{"id":16243,"date":"2025-10-06T20:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T02:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-officials-to-hold-update-on-san-juan-generating-station-cleanup\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:55:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:55:59","slug":"new-mexico-officials-to-hold-update-on-san-juan-generating-station-cleanup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-officials-to-hold-update-on-san-juan-generating-station-cleanup\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico officials to hold update on San Juan generating station cleanup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The demolition of the smokestacks at the San Juan Generating Station as seen from the sky on Aug. 24, 2024. While the former site for the coal-fired power plant is nearly 90% demolished, environmental officials will host a meeting on Tuesday about the potential pollution from the decades the site was in operation. Courtesy Benjamin Hunter for EcoFlight<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In the past year, state environment officials have increased the testing of the soil and water around the site of a decommissioned coal-fired electric power plant in New Mexico\u2019s northwestern corner.<\/p>\n

In July, environmental regulators told state lawmakers they\u2019ve been trying to track historic spills from leaking ponds, coal ash disposal and other pollutants, and had installed more monitoring wells.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to understand the scope,\u201d NMED Deputy Cabinet Secretary John Rhoderick told legislators during a presentation to the Radioactive & Hazardous Materials Committee. \u201cContamination is three-dimensional, you\u2019ve got to know how long, how wide and how deep it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Tuesday, state officials are planning to present some of those findings, including more information about potential pollution from decades of coal waste disposal.<\/p>\n

The San Juan Generating Station operated for nearly 50 years, fed by two nearby coal mines, including the La Plata mine and the San Juan Mine. The power plant, along with the neighboring Four Corners Generating Station, in 2014 were considered one of the largest single sources of pollution in the U.S. The San Juan Generating Station permanently closed in 2022 and has been under demolition since August 2024.<\/p>\n

In 2023, lawmakers passed House Bill 142, which directed the New Mexico Environment and Energy Minerals and Natural Resources departments to monitor and enforce cleanup of the area for at least two years. NMED is in charge of the station site, while EMNRD is tasked with the mining area cleanup.<\/p>\n

While there is no agenda or preview released, a news release said the environment department will present data collected during its recent groundwater investigation \u2013 which will inform future remediation \u2013 during a hybrid open house on Tuesday in Fruitland.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the Environment Department\u2019s top priorities is making sure New Mexicans are informed of the work we\u2019re doing in their backyard,\u201d said Justin Ball, NMED\u2019s Groundwater Quality Bureau chief in a statement to Source NM. That\u2019s why we\u2019re holding this meeting \u2013 to show the public the same data we\u2019re using to make key cleanup decisions at the San Juan Generating Station site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous operators have owned the station throughout its life span, but it was last owned by New Mexico\u2019s largest electricity provider, Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM).<\/p>\n

In a July letter, environment officials requested PNM officials produce a plan to reduce pollution, writing that multiple potential sources of groundwater and soil contamination already existed in quantities violating state laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnown contaminants of concern, based on historic monitoring, include nitrate, sulfate, arsenic, selenium, uranium, boron, and volatile organic compounds,\u201d the letter stated. The letter required the plan to be produced to environment officials by the end of September.<\/p>\n

PNM requested an extension, NMED spokesperson Drew Goretzka told Source via text message, and the plan will now be due to state officials on Nov. 26.<\/p>\n

The public will \u201chopefully\u201d hear more about the exact nature of any contamination and further cleanup plans at the meeting, said Mike Eisenfeld, energy and climate program manager with local environment group San Juan Citizens Alliance.<\/p>\n

Area conservation groups had previously focused on reducing the annual emissions of 12 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, he said, but the concern has shifted to soil and water cleanup. Eisenfeld said he wants to avoid a \u201cculture of abandonment\u201d for the generating station, and pointed to taxpayers being on the hook for cleaning up private uranium and oil and gas operations.<\/p>\n

Any information about the status of groundwater pollution, and how the state will require cleanup will be useful, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state agencies have tried to be responsive,\u201d Eisenfeld told Source NM Monday. \u201cBut it\u2019s really difficult when you\u2019re just a citizen just trying to sort out who\u2019s responsible for legacy cleanup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source NM is an independent, nonprofit news organization that shines a light on governments, policies and public officials.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

pollution cleanup plan delayed until November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1424,1030,28,138,29,234],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coal","tag-environment","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter","tag-pollution"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20092,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243\/revisions\/20092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16243"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}