The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has denied Missouri-based LS Power and subsidiary Elk Run Energy their construction permit for a coal plant in Waterloo Thursday because of “failure to meet an administrative requirement.”

Air Quality Bureau Chief Catharine Fitzsimmons told the Iowa Independent that her office “turned the application back to the applicant because they hadn’t met our requirement to have the full ability to put the power plant on that property.”

She said the department refers to the local county zoning rules, and even if the agricultural land was rezoned for industrial use, it still would have to be consistent with county zoning use.

In a press release Thursday, Fitzsimmons said, “Elk Run and LS Power can submit another construction permit application after revisions are made to meet the objections specified in the application denial. At that time it will be treated as a new project.”Fitzsimmons also said the same property has been permitted before for different uses. “Until they clearly have an ability to actually construct the power plant at the site we don’t think its appropriate for us to accept the application or begin processing this.”

The permit rejection comes less than a month after a federal court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must clean up coal-burning plants to reduce mercury.

From SustainableBusiness.com News:

The ruling is another significant setback for utility companies that rely heavily on coal-fired power plants that will now have to install expensive mercury-reduction equipment to begin cleaning up the 48 tons of mercury they release into the air each year.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in 2005 when it exempted coal plants from the strictest emission controls for mercury, as well as other toxic substances like nickel, lead and arsenic.

The mercury cap-and-trade program the EPA created for utilities, called the “Clean Air Mercury Rule,” was deemed illegal by the court, even thought its aim was to reduce nationwide mercury emissions 70% by 2018.