California power crisis has Arizona power plants running full blast

Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Jan. 17, 2001

FLAGSTAFF - California's energy crisis has coal-fired power plants in or near northern Arizona in overdrive.

The Salt River Project's Navajo Generating Station in Page and Southern California Edison's Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev., are operating near capacity to meet energy demands in the Golden State, where rolling blackouts were ordered Wednesday because of power shortages.

The extra output of energy means more emissions from the plants' smokestacks.

Favorable weather conditions, however, mean the smoke has stayed away from Page and Bullhead City, across the Colorado River from the Laughlin plant.

"There's definitely been no orange cloud around here and hasn't been lately," said Richard Jentzsch, Page's assistant city manager. "They may be pumping out more but you wouldn't know it."

Toby Cotter, a Bullhead City spokesman, said Edison warned them emissions would be increasing, "but the weather has been on the windy side, and it hasn't had any effect around here."

Scott Harelson, SRP spokesman in Phoenix, said the Navajo Generating Station operated at more than 91 percent of capacity last year, up from 86 percent in 1999 and 84 percent in 1998. No figures are available for the first two weeks of January.

"There's more at play here than just the increased demand in California, although that's the main reason lately," Harelson said.

"There's a lot more demand here locally in Arizona overall, and the lack of water in the watersheds of the Pacific Northwest has created a lack of hydropower, We are also filling that void."

Southern California Edison went before Nevada's environmental board last year and received a variance to operate at more than 70 percent of capacity, at which it had been capped.

The variance was granted after a lawsuit was filed by the Grand Canyon Trust in Flagstaff. The Trust filed suit against for exceeding the cap. The company was fined $180,000.

"But let's face it. That's peanuts to them given the money they've been making lately," Moore said.

In Page, the Navajo Generating Station, in an agreement with the National Park Service to help improve visibility at the Grand Canyon, installed $400 million of "scrubbers" on smokestacks at the power plant.

The scrubbers reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 90 percent but don't affect the amount of nitrogen dioxide released into the atmosphere, Moore said.

Reach the reporter at mark.shaffer@arizonarepublic.com or (602)444-8057.

http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0117smoke-ON.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 17, 2001