EPA says Kansas officials misled court on coal plant

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Karen Dillon | The Kansas City Star

The fight over whether to build a coal-fired power plant in western Kansas has taken another strange twist: The Environmental Protection Agency has accused a state agency of telling tall tales to Kansas Supreme Court. The Sunflower coal-fired power plant is now before the court. The state of Kansas maintains the pollution levels it allowed in a permit to build the plant are safe for human health. The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit saying they’re not. The Environmental Protection Agency also told the state over the past two years that the pollution levels would not be safe. But in their written arguments last month to the Supreme Court, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) attorneys wrote: "EPA has no substantial objection to the issuance of the construction permit.”

A letter to KDHE from Karl Brooks, EPA Region 7 administrator, said that “Kansas incorrectly informed the court” that EPA did not object to the permit

Read the full story at kansascity.com.

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