Grassroots groups sue feds over NGS rule
The Peabody Coal Mine on Black Mesa, Ariz., has been the focus of a major lawsuit filed by the Navajo Nation against the company and its partners. (Times file photo.)
FARMINGTON, N.M.
Community members in the Black Mesa area are claiming that a federal advisory group met in secret to craft a plan allowing the Navajo Generating Station to continue operating unchecked for three decades.
In a complaint filed Oct. 26 in the U.S. District Court of California, a coalition comprising members of the community groups To’ Nizhoni Ani, Black Mesa Water Coalition and Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment allege that federal agencies colluded on a secret plan to delay cleaning up harmful air pollution at the power plant, and that the agencies denied the public the opportunity to participate in the talks.
“Federal owners and regulators of NGS, one of the oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the western United States, unlawfully established a federal advisory committee called the Technical Working Group,” the complaint states. The group was established “in a manner that lacked transparency and shut out the public and impacted communities from the deliberation process.”
According to the complaint, the federal advisory group met after the United States Environmental Protection Agency proposed an 84-percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions at the plant. The EPA ultimately adopted an alternative plan proposed by the advisory group that gives the power plant owners more time to implement pollution controls.
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