According to this article in Tuesday's Tribune, SME voluntarily stopped construction Monday at HGS:
Construction at a coal-fired power plant east of Great Falls was halted Monday after the state alleged that developer Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission had jumped the gun in beginning construction last month.
"This violation letter is being issued based upon the department's initial determination that a violation has occurred," wrote Robert Gallagher, an environmental engineer specialist in the Department of Environmental Quality's Air Resources Management Bureau, in a letter sent to SME on Thursday.
With SME facing a Nov. 30 deadline to finish preliminary construction on the foundation or face losing its air-quality permit, the delay is significant, according to Ken Reich, an SME attorney.
SME officials, who contend it was not illegal to begin construction, said the decision to send workers home was voluntary.
"We're not going to buck the state," Reich said.
Up to 40 workers had been working on the site, and the final 15 to 20 guys were sent home Monday, SME CEO Tim Gregori said.
The DEQ letter alleges SME violated the law because a final permit must be on hand before starting construction on facilities that emit hazardous pollutants.
SME broke ground Oct. 15, but its air permit in regard to hazardous pollutants, approved by the state Nov. 10, isn't "final and effective" until Wednesday or 15 days after its issuance, according to the DEQ.
Construction could resume as soon as Wednesday, but that isn't likely because of the Thanksgiving holiday, SME officials said.
SME officials, noting Highwood will be a minor and not a major source of hazardous pollutants and therefore not subject to tougher rules faced by major-source emitters, questioned the state's position on the construction timeline and added state officials knew in advance when construction would commence.
"We were quite surprised," Gregori said.
DEQ could ask for a penalty of up to $10,000 a day but has yet to do so, the DEQ's Chuck Homer said.
The agency did not demand that construction be halted, he said.
The DEQ issued an air permit to SME to build the 250-megawatt coal-fired power plant in May 2007, but the permit at issue now is a modified version that covers just hazardous air pollutants and fine particulate.
When the original permit was issued in 2007, under Bush administration rules, coal-fired power plants were not subject to so-called "maximum achievable control technology" review for mercury and other hazardous pollutants. MACT is the toughest form of regulation.
But in February, a federal appeals court decision ruled coal-fired power plants should not be exempt, which raised the possibility of the reinstatement of the so called MACT rules, which had been in place under the Clinton administration.
The federal appeals court decision has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As result of the regulatory flux, SME asked for a modification to its original air permit. It proposed lowering its emissions of hazardous pollutants to fewer than 25 tons, which would make it a "minor source" of hazardous pollutants and not a major source, and therefore not subject to the MACT requirements.
Even though it will be only a minor source emitter of hazardous pollutants, the DEQ said SME still needs "a final effective permit to bring their potential emissions below major source HAP (hazardous pollutants) levels" before beginning construction.
"Therefore, construction activities at the SME facility are prohibited until at least Nov. 26," Gallagher wrote in the letter.
SME officials said the hazardous portion of the air permit could have been issued much sooner but was delayed because the DEQ processed its analysis of fine particulate matter. SME was ordered to do more work on controlling fine particulate by the Board of Environmental Review.
1 comment:
The 'plant to nowhere' is grinding to a halt?
Post a Comment