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A big deal for Boardman

A settlement reached last week establishes a court-enforceable order to shut down coal operations at the Boardman power plant by Dec. 31, 2020. The agreement resolves a 2008 lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and five other environmental groups for alleged Clean Air Act violations.

Boardman plant owners are compelled to pay $2.5 million to the Oregon Community Foundation for environmental restoration and clean energy projects and $1 million to reimburse the plaintiffs for legal expenses.

The settlement also established caps for sulfur dioxide, a major contributor to acid rain, to reduce the plant’s emissions in its remaining coal-fired years.

Oregon’s last coal-burning power plant, near Boardman, is scheduled to close in fewer than 10 years. But proposed restrictions on coal- and oil-fired electric plants could leave the plant’s owners in a bind.

The Environmental Protection Agency‘s proposed mercury and air toxics standards would require expensive changes to reduce air pollution at U.S. plants, and complaints are arising from industry members 鈥� especially those representing Boardman and other coal plants where shutdown agreements are in place.

If such control requirements were to pass in the near future, the Boardman plant would be required to be brought up to code or employ a different production strategy, no matter the cost. Portland General Electric, which owns 65 percent of the plant, and other co-owners already are paying more than $60 million for retrofits. Installation work is under way is expected to continue through the fall.

Because of a recent settlement with environmental groups, the plan to close the plant in 2020 is now legally actionable. Any additional equipment would operate for only a few years, and make an investment undesirable.

The major question for Boardman now, according to PGE spokesman Steve Corson, is whether the EPA will allow flexibility in implementation of the 鈥渕aximum achievable control technology鈥� (MACT) rules, which encompass the mercury and air toxics standards.

Some of the proposed standards overlap with prior regulations that Boardman is already set to meet, according to Corson. Because Oregon adopted strict mercury emission standards in 2007, Boardman is on track to reduce 90 percent of its emissions of mercury, the pollutant that is the primary target of the toxics standards.

For non-mercury metals, however, PGE needs to conduct more testing to know where Boardman stands in relation to applicable MACT regulations. New emission controls for regional haze might help the plant meet the proposed standards, but Corson says it’s too soon to tell.

鈥淲e just don’t know the answer yet,鈥� he said. 鈥淯ntil the system is fully tested, we just won’t know how close we are to meeting the (MACT) standards that EPA has proposed.

鈥淲e are submitting comments to EPA hoping that they can ensure that the final adopted rule will have flexibility to recognize a strategy like the one we put in place at Boardman. We believe the package that we have already adopted for significant reductions in the near term followed by complete cessation of coal burning in 2020 represents the best approach for Boardman.鈥�

In pushing to implement the air toxic standards to pass as written, the EPA estimates that the new restrictions would prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths each year, and the value of health improvements would add up to $140 billion by 2016.

The comment period on the rules ends Aug. 4, and the EPA will issue final standards in November.

The Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council are leading the national push for implementation of the MACT rules, according to Aubrey Baldwin, staff attorney for the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. But the coal and oil industries are resisting by speaking with federal legislators.

鈥淭here’s talk in Congress of limiting EPA’s authority to undertake the new air toxics standards,鈥� Baldwin said. 鈥淏ut there could also be requirements stemming from climate change on a local, state or federal level that could become applicable and impact Boardman’s operations. By agreeing to shut down by 2020 in the settlement, (PGE) is taking on the risk that there will be new control requirements.鈥�