Ozone, mercury worry League BY JOHN R. CRANE, Journal Staff Writer

Concern about the environmental effects of existing power plants in New Mexico has heightened since Houston-based Sithe Global proposed to build a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant on Navajo Nation land near Farmington. The proposed plant is known as the Desert Rock Energy Project.

Two existing power plants in New Mexico, San Juan Generating Station in Waterflow and Four Corners Power Plant in Fruitland, release tens of thousands of tons of pollutants into the air annually. According to Sithe Global figures, they emit a combined total of 49,600 tons of sulfur dioxide and 70,700 tons of nitrogen oxide a year. Desert Rock would put out 3,400 tons of each of the two substances, according to project estimates. …

The San Juan power plant emits roughly 751 pounds of mercury into the atmosphere annually, according to the Grand Canyon Trust, an environmental group. Just 1 gram of mercury can make the fish in a 15-acre lake unfit for human consumption.

Note that there are about 340,000 grams in 751 pounds, meaning this could contaminate almost 8,000 square MILES of lakes in the Four Corners and beyond. Elephant Butte is less than 50 square miles in area, so we’re poisoning the equivalent of 1500 Elephant Buttes.

This is just part of the pollution already being released before another plant goes online. mjh

(751 pounds / 2.2 pounds per kilogram * 1000 grams per kilogram * 15 acres / 640 acres per square mile)