Pollution generated by crisis ELECTRICITY: Aging power units are called on, creating smog- causing chemicals.

December 29, 2000

By HANH KIM QUACH The Orange County Register

When the AES Pacific Corp. power plant in Huntington Beach cranked up its noisiest and most polluting power-generating units this past month, it did not go unnoticed.

"It sounds like an airplane taking off,'' said John Scott, who lives about a half-mile from the plant, a gray edifice that looms seven stories above Pacific Coast Highway.

Screeching and belching like a jet engine, the natural-gas plant had been summoned to run some of its emergency turbines and supply desperately needed electricity to the regional power grid. Some of those units produce 15 times the pollution of the company's best units.

For years, lawmakers, utility companies and environmentalists have tried to find an acceptable balance between providing electricity for the nation's most populous state while preserving its environment and quality of life.

Regulations dictate how much pollution a power plant can emit and for how long. Violators are heavily fined.

In the past few weeks, though, that system has broken down. Aging and once-idle engines were cranked up again, spewing brown smoke. As the power crisis increases, so will their output.

More coal and natural gas will burn.

More water will be released at environmentally sensitive times to spin hydroelectric turbines.

The cost, experts say, is increased potential for asthma, cancer and extinction of animal species.

More people in John Scott's neighborhood will feel like they're living next door to Los Angeles International Airport.

"We want all the amenities of life and new technology, but that all requires a lot of power,'' said Ralph Slone, president of Irvine-based NoxTech, which develops technology to reduce emissions from coal- burning plants.

"Is there a good compromise? What are people willing to pay to clean up their air, and what is reasonable before you start killing the economy?''

AES spokesman Aaron Thomas said the company had no choice but to "run our units to the brink of collapse.''

A lot of complaints have been made about the plant, he said, but it's helping to ensure that the state's power grid and system don't fall apart.

Pressed into service

A handful of plants around the state are producing more pollution than usual because of the shortage. Besides Huntington Beach, they are in Long Beach, Redondo Beach, the Bay area and Goleta in Santa Barbara County.

"The disappointing thing is that we have not gone out and asked businesses and consumers to conserve before we run a facility that doesn't meet air standards,'' said state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey. However, she said she believes there isn't much choice at the moment.

For Huntington Beach City Councilman Ralph Bauer, it's already too much.

"The people of Huntington Beach have been carrying this thing on their backs for 40 years and they're tired of it,'' Bauer said, referring to the AES plant, which was owned by Southern California Edison before being sold to the private energy company. "Now, (AES) wants to bend the rules because we need power for California. Now they're telling us, 'Be good guys. Let us pollute your skies.'''

All AES plants had been shut down by Oct. 30 because the company had reached its annual limit of pollution. Then came the winter energy shortage, and they were returned to service.

AES' largest and most efficient turbines - at the Long Beach and Redondo Beach plants - produce 480 megawatts of electricity and release barely 3,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide a day.

By contrast, the most efficient Huntington Beach units produce 215 megawatts while releasing at least 9,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide a day. The least efficient turbines in Huntington Beach produce just 17 megawatts and release 1,580 pounds of nitrogen oxide a day - a power-to-pollution ratio 15 times worse than the best Long Beach turbines.

AES paid a $17 million pollution penalty to bring the units back online.

Health cost

The amount of additional pollution is not insignificant, experts say.

Thirty percent of nitrogen oxide emissions in Southern California come from businesses, including power plants burning natural gas. The remaining 70 percent comes from motor vehicles.

Nitrogen oxide, also known as nox, binds with other pollutants in the air and forms ozone, the main ingredient of urban smog.

"There's no doubt that ozone is a health-damaging agent'' that can scar children's lungs and irritate an already bad respiratory system, said Rich Varenchik, spokesman for the state Air Resources Board. Some studies have linked it to heart problems, he said.

In Orange County, asthma is the No. 1 chronic disease among children, said Kristi Munns, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association in Orange County.

"We definitely need to strike a balance between health and energy,'' Munns said. "Conservation should be the first step. Obviously, the more emissions (released), the worse the ozone will be, and it will affect those particularly susceptible - such as children and the elderly.''

Paying to pollute

In the end, said Mohsen Nazemi, a manager for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, it would have been cheaper for AES to have paid the millions of dollars to put pollution controls on its turbines than buy extra pollution credits - at $80,000 per ton of nitrogen oxide - and pay the $17 million penalty.

But AES' Thomas said no one predicted the power crisis would prompt the company to use the heaviest-polluting units. The company began the process in June of getting pollution controls at its plants, but, according to Assembly Republican leader Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach, "there was too much red tape in the way.'' The company had enlisted him to help.

"I think a lot of people missed the call,'' Thomas said. "If I had seen this coming, I'd be a hero.''

Baugh, who can see the Huntington Beach plant from his home, said the state's economic health depends on a reliable source of electricity and that AES is contributing to that.

"With the crisis, they just can't sit around,'' he said.

Wildlife cost

Environmentalists fear the energy crisis is putting wildlife at risk.

In the past century, Oregon's Columbia River Basin had 10 million to 16 million fish, said Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter Tribal Fish Commission. But in the past few years, the population has dropped to 1 million and is continuing to drop, he said.

Hydroelectric plants and dams disturb the natural flow of water. Fish eggs rot. Salmon's treks to the ocean are interrupted. Some get caught in hydroelectric turbines.

This month, the Bonneville Power Administration, which operates dams along the Columbia River, released water to power hydroelectric plants and send 1,000 megawatts to California. The water was not scheduled to be released until February, but California was desperate. About 24 percent of California's energy comes from hydroelectric plants.

"We consider this power crisis a compounding of an already long-existing problem of incompatibility of power and the natural environment, and it's revealed in the lack of balance,'' Hudson said.

Borrowing from next year's supply of water not only puts Western states at risk of not having enough water to power plants next year, but it interrupts seasonal cycles that fish depend on.

Millions of chum salmon eggs, which are protected by the Endangered Species Act, might die because fluctuating water levels will leave them exposed on the river's banks.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/environment01229cci.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 29, 2000