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Plant, Dairy Likely Soiling Gorge; East Winds Carry Ammonia, Sulfur into Scenic Area

Posted on: Sunday, 31 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

BOARDMAN, Ore. (AP) -- Researchers may have pinpointed two contributors to the rising pollution and acid fog levels in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area: an aging Portland General Electric coal-burning power plant and an Eastern Oregon dairy complex that houses 52,300 cows.

Both sit near the eastern mouth of the Columbia Gorge near Boardman, about an hour's drive beyond The Dalles, in a spot where strong east-to-west winds drive pollutants downriver toward the Gorge's rock walls, which trap and concentrate the contaminants.

The PGE coal plant, constructed 30 years ago, does not have to comply with federal Clean Air Act rules that would apply to more recently-built plants. It received an exemption from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1975 two weeks before stiffer regulations went into effect, an exemption that the EPA later admitted had been a mistake.

The power plant is among the dirtiest in the region, lacking scrubbers that are typically standard on such plants built today, according to a report in The Oregonian newspaper.

The nearby dairy, Threemile Canyon, has expanded rapidly over the last five years and remains exempt from Oregon state air regulation because it is considered an agricultural enterprise. The dairy's decomposing manure, however, emits more ammonia than the combined releases reported by regulated industrial sources in Oregon, federal figures show.

State officials say they are concerned, but that there may not be much they can do to regulate the situation because of the exemptions.

PGE officials and Threemile Canyon managers say they comply with all the regulations that apply to them and will do their share to protect the gorge if they are found to be contributing to its degraded air.

Dairy operators said they manage the diet of cows to minimize emissions and plan other means to control pollution, such as a methane digester to capture and burn gases from manure.

Researchers say that approaching the east end of the gorge, higher levels of ammonia compounds are found in rain and fog water dripping from trees. Additionally, concentrations of nitrogen, an element of ammonia, have risen 30 percent to 35 percent in lichens collected at the east end of the gorge in the last decade.

The Forest Service analysis says it is logical to conclude that ammonia compounds from the east are most responsible for the gorge's worsening pollution.

The only other coal plant in the region is in Centralia. It generates roughly twice the electricity of Boardman but has scrubbers to remove sulfur pollution. It emitted about 35 percent less sulfur dioxide in 2003 than the Boardman plant.

Installation of a scrubber at Boardman would cost $90 million to $100 million, PGE says.

Nearby, the dairy complex at Threemile Canyon Farm last month notified the Environmental Protection Agency it is releasing at least 850 tons and up to 2,850 tons of ammonia a year.

The 52,300 cows at the complex produce twice the biological waste of a city the size of Salem. Cows are housed in open-sided sheds at numbers that dwarf most dairies nationwide. The complex is allowed as many as 90,667 cows.

U.S. officials are beginning an inquiry into whether the ammonia fumes pose a health risk to workers.

Source: Columbian

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