Article published May 3, 2007

Great Falls air quality fourth best in nation

By RICHARD ECKE

Tribune Staff Writer

Great Falls won another high rating for clean air this week from the American Lung Association.

The Electric City ranked fourth in the nation — behind Cheyenne, Wyo.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Honolulu — for the least long-term particle pollution among American cities.

Tuesday's ranking gave ammunition to critics of a proposed coal-fired power plant eight miles east of Great Falls.

Dr. Cheryl Reichert, a leader of Citizens for Clean Energy in Great Falls, called the ranking "really ironic" in light of a proposal for a $720 million Highwood Generating Station east of the city.

"We are jeopardizing the reason that many of us live here," Reichert said. "I can accept that it will be cleaner than many of the old-style (coal) plants. To tell me that it's the cleanest of the dirty I don't find reassuring."

The City of Great Falls would be a one-fourth partner in the plant. Coleen Balzarini, city fiscal officer, said the Highwood Generating Station will meet both federal and state air-quality standards. She said the new plant would be a big improvement over traditional coal-fired power facilities.

"I think that the process works," Balzarini said.

Much of the particulate generated by the project, such as coal particles from coal piles and dust kicked up by trucks on the site, "will be localized just to the facility."

"Because it's localized, it's possible that our (pollution) ranking wouldn't change at all," Balzarini said.

Montana's Department of Environmental Quality is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether it will issue a final air-quality permit to the project.

The biggest question these days is when a federal agency will issue a final environmental impact statement on the project in what is called a record of decision. A favorable record of decision also would clear the way for five Montana rural electric cooperatives to try to finalize a federal loan to pay for their 75 percent share of the power plant.

A record of decision was expected by the end of March, but no decision had been announced Wednesday. More than 500 comments about the project are being examined, according to a federal spokesman.