining process.

So is Dr. Brian Moench, president of the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

"We would basically be opposed to any sort of power-generating unit that's going to increase air pollution in the area," Moench said Friday.

Moench said he wants Utah regulators to have stricter standards than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set. Coal-fired power plants are legal, he said, adding that the pollution from them causes 30,000 deaths a year.

"We want to go from what's legal to what's protective," he said, adding that current legal standards are probably 10 to 15 years behind the scientific discoveries about air pollution and its impact on public health.

Earlier this year, the plant had been on track to be permitted by the Utah Division of Air Quality because pollutants were expected to meet national ambient air quality standards.