The Navajo Generating Station will shut down for good in a matter of days, the plant’s owners announced this week, once the plant burns through its remaining supply of coal.
The closure marks the final chapter in a two-year fight to save the aging power plant and the affiliated Kayenta coal mine, which together had provided hundreds of jobs in one of the most economically depressed parts of the state.
Salt River Project, the plant's Tempe-based majority owner, said in a Nov. 8 email Friday that the roughly 500 employees now at the plant – most of whom are working on contract – will be cut to 50.
Of the 433 workers who were at the plant before the closure was announced, SRP said about 280 accepted offers to relocate to jobs in different facilities, while others either refused or opted to retire.
