Intermountain Power Station

Intermountain Power Station is a coal-fired power station located near Delta, Utah. It is owned by the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA); the project manager and operating agent is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; operation and maintenance is by the Intermountain Power Service Corporation (IPSC), and the Intermountain Power Agency. Participants in the plant include 6 California Municipal Utilities, 23 Utah Municipal Utilities, 6 Utah Rural Electric Cooperatives, 1 Utah Investor Owned Utility, and 1 Nevada Electric Cooperative.

Plant Data

 * Owner: City of Los Angeles/Intermountain Power Agency
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1,640 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 820 MW (1986), 820 MW (1987)
 * Location: 850 Brush Wellman Rd., Delta, UT 84624
 * GPS Coordinates: 39.512083, -112.58395
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 16,035,530 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 4,239 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 28,911 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 226 lb.

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

Coal Waste Sites

 * Intermountain Power Station Ash Water Recycle
 * Intermountain Power Station Bottom Ash Pond
 * Intermountain Power Station Evaporation Ponds
 * Intermountain Power Station Land Fill Run-Off
 * Intermountain Power Station Settling Basin
 * Intermountain Power Station Wastewater Holding Basin

Intermountain ranked 82nd on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste
In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

Intermountain Power Station ranked number 82 on the list, with 333,589 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Coal Supplies
Coal for the Intermountain Power Station is purchased from coal mines in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming through the LADWP coal business group, and delivered to the plant by the Union Pacific Railroad. In 2010, Intermountain Power Station Corporation (IPSC) announced plans to accommodate changes in coal purchases that will require trains of over 120 cars.

LADWP 2010 Integrated Resource Plan
The 2010 Integrated Resource Plan of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LDWP), a strategic plan for the next 20 years, recommended that LADWP add 630 new megawatts of solar capacity by 2020 and 970 megawatts of solar capacity by 2030. The plan recommended 580 megawatts of new wind power by 2020. The plan designated that 40 percent of solar be in-basin. It recommended incentive programs, feed-in tariff schemes, and other mechanisms for promoting solar. The plan recommended ending purchases of power from the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station by 2014, which is four years ahead of the deadline established by Senate Bill (SB) 1368. The plan models the Intermountain Power Station through 2027 but recommends ending use of power from the Intermountain Power Station by 2020. The plan states that "LADWP is open to a mutually agreeable early compliance plan between the project participants that preserves the site and transmission for clean fossil and renewable generation."

However, it was reported in December 2010 that DWP may not reach its renewable energy goals set by Mayor Villaraigosa due to a lack of funding. DWP executives warned that they would not be able to sustain that achievement, let alone reach future goals, without guaranteed funding from taxpayers.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
 * Coal plant retirements
 * Intermountain Power Project Unit 3
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Utah and coal
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming

External Articles

 * Jeremy Fisher, "A Green Future for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power: Phasing Out Coal in LA by 2020," Synapse Energy Economics, May 2011