The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has given the green light to a $1 billion coal gasification fertilizer plant near American Falls by issuing Southeast Idaho Energy an air quality permit to construct the Power County Advanced Energy Center.

The permit is effective immediately but does not release SIE from compliance with other applicable federal, state or local laws, regulations, permits or ordinances, IDEQ Air Quality Stationary Source Program Manager Mike Simon told SIE Environmental Permitting Manager Tom Hornyak in a Feb. 10 letter.

SIE, a subsidiary of Refined Energy Holdings of New York, hopes by the end of this year to break ground on the project that will employ 150 full-time employees after it is completed in three years by more than 1,000 construction workers, many of whom will commute from Pocatello. SIE spokesman John Burk said his company's project is environmentally, financially and technically sound.

Planned for 450 acres about two miles west of American Falls near ConAgra's Lamb Weston potato processing plant, the fertilizer complex daily would gasify coal and coal/petcoke blends to produce ammonia, urea and urea ammonium nitrate. Elemental sulfur and slag byproducts also tentatively would be sold.

The project will produce up to 500 tons per day of anhydrous ammonia, up to 1,800 tons per day of granular urea and up to 1,600 tons per day of a urea ammonium nitrate solution. SIE has decided against producing diesel fuel or generating electricity at the site as originally planned.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, the Idaho Conservation League and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition officially opposed the new fertilizer plant while the Power County Development Authority, the Power County Commission, American Falls City Council and American Falls School Board were among those to throw their support behind it.

In a Nov. 18 letter to the IDEQ, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlined five concerns it had with SIE's draft permit - the plant's new source performance standards, potential to emit, Best Available Control Technology (BACT), mercury and slag.

EPA officials said it is concerned the magnitude or impact of new mercury emissions from the plant to the surrounding area has not been sufficiently addressed. It noted fish tissue samples taken from the American Falls Reservoir and Portneuf River show elevated levels of mercury contamination. A Michaud Flats Superfund site has been designated east of American Falls and west of Pocatello, where the J.R. Simplot Co. and FMC Corp. have operated phosphate processing plants.

SIE estimates it would need to import about 2,000 tons of coal daily, mostly from Colorado, for the plant, which would use advanced technology to keep emissions reduced. Opponents, however, say the plant would discharge 2.3 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, contributing to global warming.

IDEQ has determined that the plant's operation under a proposed permit will not cause or contribute to violating ambient air quality standards nor harm nor affect human or animal life or local vegetation.

During a September meeting, IDEQ officials said the plant's operations shouldn't exceed air quality standards for several controlled emissions, including particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, but it will release significant amounts of carbon dioxide, which is not regulated as a pollutant.

Burk said his company expects to meet CO2 regulations when they become applicable to the plant, but there currently are no federal or state laws or regulations regarding carbon dioxide.

Credit: Mark Mendiola

(Copyright 2009 Dolan Media Newswires)

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