Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Growth brings power plant pollution to residents

At the corner of Sahara Avenue and Tree Line Drive on the eastern edge of town, the stacks of the Clark power plant are visible from the parking lot of Las Vegas High School, towering over the tops of orderly rows of houses.

"I was a student at the old Las Vegas High School in downtown Las Vegas," recalled Las Vegas native Dan Geary, the state spokesman for the Washington-based nonprofit National Environmental Trust. "Back then, the only thing here was a power plant.

"Now that our community has grown, it's enveloping these areas, and the closer you live to the source of pollution, the more concentrated the effect is going to be," he said.

Population growth, Geary and other environmentalists say, has pushed Nevadans closer to plants that generate toxic pollution in addition to electricity.

According to a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, more than 55,000 Nevadans -- 11,500 of them children -- live within a 30-mile radius of the state's three coal-fired power plants, the oldest, least efficient type of plant.

Two of those three plants are in Clark County, while the third is in Humboldt County.

"Folks who live close to power plants are most at risk for asthma attacks and even premature deaths," said Brad Johnson, the research group's Nevada representative.

The group's report uses raw data collected by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to show that pollution from power plants in Nevada has increased over the last decade, despite a national trend toward reducing some types of air pollution.

A previous report by the same group ranked Las Vegas 18th in the nation for "smog days" experienced in 2003.

Nevada power plants' releases of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides -- all of which can harm people's health as well as the environment -- all went up from 1995 to 2003, according to the new report, which was released Wednesday.

Nationally, power plants' carbon dioxide emissions increased over that period, but Nevada's increased more than the national average. The national increase was 9 percent; Nevada increased by 14 percent.

Nationally, power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides decreased during the study period. But while U.S. sulfur dioxide emissions went down 10 percent, Nevada's increased 2 percent. And while U.S. nitrogen oxide emissions were decreasing by 29 percent, Nevada's were increasing by 7 percent.

According to the report, the main culprit preventing the air from getting cleaner is the coal-fired plants, which environmentalists claim are using outdated technology.

In Nevada's case in 2003, the three coal plants were by far the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides among power plants.

"We have the technology to protect people from these pollutants, but we're not using it," Johnson said. The reason, he said, is the energy industry's resistance to updating to cleaner technology, a requirement of the landmark 1977 Clean Air Act.

The requirement, known as New Source Review, states that old power plants must update their pollution controls when they expand, but environmentalists contend that power-plant owners have evaded or violated it.

Now, the environmentalists say, proposed legislation backed by President Bush would virtually do away with New Source Review, a move they say would effectively gut the Clean Air Act.

But a power-company official said Bush's proposed changes, while they would affect different places differently, would actually reduce pollution in Nevada.

"The Clear Skies Initiative does include changes to New Source Review, but it also requires a 70 percent reduction in emissions from existing plants," said Roberto Denis, vice president for generation and energy supply with Sierra Pacific Resources, Nevada Power's parent company.

Denis said Clark County's big polluters -- the Mohave and Reid Gardner coal power plants -- are relatively efficient compared to other coal plants thanks to technologies such as "overscrubbing," in which chemical additives prevent potential pollutants from escaping into the atmosphere in a process similar to the way a car's catalytic converter works.

Those plants will be allowed to live out their life spans, Denis said, but as they become obsolete, they are being replaced by cleaner methods.

For example, Nevada Power is currently finishing construction on a plant in Moapa Valley that will have twice the capacity of the Reid Gardner coal plant using a combination of turbines fired by natural gas and steam.

Johnson said there is a long way to go to reduce the impact of coal power, but he acknowledged that in many ways, Nevada is on the right track, especially when it comes to developing clean, renewable energy sources.

The state has set a goal of 15 percent renewable energy by the year 2013, and that goal is achievable, said Dick Burdette, energy advisor to Gov. Kenny Guinn and director of the state Energy Office.

"Because of the importance of tourism to Las Vegas and all of Nevada, we cannot be anything but very careful about the amount of pollution that comes from our power plants," Burdette said. "Air quality is part of our economic security."

As for why Nevada's emissions numbers were worse than the nation as a whole, Burdette said, "our coal plants are old." But the industry is working to build new, energy-efficient plants and phase out the old ones, he said.

The state's biggest pollution emitter, the Mohave plant in Laughlin, may well be shut down by the end of the year as new plants come on line, Burdette said.

The energy industry is struggling not only to keep pace with the increasing demand created by Southern Nevada's population growth, but also to reduce its dependence on out-of-state energy, Burdette said. Currently, Nevada Power gets about half the power it sells to customers from out-of-state plants, he said.

This year, the state government's emphasis will be on efficiency and conservation, attempting to reduce consumption of energy, Burdette said. His office is currently working on a report on the topic that is due to the Legislature on Monday.

The report includes proposals ranging from working with local authorities to change building codes to changing the way appliances are purchased for state buildings, Burdette said.

"This will be a year of energy efficiency and energy conservation for the state of Nevada," he said.

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