Resistant to change

Percy Deal, a representative of the Navajo environmental group Diné CARE, was raised and still lives off the dirt road between the Hopi villages and the mine. He wants to see it close. He supports economic opportunities for the tribes with renewable energy.

“There’s been two or three different studies produced having to do with solar energy and wind energy,” Deal said. “The result is there is plenty of energy that can be developed on those two sources.”

Other environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association and Grand Canyon Trust, have similarly suggested renewable-energy projects to replace coal jobs.

“It would not require a single cup of water, and the air would be clean, and the environment would be clean,” Deal said. “That is what we would like to see.”

A 2012 report on the potential for wind energy on Navajo land found significant wind potential, particularly in the Gray Mountain area north of Flagstaff.

But such projects face hurdles. The permit process for a test tower took a year and a half. Solar and wind projects still rely on federal tax credits. Tribes have no tax liability. That means they need partners, or they pay more to develop.

Factions within the tribe fought over their preferred developer for a wind farm at Gray Mountain. No turbines turn there today.

Another proposed wind farm on Navajo land separate from the reservation — west of Flagstaff, called the Big Boquillas Ranch — was to be finished in 2013. SRP had agreed in principle to buy the power. Ultimately, the price was not competitive. That plant has not been built.

Even if one wind farm is constructed, it would take several renewable projects to replace what coal provides.

The Boquillas project, for example, would have taken 300 people to build, but just 10 or fewer to operate.

A solar project that broke ground near Kayenta last year put about 100 people to work building it but will employ a few people once finished. SRP will buy power from that plant.

Workers who have come to rely on the coal are understandably skeptical that renewable energy can replace the quality jobs they’ve found in the region.

Myron Richardson, 41, oversees a small welding shop at the Kayenta Mine where the giant dragline buckets are brought by crane for repair. His crew welds cracks or adds new teeth if needed.

He lives in Page, where he grew up, and is thankful for the work he found at the mine five years ago because it allowed him to stay closer to home and his four boys, ages 5, 13, 15 and 17.

He previously worked construction, often on jobs that kept him from his family for long stretches.

“It’s rough living on the road, out of a suitcase,” he said.

Now he can be around the house more, catch more of the boys’ wrestling matches and coach more baseball games.

“It’s important for me to stay for my kids,” he said.

And the jobs pay well. The average wages at the power plant are almost $40 an hour; for miners, they’re more than $33.50 an hour.

Richardson also connects with fellow Navajos, who often speak the native language to him at work, something that didn’t happen on distant construction sites.

He’s not sure how he’s going to support his family without coal.

“I want to put my kids through school. That’s all I’m looking at right now,” he said. “If the mine closes, it would most likely mean relocation. It could possibly mean going back to construction. I dread going back into that.”

He also worries for the families of the children who play sports with his sons.

“I know these kids. I know their families,” he said. “Where are they going to go?”

Hopi Chairman Honanie said if the mine closes, most people will stay.

“This has been the homeland for Hopi for all these years,” he said. “I don’t think now is the time for anyone to start thinking, ‘Let’s pack up and move on,’ because that’s just not going to be a way of thinking.

“We’ve been through hard times. We’ve been through challenges. We’ve adjusted. We’ve acclimated. We’ve endured.”