PHOENIX - Skies over several National Parks will be clearer and people in the Four Corners region will be healthier if a federal lawsuit filed Monday is successful. The National Parks Conservation Association and the Navajo environmental group Diné CARE are suing the EPA to speed up the retrofitting of two huge coal-fired power plants with the best-available pollution-control technology.

Kevin Dahl, Arizona program manager for the NPCA, says the lawsuit targets the Navajo Generating Station near Page and the Four Corners Plant in northwest New Mexico.

"The Clean Air Act does require the Environmental Protection Agency to do this. There's no clear specificity on timing, but it's way overdue, so we're asking that they do it within a reasonable time frame."

The lawsuit says the two power plants continue to harm the health of millions of people who visit and live in the Four Corners area, while producing haze that obscures the views at numerous National Parks and wilderness areas.

Both of the power plants are located on the Navajo Nation, where Diné CARE volunteer Lori Goodman says emissions are having a dramatic negative effect on the health of residents.

"Shiprock Indian Hospital: their number one admittance for emergency room visits is for respiratory problems. And asthma has just gone through the roof."

Part of the power produced by the Navajo Generating Station runs the pumps for the Central Arizona Project, which provides water to residents of Phoenix and Tucson. Goodman says it's a simple matter of fairness that the EPA should act quickly to protect the health of the Navajo people.

"The people that live right around Navajo Generating Station don't even have electricity or running water, and the sure thing that they're getting is bad health."

Kevin Dahl says reducing pollution that degrades the priceless views in the Four Corners region will not only improve public health, but will also benefit the local tourism economy.

"When you go to the Grand Canyon, you expect to see a magnificent sight. Or go to Bryce Canyon and see the views there, or go to Petrified Forest and get the experience of the huge open spaces of the West. When it's diminished by the air pollution from the Navajo power plant, that's a huge impact."

Since both plants are low-cost power producers, Dahl says the cost of installing the "best available" retrofit technology can be absorbed while keeping electric prices in line with other power plants.


get more stories like this via email

A new film documents the 2018 battle between Colorado environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over proposed fracking regulations.

The film also documents a grassroots effort by Colorado Rising to pass a ballot initiative which would create a 2,500-foot setback for all hydraulic fracturing wells in the state, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Sarah Schulte, organizing committee member of GreenFaith Boulder County, which recently previewed the film for about 100 members, said the film has a strong message.

"What probably makes the film pretty dramatic and kind of shocking is the length to which oil and natural gas industries in Colorado set out to thwart them," Schulte pointed out. "Not only with some of the tactics you might expect, but also some kind of more nefarious tactics sabotaging their signature gathering, for example."

In the end, the petroleum industry defeated the measure after a $50 million campaign opposing it. Schulte acknowledged Colorado Rising raised only $1 million for its campaign. After the election, the state adopted a 1,000-foot drilling setback from schools and residential property lines.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, involves drillers injecting a mixture of chemicals underground to break up the shale and free the oil. The chemicals used in the process, which are sometimes toxic, can pollute groundwater and make the surrounding land unstable.

Schulte emphasized the movie had a powerful effect on the group's members.

"I think most people were pretty angry and maybe even a little sad after seeing how these kinds of politics play out in Colorado," Schulte observed. "They asked questions like what can we do next? How do you keep going when it's so difficult to fight such a big and powerful industry?"

The film, Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars, is currently being previewed by select audiences. It has won the "Spirit of Activism" award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival
and the "Environmental Award" at the 2024 DOCUTAH International Film Festival.

As part of an effort to restore the Mississippi River delta, an organization is collaborating with nature to address environmental challenges.

The Big Muddy is the second-longest river in North America, flowing more than 2,300 miles.

Simone Maloz, campaign director for the group Restore the Mississippi River Delta, said the coalition uses nature-based solutions to help tackle some of the river's environmental problems in Louisiana and Mississippi.

"We use the power and the sediment the river provides to help us to put solutions into place," Maloz explained. "For example, we might have an area of wetlands that needs to be nourished with freshwater sediment, we can tap into that wonderful resource that we have."

Maloz pointed out some farmers are turning to nature-based solution, using cover crops like clover or other plants to protect the soil. Cover crops typically grow in between primary crops, or are planted in the offseason to help keep nutrients on the ground so they do not become toxic in the water as runoff.

Maloz emphasized nature-based solutions are key to building resilient communities, which she said are those communities thinking about how to plan for climate change, such as floods, droughts, and rising sea levels, wildfires, hurricanes and coastal threats.

"What we know about resilient communities, whether you're on the coast, or whether you're not on the coast, is about how you can brace yourself for these impacts and how you can more quickly recover," Maloz stressed. "We know that when you include nature in those plans, it helps you to better do that."

Maloz added her group is involved in various projects along the Mississippi River, using sediment to replenish marshes, rebuild ridges and barrier islands and create habitats for migratory birds.


get more stories like this via email

The Iowa Environmental Council has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to invoke emergency powers to protect sensitive soil and groundwater in northeast Iowa.

The council is holding a public webinar today and wants the EPA to address groundwater contamination in northeast Iowa's so-called Driftless region. The groundwater there has a well-documented history of nitrate contamination.

Alicia Vasto, director of water program for the council, said the highly porous and soluble karst soil prevalent in the region is susceptible to contamination from centralized animal feeding operations.

"We did some analyses of private well data and public water systems and found that there was a lot of contamination of nitrate in those drinking water sources," Vasto reported. "The state has really failed to take action meaningfully that would address those problems."

The state has said it is constantly working to upgrade groundwater quality standards and is in the process of taking public input on creating yet another set of rules.

Vasto emphasized since the state has failed to address the water safety concerns for decades, the council and a coalition of other environmental groups have, in effect, gone above the state's head to the EPA, asking the agency to implement an emergency stop gap on nitrate pollution the way the agency did in neighboring Minnesota last year.

"We're asking that at, at minimum, the EPA would require the state of Iowa to do what they required the state of Minnesota to do under the same petition," Vasto explained. "Because the geology of northeast Iowa is the same as of southeast Minnesota."

The council's recommendations include calling on the EPA to create a communications plan with residents whose water could be at risk, create a drinking water sampling plan, and establishing a thorough permitting process for centralized animal feeding operations.


get more stories like this via email