MORAN - Wyoming's energy industries must remain vigilant to keep dust and air emissions in check, or face federal corrective actions that would seriously jeopardize the state's ambitions to expand energy development, an expert said Friday.

"Power plants, coal-to-liquids, coal gasification, any coal benefaction - we're looking at a total moratorium. This is where we don't want to go," said Bill Monnett, an air quality consultant with McVehl-Monnett Associates Inc. of Englewood, Colo.

Monnett spoke at the Wyoming Mining Association's annual convention at Jackson Lake Lodge. He said the mineral extraction industries are easy targets when too much pollution is detected in the air, though vehicle traffic and railroads are also major contributors to cumulative air quality problems.

Monnett said given the level of energy development that occurs in Wyoming, the state's industries are among the most vigilant when it comes to controlling emissions. Yet areas such as the Powder River Basin in the northeast and Sweetwater County in the southwest have come dangerously close to triggering a federal "non-attainment" designation that would put the brakes on all new industrial growth.

For example, in 2001 a few high dust events in the prolific southern portion of the Powder River Basin coal fields were recorded as "exceedences" of particulate matter standards. A non-attainment designation was avoided because of an exemption that discounts periods of high winds.

Monnett said the mining industry simply cannot expect to rely on that exemption forever. He said an over-reliance on the exemption would be "a serious mistake."

The 2001 dust problems in the Powder River Basin prompted coal mines and coal-bed methane companies to team up with local counties and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to form a "Dust Mitigation Coalition." Through operational changes, chemical applications to dirt roads and slower speed limits, the coalition's efforts have kept the region's air quality problems in check.

Monnett said that success is a testament to the coalition's work, and the industry has expanded development at the same time.

"The problem just hasn't completely gone away," Monnett said.

He said that in the past, the mining industry has had a good working relationship with DEQ's air quality division to keep the federal Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory hammer at bay.

"They (DEQ) have been problem-solvers for us," Monnett said. "I can't say the same thing about any other state we've dealt with."

Now some longtime professionals in the division have left. David Finley replaced Dan Olson as administrator of the air quality division.

Finley previously worked in DEQ's waste management division, and he admits he's got some research to do. But he said he intends to maintain a good relationship with the industry.

"I hope it will continue," Finley said in a Friday interview. "That doesn't mean we don't enforce the rules."

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 682-3388 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net.