Pact Would Hasten Mohave Plant Cleanup

Southern California Edison and the other owners of the Mohave Generating Station agreed Wednesday to accelerate plans to spend $300 million to clean up the giant coal-fired power plant, which environmentalists contend is a prime contributor to haze that mars the Grand Canyon’s vistas.

The agreement modifies a proposal Edison made in December to install additional emissions-control equipment at the plant in Laughlin, Nev., about 75 miles west of Grand Canyon National Park. The pact with three environmental groups--the Grand Canyon Trust, the Sierra Club and the National Parks and Conservation Assn.--pushes up the deadline for installation of the equipment by three years, to early 2006, and sets slightly more aggressive targets for reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions from the plant, the largest single source of sulfur dioxide pollution in the Southwest.

The deal, if approved by the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, would settle a federal lawsuit filed by the environmental groups without requiring the utility, a unit of Rosemead-based Edison International, to admit to any violations of clean-air regulations. The groups had sought injunctive relief and penalties against Edison and its partners.

“We’re very pleased to be able to settle this issue through negotiations rather than costly, extended litigation,” said Bob Wyman, attorney for the owners, which include the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, which owns 20% of the plant; Nevada Power Co. (14%); and the Salt River Project (10%). Edison owns 56% and operates the plant, which serves nearly 1.5 million homes in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

“This is a major victory for the environment and the Grand Canyon,” said Geoff Barnard, president of the Grand Canyon Trust.

Under the agreement, the owners will install scrubbers designed to remove at least 85% of the sulfur dioxide from the plant’s air emissions. Edison had proposed an 80% reduction in December, a level the environmentalists had called disappointing.

Edison had previously insisted that the additional pollution-control equipment would have made the plant unprofitable. The facility provides nearly 1,000 jobs and is the largest source of income for two Indian tribes that supply the coal.

But Edison now believes the plant can be operated economically because of technological advances in the equipment and improved prices under electricity deregulation, said John Fielder, senior vice president of regulatory policy and affairs.

Edison International shares lost 6 cents to close at $24.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.