Rehabilitation of the San Juan power plant is scheduled to begin in 2025 • Source: New Mexico

Officials on the Interim Committee on Radioactive and Hazardous Materials received an update last week on how the state plans to clean up the idle San Juan Generating Station.

The Public Service Company of New Mexico, or PNM for short, has shut down the coal-fired power plant at the end of 2022.

According to the Farmington mayor’s office, demolition is scheduled for August 24.

And the New Mexico State Department of Environmental Protection is taking steps to assess and remediate the environmental impacts of decades of coal burning on water and air quality in the region.

But committee members expressed skepticism after receiving the latest information about the plan.

“This seems problematic,” said Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque) after a presentation by Justin Ball, director of the Office of Groundwater Quality at the Department of Environmental Protection.

Sedillo Lopez expressed concern that the redevelopment plan did not take into account that the demolition work could further affect water and air quality in the area.

“I would encourage the department to look at this more holistically,” Sedillo Lopez said.

While Ball is not an expert on New Mexico’s air quality laws, he said the demolition is regulated.

“I would be very surprised if PNM had not taken the necessary steps to obtain approval for the proposed demolition,” Ball said.

Because of this discrepancy, several committee members expressed a desire for Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to clarify oversight responsibilities.

The site will only be cleared after completion of a three-phase plan.

Site evaluation and environmental risk documentation should begin sometime this month.

The department plans to begin taking field samples and analyzing the data at the end of the year. A final remediation plan is expected to be presented next summer.

Ultimately, the financial responsibility for the remediation lies with PNM, the previous operator of the power plant.

The utility was asked to attend the committee meeting but declined to participate.