On August 24, 2024 the 400-foot stacks at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in Waterflow, New Mexico were demolished, bringing permanent closure to a facility notorious for being part of the largest single point source of pollution in the United States (along with Four Corners Power Plant, across the San Juan River), according to a study published by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Department of Energy in May 2014.
San Juan Citizens Alliance has a significant 20-year history working on coal fired power plants and coal mines in the Four Corners Region. San Juan Citizens Alliance confronted new proposed coal plants that were proposed for the region from 2003-2010 (including defeating Desert Rock, which would have been the third large coal plant in Northwest New Mexico) and then turned our attention to existing aged coal plants (50-60 years old) that emitted high amounts of pollution and contributed to degraded public health in impacted communities. In full operation, San Juan Generating Station emitted more than 12 million tons a year of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. San Juan Citizens Alliance began work specifically on SJGS in response to the Clean Air Act Regional Haze Program where high emissions of Nitrogen Oxides were contributing to the constant brown cloud in the region. San Juan Generating Station was a classic example of energy export (including California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado) where communities afar benefitted from lower cost electricity by not having to account for environmental externalities, including pollution. Clean Air Act Regional Haze Program Implementation Plans required action to reduce emissions at San Juan Generating Station and resulted in two units of four units being retired in 2017. The plan circa 2017 was for the facilities to be in operation through 2053 but economics shifted downward rapidly and the majority of utilities who owned SJGS decided to pursue retirement in 2022.
Four Corners organizations San Juan Citizens Alliance, Diné C.A.R.E. and Tó Nizhóní Ání recognized the diminishing plight of San Juan Generating Station and intervened in Abandonment proceedings with legal representation from Western Environmental Law Center before the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission on the 2019 Energy Transition Act. It was in these proceedings that transition to replacement renewable energy in the Four Corners was advocated for, providing property taxes, money to local school districts and job replacement opportunities for impacted coal workers. At the same time, speculative attempts by City of Farmington and hedge fund energy novices Acme Equities (changed their name to Enchant Energy) to assume ownership at San Juan Generating Station and incorporate carbon capture/sequestration (CCS) failed entirely from 2019-2022 and diverted attention from the region in addressing the coal plant closure finality and opportunities for investment in sustainable energy. The folly of CCS at San Juan Generating Station is over.
San Juan Citizens Alliance was integral in securing the fully constructed 300 MW San Juan Solar Project, northeast of the now demolished San Juan Generating Station. This project represented a $500 million investment in the community and is the first of numerous renewable energy projects that can utilize transmission and utility infrastructure and provide a vision for brownfield reclamation of former coal mine sites. Closure of San Juan Generating Station has resulted in reduced pollution, less climate change inducing impacts, reduced public health impacts, and created economic transition opportunities to embrace the benefits of a cleaner environment. It is critical that work be done now to plan for full remediation and reclamation of the San Juan Generating Station coal plant site and mine. San Juan Citizens Alliance will continue the journey to economic diversification and energy transition for the Four Corners Region with the expectation that Four Corners Power Plant will become a focal point with possible retirement in 2031.
Here are some statements from groups in Four Corners:
“Indigenous advocates have long brought attention to the many adverse public health, land, and water quality impacts resulting from the operations at SJGS and Four Corners Power Plant (“FCPP”), pointing out the environmental injustice that Indigenous and local communities were saddled with in living so close to two coal mines and plants”, said Robyn Jackson, executive director of Diné C.A.R.E. “We can remember the terrible air quality that both plants produced in our region. It therefore came as no surprise that health disparities existed among our population, compared to the rest of the U.S. general population when it came to childhood asthma, as well as other illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Our tribal-led organization recognizes that it is necessary and inevitable that our local economy be rebuilt around development that is renewable, sustainable, and regenerative. The health of our communities, economy and climate will require a transition away from fossil fuels if we are to survive and succeed.”
“We are hopeful that after the demolition of San Juan Generating Station, the Four Corners area and its communities will no longer have to sacrifice our health and safety for fossil fuels,” said Rose Rushing, attorney at Western Environmental Law Center. “There is work to be done to ensure that the region can transition to a sustainable, diversified economy, starting with fulfilling the commitments of the Energy Transition Act. We look forward to working with community groups in the next year to make sure our community receives the full benefits the Energy Transition Act promises.”
“The closure and demolition of PNM’s San Juan Generating Station marks yet another milestone, a step in the right direction away from fossil fuels and a step toward what we hope will be a just and equitable transition to more fossil-free energies such as wind, solar, and other sustainable, renewable, and real solutions that will truly combat climate change, said Eleanor Smith, Community Organizer of the Diné grassroots community organization Tó Nizhóní Ání. “Our hope is also that false solutions such as blue hydrogen and carbon capture sequestration are not sought nor implemented. The Navajo Nation and the Four Corners area have long histories of environmental injustices that continue to contribute to the climate chaos we are in. Now is the time for us, the impacted people who live and work in the Four Corners area, to plan and write the narrative of our fossil-free energy future, rather than the historical dictation by industry, energy companies, or others. We must say K’adí (stop) the harm to Nihimá Nahasdzáán, our Mother Earth, which includes us all.”
“I’ve lived in Farmington for 26 years, and it wasn’t until 2022 when the plant finally shut down that the brown haze lifted and we could see to the horizon,” said Mike Eisenfeld, the climate and energy program director for San Juan Citizens Alliance. “It’s always difficult to close one chapter and begin a new one, but knowing that children can breathe air that isn’t as polluted and being able to see this region for its beauty, which has been cloaked in smog for 50 years, is a good thing. There is huge potential for clean energy development and for diversifying our economy beyond just energy, and the demolition of these smokestacks is important symbolically for turning that page.”
