On July 16, 2024, San Juan Citizens Alliance (SJCA) participated in flights over the Four Corners Region through Ecoflight, continuing a 15-year partnership documenting energy transition and economic diversification through aerial vantage points.
The San Juan Generating Station and Four Corners Power Plant were at one time the largest single point source of pollution in the United States (Study published May 2014 in Proceedings of the National Academy for Sciences by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Department of Energy, “Multiscale observations of CO2, CO and pollutants at Four Corners for emission verification and attribution”[1]). The study in 2014 concluded that 75 percent of the atmosphere (~10 km) in the region was polluted. Circa 2014, the most prominent geological feature in the Four Corners area, Shiprock, was shrouded in pollution. From 2014 on, SJCA has focused on reducing emissions/pollution from San Juan Generating Station and Four Corners Power Plant, which led to interim unit closures at both facilities and the recent permanent retirement of San Juan Generating Station in 2022.
In 2019, SJCA and allies intervened in regulatory proceedings to ensure that replacement resources for closure of San Juan Generating Station were located in the county where the coal plant closed, provided local jobs, and replaced property taxes and local school district funding. One of the replacement projects, the 300 MW San Juan Solar project located northeast of San Juan Generating Station, represents a $500 million investment in our community and is now fully operational/commissioned producing clean energy. Attempts by the City of Farmington and hedge funders to keep San Juan Generating Station open post 2022 with a carbon capture/sequestration scheme failed entirely.
San Juan Generating Station is expected to be completely demolished in August of 2024. Our flights on July 16, 2024 with Ecoflight document what has transpired on the ground where there are new opportunities for San Juan River water, investment in renewable energy and brownfield development on reclaimed coal mines. Thanks to Ecoflight for the opportunity to see this landscape from a unique perspective.
[1] Lindenmaier, Rodica, Manvendra K. Dubey, Bradley G. Henderson, Zachery T. Butterfield, Jay R. Herman, Thom Rhan, and Sang-Hyun Lee. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1321883111 “Multiscale observations of CO2, CO and pollutants at Four Corners for emission verification and attribution,” Earth and Environmental Sciences and Space and Remote Sensing, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545; and Goddard Space Flight Center, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, Greenbelt, MD 20771.
