A deputy secretary for the Department of the Interior says emissions from the proposed coal-fired power plant at Gascoyne would impair visibility six days a year at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

David Verhey, deputy Interior secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Westmoreland, the company proposing to build twin 250-megwatt units in Bowman County, should consider a different, cleaner kind of plant to construct within the pristine Class I airflow stream of a national park.

In comments to the North Dakota State Health Department last week, Verhey said visibility would be impacted up to 19 days over a three-year period, based on computer and weather models.

The State Health Department was also chided for failing to provide the Interior with timely information about Westmoreland's air quality application before publishing an official notice in June that it would take public comments on a draft air quality permit.

The health department plans to make a final decision later this summer.

North Dakota air quality chief Terry O'Clair said the draft finds an air quality permit could be issued for the Gascoyne project, which will be located about 60 miles southeast of the national park.

Westmoreland plans to build pollution control equipment that would remove 98 percent of emissions, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.

Even though the Interior's comments came in after an extended deadline for public comments, O'Clair said the state will take a serious look at them before going further.

He said he was encouraged by Verhey's statement that the parties should work together to reach consensus.

O'Clair said switching plant design to one that gasifies coal before using the liquid as a boiler fuel, as the Interior department suggests, is not a practical solution.

Instead, he said the company is looking at installing a coal-drying system like one developed at Great River Energy's Coal Creek Station.

Great River found that drying coal first to remove water means the plant burns less coal to achieve the same megawatts and thus emits less pollution at the same time.

That technology could be enough to bridge the Interior Department's objections to the plant and North Dakota's intentions to issue an air quality permit.

Westmoreland's spokesman was not available for comment.

Westmoreland and Montana-Dakota Utilities were in together on a smaller 175-unit project at Gascoyne; an air quality permit issued for that project will expire in August.

MDU pulled out of the 175-unit project, and now Westmoreland is pursuing the larger project at the same Gascoyne location.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)