The station officially shut down in November of once its remaining supply of coal had burned. Critics of the facility point to its environmental costs as problematic — at one point it released more greenhouse gases at an hourly rate than almost any other facility in the US — and argued it polluted land and water used by Navajo ranchers and farmers.
In a statement Friday, members from organizations representing the Navajo and Hopi tribes welcomed the razing, while acknowledging that the plant brought some financial benefits to their communities.
Yesterday the NavajoGeneratingStation was demolished. This was just 1 step in our decades-long work to secure a just, equitable energy transition for FourCorners communities. We're excited for the road ahead. Thanks to EcoFlight1 for the incredible video pic. In particular, Horseherder argued that the economic benefits were outweighed by coal miners suffering respiratory ailments and the land being contaminated by polluted water.
The statement also said that many Navajo and Hopi had not been able to partake of the electricity and water the plant produced — that most of it went to nearby Phoenix, Arizona.
But now that the station has been demolished, some Navajo and Hopi members have high hopes for a strong future without the coal plant. There is also chemical cleanup to do — toxic compounds like coal ash need to be removed. The coal mine in Kayenta had one customer, the Navajo Generating Station, and when the power plant closed last year, it meant the end of the mine, too.
While work to disassemble the complex proceeds, environmental groups in the region are pushing to take steps away from its history altogether. A coalition of Navajo environmental groups this fall announced the NavajoEquitableEconomy initiative laying out plans and policies to move the Navajo Nation away from coal and towards more renewable sources of energy.
Nicole Horseherder is a board member with one of those groups, To Nizhoni Ani, which has partnered with Oakland-based nonprofit Native Renewables to train members of the Navajo Nation for jobs in solar installation. In December, the partnership graduated 10 students from a weeks-long solar workforce training program. In that same month, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority opened a second solar facility in Kayenta with the help of SRP, which said the tribe can now generate enough solar power to serve 36, homes.
The nation and SRP continue to discuss possible future projects, a company spokesman said in an email. Ryan is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a frequent contributor to NPR. See stories by Ryan Heinsius. Related Content. A Navajo Nation company says it will retain 1, employees at three coal mines in Wyoming and Montana that it bought through a bankruptcy auction.
Associated Press. The mine supplying the plant closed in August after sending the final shipment of coal to the plant via an electric railroad that stretched 78 miles between the two locations. Since then, the plant had burned down its coal stockpile, which covered more area than a Walmart superstore and parking lot.
The last bit of usable coal burned Monday and the power plant, which could produce 2, megawatts of power at full capacity, sent its last electrons down the transmission lines to Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas at about p.
Now begins the work of decommissioning the power plant, which is expected to take years. For more stories that matter, subscribe to azcentral. The decision to close came after years of the utilities fighting to keep the plant running economically while remaining in compliance with air-quality regulations.
But after a deal was struck with the Environmental Protection Agency to keep the plant open at two-thirds capacity, economics prompted the closure vote. The utilities co-own the plant with the U. Bureau of Reclamation, which, along with the Navajo and Hopi tribes, tried unsuccessfully to keep the power plant and Kayenta Mine running.
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