September 29, 2022

San Juan Generating Station Closing Friday

Host lede: New Mexico’s San Juan Generating Station between Farmington and Shiprock is closing on September 30. The phased shutdown has been in the works for years.

By Kate Redmond

The San Juan Generating Station has been operating for nearly 50 years. But for more than a decade, the plant’s emissions have been the subject of legal challenges, and studies on the cost of those emissions to human health.

According to one environmental group, the power plant was the largest single source of pollution in the United States. In 2011 the EPA ordered PNM, the utility operating San Juan Generating Station, to install pollution controls. Rising costs in operating the facility forced PNM to shut down half the plant's power generating capacity in 2013.

Then in 2020 PNM announced it would shut down the plant entirely. With the closure of the final generator on Friday, PNM will let go half of their 100-person workforce. The other half will remain through mid-October for safe shutdown of the last unit.

For KSUT I’m Kate Redmond

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