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Show A-13 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, November 12-15, 2005 Pending shutdown brings gloom PHOENIX (AP) As Black Mesa Mine sends layoff notices and the Mohave Generating Station seeks workers to do mothball work, the stark reality is setting in throughout the Hopi and Navajo reservations and the Bullhead City area. The region, representing a good chunk of northern Arizona, is on the verge of a major economic hit begi lining Dec. 31, with what is expected to be at least the temporary closing of the huge power plant in Laughlin, Nev. It will mean the loss of nearly a third of the Hopi's $21.5 million operating budget and huge slashes in programs affecting the elderly and young. It will mean the loss of more than 600 jobs - some directly tied to the plant, some not - in the Bullhead City area, and the loss of about 500 jobs in the north-central Navajo region. The Mohave Generating Station provides nearly 20 percent of the electricity that Southern California Edison delivers to its customers, said Gloria Quinn, an Edison spokeswoman. The economic storm has been brewing for six years, since Southern California Edison agreed to install more than $1 billion of equipment to clean up emissions at its Mohave Generating Station by the end of this year. It was the culmination of a lawsuit that claimed the plant, which often blankets Bullhead City in soot, violated the Clean Air Act. • The anti-pollution devices the company agreed to put in take at least 11/2 years to install. Southern California Edison has done no work on them. Unless the company violates the consent decree, wins an extension or works out a compromise, Mohave will close as the rest of the world rings in the New Year. The ripple effect will be huge. Black Mesa Mine, which supplies the coal the generating station uses to make electricity, will have no reason to operate. Peabody Energy Co., which excavates and pulverizes Black Mesa Mine's coal, mixes it with water and slurries it 273 miles to Laughlin, also will shut down. Both have exclusive contracts with Mohave. The effects of a shutdown would be most profound among the Hopi. The northern Arizona tribe of CEO named about 10,0(X.) - many living in high- for next year. desert, mesa-top villages, where 'We are just now getting our they conduct ancient religious cere- youth and elderly programs going monies - has limited economic across the reservation, and this is the options since tribal members twice first thing the tribal leaders have rejected proposals to build casinos. decided to cut out of the budget," The reservation is located far she said. "This is creating unbelievfrom major transportation corridors able stress on families." and has only a limited tourist indusBut Perry Honani, leader of try centered around its finely carved Sipaulovi village on First Mesa, said kachina dolls. It also owns a few he would just as soon sec the coal businesses in Flagstaff and Sedona money go away and Hopi society and ranch land in the Winslow area. revert to its foundations before Much of the mine tax money has World War II. "We were self-supporting then, been funneled into the tribe's 12 villages to propagate the traditional and today all you hear is bickering customs and combat the rapid loss over this coal money," Honani said. of the Hopi language among young "The problem is that coal money people. But KS percent across-the- should come to the villages and not board cutbacks go into effect Jan. 1 the tribal council because it just adds to help deal with the revenue short- to all the controversies. We need fall. It's almost too much to bear for peace for our religious ceremonies." residents of Shungopavi village, After years of sending mixed where adobe homes cling to the side messages about the future of the of a mesa top 5(X) feet above the power plant, including filing a desert floor. request with the California Public When Delores Komaquaptewa, Utilities Commission last year to 77, shuffled into the community cen- begin the process of shutting down ter for the monthly meeting for the Mohave, Edison now wants to keep village on Second Mesa, her hand- the plant open. made shawl was pulled tightly "The most appropriate Mohave around her stooped shoulders and scenario is the continued operations her ire was up. She slumped into her scenario," wrote Russell G. Wordan.seat as she listened to the big item Edison's manager for regulatory on the agenda: why the budget was policy and affairs, in a filing with the cut frorrT$30.(MH) last year to $20,000 commission last month. this year to Sfi.OOO next year for the Worden wrote that sharp price Shungopavi elderly center. increases in natural gas and the lack "We'll he lucky if that even pays of reliability in other electricity profor the lunches next year and forget ducers in Southern California "has about socializing with other towns." , underscored the high importance and value of Mohave to fuel diversiKomaquaptewa said. Carrie Watahomigie. a Hopi trib- ty" al member, said that each village In recent testimony before the should be asking for "1<S percent commission, however. Edison offimore" from the tribal government cial Harold Ray said that there are rather than accepting the cutbacks no plans to keep the plant open in violation of the consent decree. Miners at Black Mesa also have begun receiving layoff notices effective Dec. 15. Beth Sutton, a spokeswoman for Peabody Energy, said all the company's employees received the notices, along with tribal leaders, and "we arc transitioning into at least a temporary closure of the mine at the end of December." Even if Southern California Edison pushes to keep the plant open or to reopen after a temporary closure, another problem could force Mohave out of business. For years, water has been pumped from an aquifer beneath the Hopi and Navajo reservations to move coal to Mohave. But that has been criticized as causing the drying up of Hopi springs. It will cease by the end of the year, along with the lease for the Black Mesa mine. A proposal is being examined to build a water pipeline 120 miles across the Navajo and Hopi reservations from pumps between Flagstaff and Winslow. But Navajo and Hopi officials have had snags in negotiations during the last month on the route of the pipeline, and intense negotiations continue concerning the price paid for the coal. Ultimately, environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Trust hold the future of the plant in their hands. They say that unless there is an ironclad agreement to install the anti-pollution equipment, there will be no deal. "The only thing satisfactory is for them to install the scrubbers. That has to be a concrete proposal," said Richard Mayol, a spokesman for Grand Canyon Trust in Flagstaff. 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