Generating station agreement could be reached in February
Laughlin Nevada Times
Nov. 3, 2004 By JIM MANIACI Special to News West WINDOW ROCK, Ariz.
By mid-February, an agreement might be reached to keep the Mohave Generating Station and the Black Mesa Mine open. The accord would be the next step after the principal parties reached an agreement late last month on issues - which are being kept secret -to save the mine and the generating station, located in Laughlin.
After the station's operator, Southern California Edison, pulled the financial plug on a key study needed to obtain a new water supply in the southwest corner of the Navajo reservation, a high-ranking official with the U.S. Department of the Interior assembled the principal parties last month in Washington, D.C., during the dedication of the National Museum of American Indians. Principals include Edison, the Interior Department, the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation.
Peabody Energy, which operates the mine located on both reservations, is not a principal, although it has a lot at stake. Peabody strongly supports the mediation. As a result, J. Steven Griles told The Associated Press Edison agreed to pay the bill for the water study, a cost of about $2 million. However, the utility wanted to pay for the drilling on the basis that terms for potential water use could be reached.
Navajo Nation Attorney General Louis Denetsosie said the principals will have four months to come to a far-reaching historic agreement once the mediation begins. Eric Van Loon has been selected as mediator, Denetsosie said. "It's an effort to try an reach consensus on how to keep the power plant going and how to keep the mine open. But, as in all negotiations, it may fail, " he said, since " ... there are a lot of tough negotiating positions out there."
Denetsosie said it would take about six weeks to get the hydrology report once the test wells are drilled. "It's to get a notion of what the aquifer can handle, for an extended period of time," he said. That data will be converted into computer models to determine the impact of the wells at a distance, the impact on endangered species and to check on the geology of the basin, Denetsosie said. Edison will pay for this part.
The utility and the Hopi tribe did not immediately return telephone calls to add their comments. Griles' office referred to an Associated Press interview he gave Sept. 17, saying quick agreements must be reached, although meetings up to that point had failed to yield the crucial pacts to allow the test drilling.
Griles said last summer he wanted to get the situation under control but was told by Denetsosie that the principals were closed, but not finished by then. He said Edison wanted to be comfortable in going ahead, but needed to know what both tribes wanted. This led to the September meeting in Washington and the key principles agreement. Edison needs the coal for the plant, but that also requires the water. Denetsosie said even if the project ends with the water study, it will still be a valuable tool for the tribe since it will be "a real in-depth study."
Speaking for Peabody, Beth Sutton said, "Signing the agreement certainly is a positive step, though I would say there are a number of significant issues that need resolution."
The initial idea is to build about 100 miles of new pipeline from the well field through the reservations and back to the mine. The existing worn-out pipe would either be retrofitted or replaced. Peabody wants to increase its capacity from 4,400 acre-feet of water a year to 6,000. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.
One hang-up has been who will pay for the tribes' portion of the new line. Dec. 31, 2005, is the date by which Edison must have in operation a major pollution control overhaul of the two 750-megawatt electric generators in Laughlin.
The company projects the entire mine-pipe-plant cost to be more than $1 billion. Between the mine, the slurry pipeline that brings the water-coal mixture to Laughlin and the power plant. Some 600 high-paying jobs are at stake.
Edison and its partners serve about 3.5 million families in metropolitan southern California, southern Nevada and Arizona.
