Nevada eases air standards to help California

Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2000 | 11:26 a.m.

The skies will be a bit darker over Southern Nevada in order to keep the homes a bit brighter in Southern California.

The Nevada State Environmental Commission on Monday approved a temporary variance to ease smokestack standards for the Mohave Generating Station, a Laughlin power plant considered one of the nation's biggest single-source air polluters.

Southern California Edison, the plant's owner, asked for the variance in response to a generating-capacity crisis in California. The variance would kick in if California's power grid declares an energy emergency, a move that could be taken if power supplies fall enough to cause rolling blackouts.

The state nearly reached that point about two weeks ago, company representatives said during a commission telephone conference, before suppliers found enough excess power to keep the lights on for residential and commercial electricity users.

The blackouts occur during a "stage three emergency." But there have been about a dozen "stage two emergencies" during the last several weeks, during which some large industrial energy users have cut their power voluntarily.

"These conditions have not been alleviated and could reoccur," Michelle Nuttal, a Southern California Edison representative, said.

Nuttal told commissioners that the variance would not increase polluting emissions of gas or smokestack ash, but would only increase the amount of black smoke in the air -- and that increase might not be necessary at all.

The company asked for a variance to increase that smoke cloud for 60 hours until the end of April. But a similar variance granted for 20 hours during the air-conditioning intensive, dog days of last summer was used for less than three hours in a four-month period.

"It's possible that there might not be any additional power used," she said. "This is basically just an insurance policy."

The increase in visible smoke will not endanger human health, Nuttal said.

State employees agreed. Don Deloreo of the Nevada Bureau of Air Quality, said his office's environmental evaluation found that there would be no violation of air-quality standards for particulate matter -- dust or ash -- or other emissions.

"The facility is going to stay within the emission limits," he said.

Some spoke against the variance. One of those was Patricia Fisher, a Laughlin resident.

She said the thickness of the smoke -- what is termed opacity -- likely indicates the amounts of harmful emissions.

Fisher also said that while she has empathy for the people in California, Nevadans should be the commissioners' concern.

The fact that Southern California Edison needed a variance last summer, and now needs another for the winter, suggests that this might be needed all of the time to satisfy California's thirst for electricity, Fisher said.

She predicted that the company would be back for another "temporary" variance.

"After this variance, it's a long, hot summer," Fisher said. "It seems inconceivable that California's energy problems would have been solved by then.

"The right way for California to address its issues is by conservation, not by weakening Nevada's environmental laws," she said.

Robert Hall, president of the Nevada Environmental Coalition, also opposed the variance. He said people weren't properly notified of the meeting and promised to challenge the variance in court.

Hall has filed numerous lawsuits challenging local government decisions related to environmental issues.

Several commissioners said they were concerned that the nature of the meeting by telephone, while legal, limited citizens' input into the public hearing.

Commissioners Joe Johnson, a geologist, and Mark Doppe, a Southern Nevada homebuilder, proposed limiting the variance to 60 hours between now and Feb. 15. The company had asked that the variance continue until April.

Before that time expires, the company will have to come back to the commission for a review and full public meeting.

The commission approved Doppe's motion.