Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Coal Burning Power Plant in North Denver Violating Clean Air Laws
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

DENVER-Moving to safeguard public health and clean air, WildEarth Guardians, with the aid of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Environmental Law Clinic, filed suit today in federal court against Xcel Energy over thousands of violations of clean air laws at the Cherokee coal burning power plant in North Denver.

“Clean air starts with holding Xcel accountable to our health and well-being,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “It’s time to power past coal and toward clean energy solutions, starting with the Cherokee power plant.”

According to Xcel Energy’s own records submitted to the State of Colorado, the Cherokee power plant has regulatory violated limits on the opacity, or density, of smoke from all of its smokestacks. Opacity is an indicator of particulate matter. Particulate matter includes soot, toxic metals, and droplets of acidic gases, and is blamed for serious and adverse health effects including asthma attacks, bronchitis, heart attacks, and premature death.

Compounding the problem, Xcel has failed to property monitor for opacity on nearly 22,000 occasions. By law, Xcel is required to monitor opacity all the time using a “continuous opacity monitor.” Records from Xcel show that their continuous opacity monitors have failed for a total of over 2,100 hours, or more than 87.5 days.

Under the Clean Air Act, polluters can be fined up to $37,500 per violation per day. Xcel faces more than $800,000,000 in fines for its violations.

“We need electricity, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of our health, our quality of life, and the climate,” said Nichols. “It’s time to power past coal, starting with the Cherokee power plant; it’s time to get clean energy solutions in gear.”

The Cherokee plant is the largest coal burning power plant in the Denver metro area. It is the second largest source of carbon dioxide in Colorado. The plant includes four coal-fired boilers, which burn more than 2 million pounds of coal annually, and three smokestacks that spew 18,709 pounds of hydrochloric acid and 162 pounds of mercury, among other toxic chemicals ever year. The amount of mercury released roughly equals the amount in over 100,000 household thermometers.

Under the Clean Air Act, citizens can take legal action to stop clean air violations, impose fines, and protect public health. Working with the University of Denver Environmental law clinic, WildEarth Guardians notified Xcel in January 2008, that it was operating in violation of Clean Air Act standards. The company was warned again in April 2009, in advance of the lawsuit. The suit now asks the court to force Xcel to comply with monitoring regulations, and cease operations if monitoring equipment is not functioning.

WildEarth Guardians is dedicated to protecting and restoring the American West and is leading the charge to protect North Denver and Colorado from the harmful impacts of coal burning, and to promote clean energy solutions.

The University of Denver, the oldest private university in the Rocky Mountain region, enrolls approximately 11,409 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs.

The complaint is available here.