Navajo times., 1963-06-27
-Four Corners Power Plant

-Four Corners PO1Uer Plant
The throng of visitors Friday, June FL, 1868, to
the formal dedication of the four power plant
and Navajo Mine may readily agree with Councilman
rank w. Brady, Chairman of Navajo Tribal Utility
Authority. This one of his comments--Electrlc
wonders which we view as commonplace today Woulo
have challenged the minds OF the most imaginative a
few short decades ago.
corners power plant is of outdoor design, SINH
other Arizona public service power plants has
electrical output of $50, 600 kiloWatts.
The initial equipment is two boilers and two 49, OOO
kowat turbine generators and sWitchyard facilities tor
stepping up the generated output to transmission volt
ages.
The boilers operate at pressure of l, 925 pounds
per square inch and 005 degrees Fahrenheit at the
superheater outlet with continuous steam output of
|, 27O 600 pounds per hour Cold water to condense
steam obtained from 200 artificial lake ad-
jacent the plant At its deepest point the lake is 100
feet Deep Water for the lake pumped from the San
Juan River three miles north of the plant 1t re
quired two pumps, each capable OF producing ID, 900
gallons per minute 394 days of actual pumping time to
till the lake. Each Of these pumps was powered by
g. 900 horsepower electric motor.
The lake ideal recreation area Under Jur1Sdc-
tion Of Navajo Tribe it has been stocked with several
hundred thousand trout and catfish The lake water will
be reused and the only replacement necessary will be
for loss due to evaporation and seepage.
Primary fuel is coal, but natural gas is used tor
lighting off, the boilers and for flame stabilizaton
low loads At full load, the first two furnaces will
approximately 200 of coal each "a hours.
Coal is supplied from mine adjacent to the plant by
Utah Construction Mining Co. which has leases with
the Navajo Tribe for extensive coal reserves
One of the longest extra hi voltage lines in the
United States carries the electrical energy from this
plant to load ceners in Arizona Nearly 800 miles long,
this 345 900 volt transmission line is the only line of
this voltage in this country carrying energy produced
by steam generation The line and it's necessary switch
ing facilities cost approximately $50 million.
To aid the plant operators a MARC system Monitor
andResults Computer) has been installed This system
enables the operator to have momentary information
relating to the plants operation, giving him information
of any mauncon that might occur in any one of some
800 places in the plant.
Of great interest the state of New Mexico Arizona
San Juan county, Pennington, Shiprock, and the four
corners is the of coal of which reserves
plentiful in the Navajo Mine the Navajo Reservation
near Frutland, New Mexico.
The coal fields adjacent to the plant have been leased
by the Navajo Tribe to Utah Construction and Mining
Company which is pit stripping the mineral. Since
there are an estimated so billion tons of coal resource
on the reservation readily appreciate the re-
mendous impact that coal has the future OF the San
Juan County as we'll the Navajo Tribe.
The Utah Construction and Mining Company began its
corporate existence in 1900 in Ogden, Utah, as Utah
Construction Company It's business consisted mainly
of earth-moving and construction work for western