SIERRA 

G.LUB 

FOUNDED 1892 

SW Regional Office • 202 E. McDowell Rd. Ste 277 • Phoenix, Arizona 85004 

Phone: (602) 254-9330 Fax: (602) 258-6533 Email: rob.smith@sierraclub.org 

Statement of Rob Smith for the Sierra Club 

On EPA Air Quality Implementation Plans ,for Arizona: 

Proposed rule for Apache, Cholla and. Coronado coal plants . 

Phoenix, AZ- July 31, 2012 

My name is Rob Smith. I am the Senior Organizing Manager for the Sierra Club in Phoenix. 

It's against the law to pollute national parks and wilderness areas. 

It has been since 1977. 

M ' 

The federal Cleari Air Act of 1977 says that "Congress hereby declares as a national goal the prevention 

of any future, and the remedying of any existing, impairment of visibility in mandatory Class I Federal 

areas which impairment results from man-made air pollution." 

That's pretty clear. But the air around these areas is not. These are places we all know- Grand Canyon, 

Petrified Forest and Saguaro national parks; the Superstition Wilderness just east of town; Chiricahua 

· National Monument. There are a do~en such places in Arizona, and another five in neighboring New 

Mexico and Colorado which are within the range of air pollution from these coal-burning power plants 

being discussed tonight. In fact, each of these plants- Cholla, Coronado and Apache- is as close as 40 

miles to at least one national park or monument. 

Two of these coal plants- Apache and Coronado- are on EPA's list as "high priority violators" of the 

Clean Air Act. 

Some might try to say that burning almost 9 million tons of coal annually at these three plants in the 

middle of all of these special places would have no noticeable impact. But a view across the ) 

backcountry of our state too often shows a dirty haze in the air that should not naturally be there. 

Some might say that one individual stack alone is not much of the problem. That's like saying that ,-

throwing a sack of garbage out a car window is not r:nuch of a problem .across the landscape. But if 

Printed on 40% Postc<:msumer fiber with soy ink 
others do it, too, and it happens every day for decades, then it begins to make a difference. Maybe 

instead it's time we all did our part to clean up our messes as if we lived together and cared about 

Arizona and each other. 

And the air pollution you can see is also the stuff we breathe in. These three plants pump out a million 

pounds of taxies every year. They dump 23,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 26,000 tons of nitrogen oxide 

pollution annually into Arizona's skies. That mix leads to more breathing problems, hospital and doctor 

visits, heart attacks and even deaths, according to the Clean Air Task Force. 

What's tragic is that it doesn't have to be this way. This pollution is optional. It's a choice. 

The pollution control being recommended by the EPA for these three plants- selective catalytic 

reduction (SCR)- is already in l:JSe at 20.0 other power plants across the country. Some of our own 

Arizona utilities are already operating, or are going to install, this same pollution control being asked for 

on plants they now own. APSis committing to SCR on their units at Four Corners. SRP is running SCR on 

their unit at Springerville and is already installing SCR on one of the units at "coronado right next to the 

other one which needs modern controls. Arizona Electric Power Cooperative could either do the same, 

or switch their two coal units to less polluting gas immediately to match their existing gas u-nit, 

something they have been able to do since the 1990s. So let's get on with it. 

This is affordable. If you break down the annual co~t of SCR controls by the customer base for each 

utility, each SRP customer would pay an extra $1.60 month to clean up Coronado; each APS customer 

would pay an extra $1.93 per month to clean up Cholla. These are amounts oat even noticeable in the 

average utility bill. I am an APS customer, and they charge me more than thi~ just to read my meter 

($2.04) and to bill me ($2-:31). [July 16, 2012 APS bill] 

Co-op customers co~ld pay more, but they have an easy alternative. It would average just $7.00 more 

per month to clean up Apache with SCR. That's the cost of a milkshake and two orders for fries from 

McDonald's, and better for our health. Or they could choose to immediately switch to less polluting gas 

if that was cheaper. 

Arizona used to be a place where people would come for clean, clear air. That's difficult to imagine now 

on too many days. Dirty air is bad for business, and it hu'rts people to breathe it. We can do better. 

The Clean Air Act requires that the "best available" pollution control technology be installed, not the 

cheaper second-rate stuff that won't do the ja,b nearly as well. It calls for the "best". I . ' 

This pollution cleanup has been required by the Clean Air Act for 35 years, is needed to protect human 

health and the environment, is affordable and is the right thing to do. 

Thanks to the EPA for insisting on cleaning up the air for all Arizonans when our own state Department 

of Environmental Quality won't do it.