Coronado Generating Station

Coronado Generating Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by the Salt River Project near Saint Johns, Arizona.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District
 * Parent Company: State of Arizona
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 822 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 411 MW (1979), 411 MW (1980)
 * Location: Saint Johns, AZ 85936
 * GPS Coordinates: 34.575952, -109.272301
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Salt River Project Agriculture Improvement and Power District Clean Air Act Settlement
On August, 12, 2008 the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. EPA announced that the owner of the Salt River Project in St. Johns, Arizona agreed to install pollution controls at the facility at an estimated cost of $400 million to reduce harmful pollutants. In addition the owner also paid a $950,000 civil penalty. The settlement resolved allegations that the Salt River Project violated New Source Review requirements of the Clean Air Act.

“This settlement marks a significant step in controlling harmful nitrogen oxide emissions in the Western United States,” said Granta Nakayama, assistant administrator for EPA’s enforcement and compliance assurance program. “The installation of state-of-the-art technology sets an important benchmark for the control of this harmful pollutant. EPA is committed to ensuring coal-fired power plants comply with the Clean Air Act.”

The settlement mandates that the owner install and operate new pollution control equipment on both generating units at its Coronado Generating Station. These controls will reduce combined emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by approximately 21,000 tons annually.

SRP will install flue gas desulfurization devices (scrubbers) to control SO2 at both units and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) controls to limit NOx at one of the units. The settlement was the first ever to secure an SCR retrofit of an existing coal-fired electric generating unit in the Western United States.

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 6,556,592 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 13,515 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 12,754 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 582 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Coronado
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Coronado Generating Station
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed March 2011

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * EPA Coal Plant Settlements
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Arizona and coal
 * Salt River Project
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming