Baja power plants cause concern
Group calls for pollution, water-use limits
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 24, 2001

San Diego, CA -- A group of California, Baja California, Arizona and Sonora citizens are asking top U.S. and Mexican officials to act quickly to prevent the harmful consequences the boom in power plant development south of the border poses to the region.

In a letter sent yesterday, the Border Power Plant Working Group requested the issue be addressed at the binational summit President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox plan for Sept. 4-5 in Washington, D.C.

It seeks an agreement on limits to air pollution and water use for new power plants in the border region.

"We have a pretty simple agenda of what we're looking for," said Bill Powers, a San Diego energy consultant and an organizer of the effort.

The group includes about 15 leaders of environmental and health organizations, academic investigators and public officials from the border region's four states.

The letter was addressed to the U.S. and Mexican secretaries of state, energy and the environment, and the Mexican presidential commissioner of the northern border.

It asks the officials to act to ensure the region's well-being by requiring new power plants to:

•  Cause no net increase in air pollution.

 
•  Use state-of-the-art air pollution and emission control systems.

 
•  Use air cooling, instead of water cooling, systems at inland sites to prevent the depletion of regional water resources.

Copies of the letter were sent to 160 elected officials on both sides of the border, including the San Diego congressional delegation, to persuade them to influence their respective governments to take action on the proposals.

"We realized we have to jump on this now because all kinds of things are happening," Powers said.

A scarcity of energy supplies in Mexico plus opportunities to export electricity and natural gas to the United States have made the border region a top site for energy projects, from power plants to liquid natural gas terminals.

An electricity plant 15 miles south of San Diego at Rosarito Beach started operations last month and another is planned nearby. Construction is gearing up on two big plants at Mexicali. A third facility planned for the region, fired by coal rather than the natural gas at the others, is going through Mexico's permitting process.

Not far away, in San Luis Colorado, Sonora, work is starting on another huge plant. Across the border, some 16 power projects are slated for Arizona.

In San Diego, one large power plant has been approved for Otay Mesa and another is being sought for Escondido.

© Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.