Over a year after the Desert View Power Plant in the eastern Coachella Valley paused operations following federal reviews that found it emitted illegal levels of pollutants, the plant appears poised to shut down officially — possibly for good.
The plant’s operating permit expires at the end of September, and with days left, its owner had not applied to renew it.
Now nearby residents are demanding answers on what’s next for the site of the power plant, which had been operating in Mecca since 1992. And they’ve heard nothing new from the plant owners.
Leticia and Lupe Becerra, seen at the community center in Mecca, are among the residents who want answers on the future of the site where a power plant used to operate nearby.
“It sort of seems like they’re trying to quietly go away,” said Krystal Otworth of the group Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, which has been helping residents worried about the future of the site and the pollutants that remain there.
Desert View operated by burning agricultural waste and old pallets and other wood trash from across Southern California for conversion into a renewable source of electricity. But “renewable” didn’t mean clean: Residents have complained for years about smoke plumes from the biomass plant blowing over their homes, a school and a daycare center near the facility.
In 2019, The Desert Sun found the plant was the largest single emitter of smog-causing pollutants in the valley — producing nine times as much as the second largest source, a gas-fired power plant west of Desert Hot Springs.
Greenleaf Power, which bought the plant in 2011, announced a pause in Desert View Power’s operations in spring 2024, after prior Environmental Protection Agency reviews found the plant had repeatedly emitted illegally high levels of mercury and other dangerous pollutants in the eastern Coachella Valley.
The plant remains under an EPA investigation that will lead to findings on the alleged violations. EPA spokesperson Julia Giarmoleo told The Desert Sun in late September that the agency “does not comment on ongoing enforcement matters.”
Desert View Power plant, seen sitting idle in Mecca on Sept. 25, 2025.
Meanwhile, the plant’s Title V operating permit was slated to expire Tuesday, Sept. 30, Giarmoleo said, and the EPA had not received a renewal application.
It’s unclear precisely what will happen next with the plant, as a Greenleaf Power representative told The Desert Sun: “We do not have a new update; however, we continue to communicate with the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians.” (The plant sits on the Cabazon Band’s tribal land.)
‘We want to be able to stay in our homes’
Last year, when the plant’s operations were paused, Greenleaf CEO and President Greg Cook said it would idle “while we pursue a long-term solution.” The pause in operations came after the plant lost its main customer, Imperial Irrigation District.
At the very least, the plant would have to undergo the entire Title V application process to be able to legally operate again, said Otworth, a senior policy advocate with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.
Otworth said the Mecca community hasn’t heard any news from the plant in over a year, and they’re concerned over how the plant would be decommissioned or how any potential pollution would be handled.
Leticia Becerra, who’s lived in Mecca with her husband Lupe for decades, has been among several residents pushing for answers on what’s coming next at the plant.
Leticia Becerra talks about how pollution from the power plant has affected air quality in her community. Some residents suspect it has contributed to health issues, such as childhood asthma.
“We all want the same thing,” Becerra said. “We want to be able to stay in our homes and have clean air, be able to bring my kids, my grandkids and not be afraid that, ‘Oh, the air is gonna contaminate their lungs.’”
“We want a safe environment, because this is where we’re going to grow old,” she added. “I’m getting ready to retire in two years.”
The Becerra couple, who are part of an advocacy group called Coachella Valley United for a Better Environment, were particularly concerned about potential contamination left from ash piles near the plant, as well as possible effects on the community’s groundwater.
Leticia’s husband, Lupe, who briefly worked at the plant about 25 years ago, said he’s noticed cleaner air in Mecca since the plant closed last spring, and he now wants to see the facility close for good.
“We’ve been witnesses to how bad that power plant pollutes our air here, our community, our environment, so we’re pretty concerned about that, you know, especially for our kids or grandkids,” Lupe said.
“If the plant really is going to stop operating, (our) concern is who’s gonna clean that land now? We just want to be sure that whatever is there, it’s not harmful for our community here, for our health,” he added.
Lupe Becerra, who worked at the Desert View Power Plant in its early days, said he now wants it closed for good and the site cleaned of pollutants.
Mecca residents pushing for answers, solutions
The Becerra couple, who’ve lived in the area for decades, recalled the plant’s opening in the early 1990s, when Leticia said she was on Mecca’s community council.
“When that plant opened, we would hear, ‘Oh, there’s gonna be more jobs for people here, and it’s going to give the community an opportunity to grow, because they are going to be investing money here,’” Leticia said. “It all sounded good, but we never really saw the big picture.”
Leticia said the plant ultimately produced few jobs for local residents, because it primarily needed a workforce of engineers that Mecca lacked.
The couple said they know several residents who have asthma and other respiratory issues, including their neighbor and one of their own children who dealt with asthma symptoms as a baby. When they’ve done community outreach, Leticia said some residents with respiratory issues were completely unaware of the plant nearby.
Through that door-to-door outreach, their advocacy group has drawn roughly 450 signatures on a petition calling for the plant’s permanent closure.
The site of the now-idle Desert View Power Plant is seen in the distance beyond the central part of Mecca.
However, while the EPA held community meetings in Mecca in 2023 and 2024, community advocates say there’ve been no meetings this year, and they’ve heard little from the agency.
Giarmoleo, the EPA spokesperson, told The Desert Sun: “While we don’t currently have a community meeting scheduled, we understand the importance of keeping residents informed.” She referred to the EPA’s webpage on the power plant for any future updates. The newest document on the page as of Friday, Sept. 26, was the notes from a May 2024 community meeting.
Regarding next steps, Otworth with the Leadership Counsel said the community wants to see all hazardous materials securely removed from the site. Looking further ahead, she said residents want to see site testing, “because the truth of the matter is Desert Power has been there for decades.”
“I don’t think we fully know or understand if there has been soil contamination and what that looks like, and so site testing would sort of come next,” Otworth said. “Then, I think we’d want to see remediation of the site depending on what the test results show.”
Residents have also discussed some solutions that could be applied more immediately, such as giving more air filters to community members and planting more trees in areas closer to the plant, including Mecca Elementary School.
Otworth noted any community discussions of the plant’s future will likely involve the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians. (A Cabazon Band tribal representative did not respond to a request for comment.)
While the plant’s permit expiring has prompted questions from the community, Otworth said she doesn’t want to lose sight of the ongoing EPA investigation and any potential effects of its conclusion.
“I think what happens is that people hear like, ‘Oh, the plant’s shutting down,’ and then it’s no longer on people’s minds,” Otworth said. “It sort of feels like an ending, but it’s really not. It’s hopefully the beginning of renewal.”
Leticia similarly doesn’t want to lose focus on what’s coming next for the plant.
“Even if it’s a year or two years, but give us a time frame,” Leticia said. “Maybe we’re going to see the EPA again. … The only people that really care what happens, it’s going to be the community.”
Tom Coulter covers local government for The Desert Sun. Reach him at tcoulter@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Polluting power plant may close for good in east Coachella Valley