New EPA Official Beats the Odds

You have to choose your fights, but cleaning up one particular coal-fired power plant in the Arizona desert seemed a sure loser, except to new regional EPA chief Wayne Hector Nastri.

The power plant, in Springerville, Ariz., was one of the biggest polluters in the Southwest. Nevertheless, the plant’s owner, Tucson Electric Power Co., sought last year to double the plant’s generating capacity while keeping total emissions the same. Current technology can cut emissions much more than that.

Environmentalists sued to force a cleanup at the plant and local regulators were in agreement. But the advantage appeared to be with the company, given the new industry-friendly mood at the White House and the recent energy crisis next door in California.

Enter Nastri, 42, who became head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco in October just as the dispute between regulators and the power firm was heating up.

Nastri is a Republican from the party’s conservative Orange County wing who was appointed by EPA chief Christie Whitman.

Nastri was no stranger to environmental issues. Before joining the EPA, he ran a Newport Beach pollution cleanup consulting firm, Environmental Mediation Inc. As a boy, he enjoyed rabbit hunting in the desert, backpacking in the Sierra Nevada and family camping trips. He started the ecology club at his junior high school in the early 1970s.

Nevertheless, agency veterans thought they had reason to worry. The Bush administration had halted other enforcement actions against coal-fired plants around the country. Moreover, the administration had made clear its intent to weaken a Clean Air Act provision that requires tougher emission controls at power plants that expand generating capacity.

Tucson Electric set the stage for a showdown when it sought to add two new generators while leaving overall emissions unchanged.

The plant was releasing about 18,000 tons of sulfur gases annually, plus 11,000 tons of nitrogen oxides. The emissions contribute to ozone and water pollution and helped spread haze across some of America’s most majestic scenery, from the Gila Mountain Wilderness to Petrified Forest National Park.

The Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Trust complained to the EPA and filed a lawsuit in November, alleging chronic violations of the Clean Air Act. The group said the power plant was operating illegally and attempting to avoid installation of modern emissions controls.

Besides disputing those claims, the company sought help from the EPA in Washington. Jeffrey R. Holmstead, whom President Bush had picked to run the EPA air programs, urged Nastri to let the power plant expansion proceed without requiring the controls sought by the environmentalists.

“[Holmstead] was tenacious and adamant,” said one EPA official who asked not to be named. “He said we should back down, we should leave this alone, just let it go. It was a huge fight.”

It was also Nastri’s first major test as administrator of the EPA office that oversees California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.

Nastri’s office told Tucson Electric last month that the plant was operating illegally and that before it could expand, a detailed review must identify the best cleanup methods and slash emissions as prescribed in the Clean Air Act.

The energy company objected. It sought help from Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jane Dee Hull, who had crossed swords with federal regulators in the past over pollution controls. The company hired Bruce Babbitt, a former Arizona governor and Interior secretary who recently joined Holmstead’s law firm.

Hull convened a meeting two weeks ago in Phoenix, where she wanted the EPA and Tucson Electric to strike a deal that day.

Nastri and Tucson Electric hammered out a deal that allowed the plant to double electrical production while slashing total emissions 80% to 90% by 2007.

Total sulfur oxide emissions would be capped at 10,800 tons annually and nitrogen oxide emissions would be limited to 9,600 tons per year while 800 more megawatts of power were brought online.

The EPA says the reduction is slightly less than the agency might have won had it gone to court. But the agreement requires advanced control equipment.

“The numbers look good,” said Rick Moore of the Grand Canyon Trust. “It’s not as good as we think we could have gotten, but this is an acceptable deal to us.”

Still, he faulted Nastri for barring his group from negotiations. The trust’s lawsuit, he noted, triggered EPA’s involvement.

Officials in Arizona and at Tucson Electric Power hailed the agreement as a model for cleaning the air while avoiding power plant construction delays.

“We need to be ahead of the curve on energy development to avoid the problems California had last spring,” said Scott Celley, spokesman for Gov. Hull.

And in EPA’s regional office in California, officials say the agency’s leadership survived its first major challenge.

“We need a strong enforcement program,” Nastri said. “We thought we had a really good opportunity to make some significant [emissions] reductions and we busted our butts on this. It’s really good and I’m proud of it.”