Deaths linked to power plant pollutants

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

Pollution from Clark County's two coal-fired power plants kills 18 people in Southern Nevada and neighboring Arizona a year, a new study maintains.

The National Environmental Trust, in a study "Death, Disease and Dirty Power" released Tuesday, blamed the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin southeast of Las Vegas and Reid-Gardner power plant in Moapa Valley, northeast of Las Vegas, for pollution that each year causes 1.4 deaths per 100,000 people, 425 asthma attacks and 3,360 lost work days.

The study used research models produced by Harvard University researchers this year that confirmed that deaths resulted from exposure to particulates, especially in children and the elderly.

Soot produced from burning coal for power contains sulfur dioxide, which when inhaled causes lung diseases. In addition, the Harvard research showed, the soot itself can build up in the lungs, causing illness similar to black lung disease.

The study, done by Clean the Air, a national air campaign backed by the Pew Charitable Trusts, said the deaths can be reduced to four a year if utilities controlled emissions or switched to alternative fuels.

Clark County's two other power plants -- Clark and Sunrise stations in the Las Vegas Valley -- use natural gas-fired generators, which do not produce the toxic pollutants.

Two proposed power plants -- on the Moapa Indian reservation northeast of Las Vegas and Fort Mojave Indian Reservation in Arizona near Laughlin -- also would be fueled by natural gas.

The levels of pollution in Las Vegas from the coal-fired plants ranked 232 out of 272 cities the study researched.

Mohave, with its 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 19,896 tons of nitrogen oxide a year, is the largest power plant polluter in Southern Nevada. Reid-Gardner adds 3,290 tons of sulfur dioxide and 15,054 tons of nitrogen dioxide annually.

Nevada's National Environmental Trust Director Dan Geary suggested that a health study of pollution's effects on people might be in order.

"The pollutants we are talking about affect vulnerable populations, especially children and the elderly," Geary said.

Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who represents Laughlin and its population of 9,000, said he would agree to a health study of pollution's impacts once a unified air quality agency is in place, which he expects within three months.

People in Laughlin are concerned about pollution, Woodbury said, but the plant provides jobs and community improvements, such as parks.

However, the health of children is important. "If it's one child, you're concerned, or course," Woodbury said.

The Mohave Generating Station already has been ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency to clear the air of particles less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair by 2006. The order came in July after environmental groups sued to stop air pollution reducing the views in the Grand Canyon.

"It's a two-sided problem with benefits on both visibility and health," John Stanton, a spokesman for the National Environmental Trust, said.

The technology is readily available to clear the air, he said.

"We are not talking about inventing a vaccine. We are talking about technology invented 30 years ago," Stanton said.