Phoenix-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to require selective catalytic reduction (SCR) at the Navajo Generating Station to improve visibility in the Grand Canyon and other national parks in the area is troubling a lot of Arizonans, including the governor herself. The final decision won’t be made until late next year, but concerns are already being expressed about increasing by possibly as much as $1 billion the cost of emissions control efforts currently underway at Navajo, and having to transport as a part of SCR a hundred or more tons of anhydrous ammonia every week to the plant over rural two-lane roads. In a letter to EPA, Gov. Jan Brewer declared that hauling the ammonia in tanker trucks 140 miles from Flagstaff would be a danger “to the health, safety and welfare of local communities,” and also warned that the rules under consideration even threaten to shut the plant down. Brewer noted that the type of emissions-reduction technology EPA is talking about would be “prohibitively expensive,” and does not achieve a significant amount of additional emission reduction. Kevin Wanttaja, manager of environmental services for SRP, which operates the station, told Green Markets that getting the anhydrous to the plant in northern Arizona near Page would require a risk management plan because it is a hazardous substance. “Because of the quantities that have to be used we believe we would probably need between three and four tanker trucks a week,” he estimated. He didn’t know where it would be obtained, but it would have to be transported by rail into Flagstaff, where some kind of terminal would be constructed to offload into the trucks. He described the 140-mile route from Flagstaff as a two-lane rural highway over tribal roads. With the risk of an accidental release, emergency responders in the area would have to be apprised of the transporting situation. Wanttaja said he believes the best thing would be for EPA to delay the whole idea of additional emissions control since Navajo is in the process of installing low-Nox burners at a cost of $42 million, which is expected to reduce emissions by 40 percent. He projected that adding SCR for another $660 million – or potentially up to $1 billion – produces a very small improvement over the low-Nox burners. He said SRP is finding low-Nox a much wiser investment that is already showing “very good performance” on one of the generating units at Navajo. He suggested the sensible route would be to try low-Nox initially, and if it’s not meeting the goals, EPA could come back with SCR at a later date.
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