San Juan Generating Station closure still ripples through local economy

The San Juan Generating Station shutdown erased about 1,500 direct and indirect jobs and pulled roughly $50 million to more than $53 million a year in state and local tax revenue out of San Juan County, and the losses are still showing up in classrooms, paychecks and public services. For families such as Denise Pierro’s, the closure did not end when the plant went dark. It reshaped the local economy around Waterflow, Farmington and the Central Consolidated School District.

The four-unit coal plant opened in 1973 near Waterflow and Farmington. Public Service Company of New Mexico says Units 2 and 3 were shut at the end of 2017, Unit 1 closed in June 2022 and Unit 4 followed in September 2022, ending the plant’s final operations. The shutdown also ended the adjacent San Juan Mine, which had no other market for its coal. Before closure, local reporting estimated about 200 mine jobs and 220 plant jobs, with the average affected worker age at 46 and average salary about $86,000. About half of the mine workforce was reported to be Native American, many from the Navajo Nation.

The school district has taken one of the hardest hits. Central Consolidated School District sources said power plants, mines and related businesses supplied more than 80% of its property-tax revenue, and district materials said San Juan Generating Station, the related Four Corners plant and mines provided more than 80% of the district’s property-tax base. AP and KUER reported that the shutdown meant hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue lost for a district that serves mostly Native American students, with some families leaving the area to find work. A 2024 report also said student homelessness in CCSD peaked with a 700% increase after the closure, a sign that the economic shock extended far beyond payrolls.

The state’s Energy Transition Act, enacted in 2019, created worker, economic development and tribal-relief funds, and it required replacement power resources to be located in the affected school district. By July 2023, the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions said more than $7 million had been paid to displaced workers through more than 350 direct payments from the Displaced Worker Assistance Fund. But local leaders say the transition remains unfinished. In June 2024, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission approved PNM solar and battery projects while concerns persisted that not enough new development had been built inside CCSD to replace the lost tax base.

CCSD and San Juan County have said PNM still must site 450 megawatts of generation or storage within district boundaries. Advocates for replacement renewables had earlier promoted roughly 430 megawatts of solar and storage in CCSD and about $447 million in local capital investment. The plant’s smokestacks came down in August 2024, but the economic afterlife of San Juan is still being measured in missing jobs, thinner school revenue and a county economy that has not yet been made whole.