Olene Walker fighting against power plant

John Hollenhorst reportingSouthern Utah school kids have mailed a box full of valentines to Governor Jon Huntsman, but it's not love they're after. They want political action against a proposed power plant.

The students, along with Springdale Mayor Pat Cluff, took their Valentine's Day sentiments to the Post Office in Zion Canyon. Their valentines are aimed at the governors of Utah and Nevada.

The kids are hoping to stop the Toquop Power Plant, a coal-burning facility proposed about 10 miles from Mesquite, Nevada. The students say it will foul the air in southwestern Utah.

Zoe Gregoric, from Zion Canyon Middle School, said, "Our air is just getting dirtier and dirtier. Why encourage more of it? Just, you know, back down and let it go."

Mirinda Whitaker, from Zion Canyon Middle School, said, "I know plenty of people with breathing problems already, and I don't want, they shouldn't get any worse."

Those kids are getting help in their battle from a once-powerful politician, a popular former governor who's become an environmental crusader because of a very serious disease.

Many Utahns fondly remember Olene Walker from her one-year stint as Governor. What most of us didn't know at the time is that she was suffering from a life-threatening lung condition. What she's fighting for now is clean air to breathe.

It's not golf that caused Olene Walker to move to St. George, and it's not the sun and scenery, although she does love it. She retired there mainly because of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

"That's a lung disease. Right now I have about 50 percent of the lung capacity that I should have," Walker explained.

She first noticed the shortness of breath around the time of the Olympics in 2002.

"The average lifespan after the first diagnosis was only three years," Walker said. She beat those odds and then some. But six years later, golfing with her daughter and grandchildren, she values every breath.

"When you are losing lung cells that cease to function, you don't want to take chances with the extreme pollutants that are in the air," she said. That's why she's fighting a coal-burning power plant, proposed just across the state line near Mesquite, Nevada.

Walker says, "Quite obviously we've got to look at cleaner power-producing plants."

James Owens of Mesquite strongly supports the plant, for two reasons. He says, "Need the electricity, need the jobs."

Adding fuel to the controversy is the fact that a total of three big power plants are planned, stretching north along the Utah-Nevada border. Proponents claim the plants will be 80 percent cleaner than older designs.

"But still, 20 percent is unacceptable when you have viable options," Walker said. She says we should make the electricity by burning natural gas instead of coal. The original plan did call for natural gas.

Owens said, "They just backed out simply because it wasn't feasible."

The former governor argues that it's worth spending more for a natural gas plant if it means a cleaner environment. "Because our future and the future of our children is dependent on that environment," she said.

If you're wondering about the former governor's current state of health, she says her condition has stabilized now, but the damage to her lungs is permanent.

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