From: <Susan.Kidd@aps.com>

To: Colleen McKaughan/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, <Edward.Fox@aps.com>

Cc: Thomas Webb/R9/USEPA/US@EPA, Charlotte Withey/R9/USEPA/US@EPA

Date: 10/10/2012 09:17 AM

Subject: RE: Two Issues: Notice of Intent to Sue on Four Corners FIP and Subject to BART Comment on 

Cholla, Unit 1

As per item 2, attached are the documents Doug Lavarnway from Cholla gave to ADEQ at the meeting in 

August of 2007. I have also attached a fourth document that shows that the unit’s first operation took 

place on March 8, 1962 and the first coal megawatts were on March 10, 1962. If you need anything else 

please feel free to call me.

Sue Kidd

Director- Environmental

(602) 250-4226

From: Colleen McKaughan [mailto:McKaughan.Colleen@epamail.epa.gov] 

Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 4:25 PM

To: Fox, Edward Z; Kidd, Susan C

Cc: Thomas Webb; Charlotte Withey

Subject: Two Issues: Notice of Intent to Sue on Four Corners FIP and Subject to BART Comment on 

Cholla, Unit 1 

Hi, Ed and Sue,

I have two issues that I wanted to share with you. 

1) Wild Earth Guardians has notified EPA of their intention to sue EPA for violating Section 7 of the ESA . 

The letter alleges EPA violated the ESA for failing to consult with USFWS "for the ongoing operation of 

the Four Corners Power Plant". Then the letter says that "[a]lthough this duty has been ongoing, it was 

also triggered by the recent adoption of [the FIP]". The letter attaches the Draft Biological Opinion 

distributed by the Albuquerque Office of the USFWS for the Desert Rock project. I wanted to make sure 

you were aware of this notice of intent to sue, if you weren't already, and a copy of the WEG letter is 

attached below.

2) I need your assistance in responding to a comment that we received on Cholla Unit 1. NPCA pointed 

out in their comments that we did not have any documentation that Cholla Unit 1 is not BART-eligible (i.e. 

that it was "in operation" before Aug. 7, 1962). 

Here's what ADEQ's SIP says on that subject:

In August of 2007, representatives of APS’s Cholla Generating Station met with representatives of ADEQ

to discuss some outstanding questions that the company had regarding ADEQ’s analysis. During the

course of that meeting, APS provided a copy of Arizona Public Service Company Correspondence that

was sent to Gus Hansen, Supt. at Cholla S.E.S. entitled “Operating Notes For May 1962”. According to

information provided by this document, “[o]n Tuesday, May 1, 1962, unit [#1] placed into commercial

operation.” As a result, APS argued that Unit #1 was “in operation” prior to August 7, 1962, and

therefore was not BART-eligible. After reviewing this documentation, ADEQ concurs that Unit #1 was

never BART-eligible.

NPCA requested that we re-examine this determination and provide the following documentation to 

support it: 

§ The document entitled Operating Notes for May 1962 referenced in ADEQ‘s SIP; 
§ All available 1962 operating records for Cholla Unit 1; 

§ All initial Clean Air Act construction and operating permits issued to Cholla Unit 1; 

§ All emissions data from the year 1962 for Cholla Unit 1; 

§ Notes of the meeting between ADEQ and APS in August 2007 or any other time ADEQ and APS 

discussed the BART-eligibility of Cholla Unit 1; and 

§ Any other documentation that either supports or contradicts whether Cholla Unit 1 was placed into 

commercial operation before August 7, 1962. 

I don't think we need all of this documentation, but we do need something to establish that this unit was 

properly excluded from BART. Can you help us by providing a copy of the May 1962 Operating Notes and 

any other documentation that you believe proves that Unit 1 was in operation in May 1962? We have to 

address this comment and we figured APS was in the best position to provide this documentation. 

Thanks!

Lastly, we got the FCPP NEPA modeling protocol and we are looking at it. I will be in the rest of the week 

if you want to discuss any of this. Take care, 

Colleen W. McKaughan

Associate Director, Air Division

USEPA, Region 9

(520) 498-0118

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