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Activists want EPA action on Xcel plant

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 22, 2006 at midnight

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A Denver-based clean air group sued the EPA today, charging the agency ignored a citizen petition challenging a pollution permit for an Xcel power plant near Platteville in Weld County.

Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action said the power plant produces significant levels of smog-forming pollutants. The permit for the plant fails to limit such emissions, as well as other, toxic air pollutants and fails to require monitoring that protects human health, the group said in a statement.

"Despite rising smog, the state continues to look the other way when it comes to air pollution," said Jeremy Nichols, Director of Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action. "It’s time for the EPA to intervene and reign in this flawed permit."



Under federal clean air laws, citizens can petition the Environmental Protection Agency to object to certain state pollution permits. Last July, Nichols petitioned the EPA to overturn the state permit. EPA is supposed to grant or deny such petitions within 60 days, Nichols said. But so far, he said, it hasn’t acted either way.

Dick Long, head of air and radiation programs for the EPA’s regional office in Denver, said it’s common for the EPA to miss to 60-day deadline because the agency gets deluged with such petitions, and researching the issues involved is time-consuming.

"We focus on getting the right answer, knowing that’s probably more important than meeting a timeframe," he said.

He said the petition regarding the Xcel plant in Platteville has been at EPA’s Washington D.C. headquarters awaiting approval from management there. He said he expects EPA to respond to the petition by the first week of January.

The legal action comes as Denver continues to struggle with smog levels in the summertime that approach or sometimes exceed federal health guidelines. Air quality regulators have said that high levels next summer could trip the EPA’s rolling three-year limit for smog pollution and throw Denver back onto the agency’s list of dirty-air regions.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington D.C.