At 8:30am on Friday morning, December 18, 2020, explosions rocked the base of the first of the three massive smokestacks that have dominated the horizon on the western edge of the Navajo Nation for a half century. In slow motion, the towering stack came crashing down in a thundering cloud of dust, followed in succession by the other two as part of Salt River Project’s demolition of the largest coal-burning power plant in the West.
The demolition of the three 775-foot-tall smokestacks at Navajo Generating Station (NGS) is hugely symbolic. It marks the close of a painful chapter for thousands of Navajo and Hopi whose lives and families have been impacted by coal. Until it closed last November, the 2,400 MW power plant generated electricity for Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other cities, insultingly bypassing Navajo and Hopi homes and businesses. The plant also pumped the massive amounts of water that has allowed Phoenix to grow into the fifth largest city in America, all while thousands of Navajo and Hopi homes lack access to running water.
“The demolition of the smokestacks at NGS is a solemn event,” said Nicole Horseherder, executive director of the Navajo grassroots group Tó Nizhóní Ání, which has worked for 20 years to move the Navajo Nation past coal. “It’s a reminder of decades of exploitation subsidized by cheap coal and water from the Navajo and Hopi. Coal provided jobs and revenue to the Navajo Nation, but Navajo ranchers and farmers, who depended on the land that was mined and the water that fed the mine and power plant, shouldered the cost. While miners were provided safety gear as they worked, hundreds more living near the coal industrial complex had to endure asthma and other health issues without any recourse.
“That chapter is now closed,” Horseherder continued. “But the work is far from over. We have to make sure Kayenta Mine is cleaned up. We have to secure water and electricity for many communities that lack access to both. We have to replace the millions of dollars in lost coal revenue from the abrupt closure of the plant and coal mine. And we have to make sure investment flows back into building a more sustainable economy for the Navajo and Hopi.”
“So far, the federal government has failed to meet even its most basic trust responsibilities to the Navajo and Hopi,” said Ben Nuvamsa, a former chairman of the Hopi Tribe. “The massive coal pits and piles that stretch across thousands of acres at Kayenta Mine remain as they were when the mine closed more than a year ago. Billions of gallons of pristine water were pumped from the Navajo Aquifer and I’m not sure if it will recharge in our lifetime. There must be accountability for cleaning up this mess, for restoring vital groundwater that was taken from us and for returning the countless artifacts and burial sites that were removed for the mine.”
The demolition is a potent symbol of how dramatically the energy landscape has shifted in a few short years. Several months prior to announcing in February 2017 that they would close NGS by the end of 2019, its utility owners were in federal court arguing for the right to run the plant into the 2040s. Fast-forward just three years and Arizona’s two biggest utilities — Arizona Public Service and Tucson Electric Power — have not only walked away from NGS but also committed to completely abandoning all of their coal assets and striving toward 100% carbon-free electricity. On top of that, the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates the utilities, also has established a 100% carbon-free goal by 2050.
For the Navajo and Hopi who live in the shadow of NGS, and the now-closed coal mine that fed it, this will not be a time for celebration, however. The demolition is the close of a painful, decades-long chapter for thousands of Navajo and Hopi whose lives and families have been impacted by coal. For them, the demolition is a time to recognize the ongoing harm that NGS and Kayenta Mine have caused, and more importantly the opening of new chapter for correcting a lifetime of wrongs through things like mine reclamation, securing water and electricity for many communities that lack access to both, replacing millions of dollars in lost coal revenue, investing in a more sustainable economy for both tribes, and the repatriation of countless cultural artifacts and disturbed burial sites that were removed in the name of generating electricity from coal.
“We’re hopeful that this marks the continuation of our transformation into a sustainable economy that is built on fundamental Navajo and Hopi respect for air, land and water and that will have direct, measurable benefits for our communities, not exploit them,” said Carol Davis, executive director of the Navajo grassroots group Diné CARE. “We hope the incoming Biden Administration follows through on commitments it has made to Native American tribes and assists us in addressing the many problems left behind by 50 years of over-dependence on coal.”