SEATTLE - A proposed agreement between Washington state and Canada-based TransAlta Corp. will reduce air pollution at the state's only coal-fired power plant, state officials say.
But environmentalists say the pollution limits don't do enough to protect public health.
TransAlta has agreed to reduce smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions by 20 percent from its current limit and voluntarily cut mercury emissions in half by 2012.
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"This agreement will lead to real improvements in visibility and lower health risk from airborne mercury," said Stuart Clark, air quality program manager for the Washington State Department of Ecology.
The agreement was hammered out earlier this year after closed-door talks, and the state started taking public comments on the proposal this week.
Critics complain they were shut out of the process, and several conservation groups including Sierra Club and the NW Energy Coalition are pushing the state for stricter limits.
"It's status quo," Janette Brimmer, staff attorney with Earthjustice, a public-interest law firm, said of the agreement. "We find it unacceptable."
Nitrogen oxide emissions from the plant are blamed for haze and poor visibility in Mount Rainier, Olympic and other national parks in the state. Reducing such emissions would improve visibility from the Pasayten Wilderness in Okanogan County to the Three Sisters Wilderness in central Oregon, Ecology officials said.
Brimmer said the Centralia plant could use better technology to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, but TransAlta spokesman Richard DeBolt said such technology isn't "cost effective with our system."
"We've worked hard over the years to do what we can," DeBolt said, adding that the company has spent $235 million on pollution controls. "We continue our commitment to the state. We're going to step up and do mercury (reductions) early."
Cherie Eichholz, executive director of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, said the proposed agreement fails to protect residents from mercury and other contaminants.
Mercury is a potent toxin particularly harmful to young children and developing fetuses.
Brimmer and others said the state won't be able to hold the company accountable since the mercury reductions are entirely voluntary.
Ecology spokesman Seth Preston said there are no state or federal requirements to control mercury from power plants, but if TransAlta defaults on its mercury obligations, the state would be free to pursue regulatory rules.
