Environmental meetings to examine mine, power plant

A series of public meetings to examine the environmental impact of Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo Mine kicks off Thursday with a meeting in Hotevilla, Ariz. The meetings will come to Farmington, Shiprock, Durango, Colo., and other areas next week. Operators of the coal mine and power plant propose to extend the life of the operation by 25 years from agreements that end in 2016, triggering an environmental impact statement. The EIS is an in-depth study on the mine and power plant's effects on air and water quality and cultural resources that may take years. It is the first time federal agencies have considered the combined effects of the mine and power plant, which reside on the edge of the Navajo Nation west of Farmington. Environmental groups long have sought such a study. "Navajo Mine and Four Corners Power Plant have never really been analyzed as far as the impacts of that coal facility," said Dan Randolph, executive director of San Juan Citizens Alliance, an environmental group based in Durango. "We really see the mine and the power plant as functionally one unit." Four Corners Power Plant is seeking approval from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs of its lease extension with the tribal government, while Navajo Mine requires permission from the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement to expand into previously unmined areas...more