Now, they and three other tribes fear for the future of the northwestern New Mexico salt lake, south of the hamlet of Fence Lake, near the Arizona border. That's because no one has been able to guarantee that a strip coal mine that a large Arizona utility wants to open 12 miles away won't interfere with water filling the lake from underground or pollute the salt with tiny particles of airborne coal. It's of central importance to Zuni. The Zunis, Acomas, Hopis and Ramah Navajos are also concerned that potentially thousands of ancestral burials will be disturbed by the mine, tribal representatives said. The Salt River Project, based in Tempe, wants the coal to fuel its 700-megawatt Coronado Generating Station in eastern Arizona, which it says would be cheaper than continuing to bring coal from McKinley County.
Plans call for the company to build a railway line about three miles north of the small lake.
Railroad cars would haul the coal 40 miles to the power plant. During the life of the mine, the company expects to produce up to 60 million tons of coal, starting with about 1 million tons a year, Presmyk said. The utility has worked for more than a decade, gathering environmental data, and has worked extensively with the tribes for several years to hear their concerns, he said. I think we have proven that by the fact we have been working there for so many years and spending a fair amount of money doing baseline studies and meeting with tribes. Zuni and Hopi officials agreed that the utility has gone far beyond the spirit of the law in working with the tribes.