FARMINGTON, N.M.-
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs is still working on a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation, but requests for public meetings already have begun.
U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., asked the agency this week to schedule two public hearings in his jurisdiction, which covers Montezuma and La Plata counties.
“Any new major source of air and water pollution in northern New Mexico, including the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project, could have a significant impact on southwest Colorado,” Salazar said.
The BIA expects to issue the draft EIS in May and public meetings should follow in June.
The agency anticipates meetings will be held at the Navajo chapters of Sanostee, Burnham, Nenahnezad and Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico as well as Farmington, Window Rock, Ariz., and Durango, Colo.
The proposed 1,500-megawatt plant would bring in about $55 million a year for the Navajos and provide permanent work for 400 people. Construction of the $3 billion plant would create as many as 1,000 temporary jobs.
Houston-based Sithe Global Power and the Navajo Nation’s Dine Power Authority have partnered on the project.
The Tribal Council has voted in favor of the plant, but some Navajos and environmentalists are concerned about the plant’s potential impacts.
Sithe spokesman Frank Maisano said the project will be the cleanest permitted to date and will benefit the tribe.
“The Navajo Nation needs this project yesterday,” he said. “They need the jobs, they need the economic opportunity, they need the revenue plowed back into things that can help the Navajo Nation.”
Maisano said Sithe welcomes additional public meetings on the draft EIS. He said representatives would be on hand to provide detailed information to anyone with concerns.
In his letter to the BIA, Salazar also requested that the agency evaluate how Desert Rock emissions could affect global warming.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not analyze carbon dioxide in its draft air permit, he wrote, but he expected the draft impact study would considering a recent Supreme Court ruling that states carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
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Information from: The Daily Times,
