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News Release
Sept. 23, 2002
San Juan Generating Station Receives Green
Zia Award
Waterflow: San Juan Generating Station (SJGS), a coal-fired
generating station in northwest New Mexico operated by PNM,
will soon be recognized by the New Mexico Environmental Department
for its commitment to pollution prevention and environmental
management.
The Green Zia Environmental Excellence Program is a voluntary
state program that encourages New Mexico organizations to
consider environmental performance as a core business practice.
The program encourages business and environmental integration
through a pollution prevention-based environmental management
system.
Green Zia will recognize SJGS at the commitment level, which
is awarded to an organization that has made a strong commitment
to pollution prevention and/or effective energy management.
It requires development of a framework for a pollution prevention-based
environmental management system. SJGS will receive a Green
Zia Commitment Certificate signed by the organization's senior
manager and the Governor commemorating this achievement on
Sept. 25 during a ceremony in Santa Fe.
"This award exemplifies SJGS's continual commitment
to and success with its environmental practices," said
Russell Huffman, SJGS’s plant manager. "We are constantly
improving our system and are already working toward the Green
Zia's excellence level."
SJGS now has received "Triple Crown" — state,
national and international — recognition for its environmental
management practices. It is believed that SJGS is the only
coal-fired station to be so recognized. In 2000, an independent
auditor certified that the SJGS environmental management system
to be in accordance with ISO 14001 (International Organization
for Standardization) requirements. That same year, SJGS was
one of two coal-fired plants to be recognized nationwide as
a charter member of the Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) National Performance Track.
The plant’s performance includes:
- SJGS meets or exceeds all state and federal environmental
regulations established by the Clean Air Act of 1970 and
the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.
- The plant's limestone sulfur dioxide removal system, online
since mid-1998, has continually increased sulfur dioxide
removal rates at SJGS.
- The removal rate already has increased to 83.3 percent
for the first half of 2002, up from 78.6 percent in 2001.
This is above the permitted level of about 72 percent. The
pollution-control equipment also removes more than 99 percent
of the fly-ash particulate from stack emissions.
- In 2001, 92.4 percent of the Toxics Release Inventory
(TRI) chemicals were managed on site and did not leave SJGS
or the mine property.
- Because of increased scrubbing (treatment of flue gas)
and the use of better quality coal, the total release for
SJGS's stack, fugitive and land releases, including the
transfer of chemicals to San Juan Coal Company, decreased
by more than 6 percent when comparing the 2001 TRI report
with 2000's report.
SJGS is a 1,798-megawatt coal-fired power plant. It is PNM's
primary generation source, providing 58 percent of the power
needed by PNM customers. PNM operates the plant on behalf
of the company and eight other owners. In addition to its
commitment to reduce air emissions, SJGS is a zero-discharge
facility, collecting and reusing all water used in the generating
process.
Learn more about San Juan
Generating Station
Learn more about PNM's
environmental initiatives
PNM is a combined electric and gas utility
serving about 1.3 million people in New Mexico. The company,
a wholly owned subsidiary of PNM Resources, also sells power
on the wholesale market in the Western U.S. PNM Resources
stock is traded primarily on the NYSE under the symbol PNM.
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