Four Corners power plants boost security

Four Corners power plants boost security

Sept. 25, 2001

By Jim Mimiaga
Journal Staff Writer

Fears of possible terrorist attacks are affecting everything in the Southwest from to security at power plants to crop-dusting.

Sensitive structures such as power plants are being monitored as potential targets for attacks, especially with the FBI admission that between 1,000 and 2,000 individuals with links to terrorist groups now reside in the United States.

In the Southwest, there are three major coal-fired power plants that provide millions of people in California and the Four Corners states with electric energy. The Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generation Plant outside Farmington, along with the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Ariz., are all operating with a heightened sense of security, officials report.

"We have increased our security by searching vehicles, restricting access and widening the perimeter that we patrol," said Dave Saliba, operations manager for the Four Corners Power Plant, a subsidiary of Arizona Public Service.

Security staff was beefed up 30 percent, Saliba said. More security cameras and lighting were installed. Employees are being asked to be more aware of their surroundings and to report suspicious activity.

Areas critical to the operation — a dam for a cooling lake and a pumping station on the San Juan River — are now seeing increased patrols. Public tours are on hold.

Saliba said that the company is discussing additional security beyond the stepped-up procedures in place now, in light of recent events. More heavily-armed guards are one consideration, he said. The Four Corners Power Plant has a generating capability of 2,040 megawatts per day.

Across U.S. Highway 64 lies the San Juan Generation Plant, the seventh-largest coal-fired energy producer in the West. It pumps out 1,647 megawatts of electricity per day.

Julie Grey, a spokesperson for New Mexico Public Service, said the plant has initiated a "heightened awareness of security" since the attacks. Grey did not give specifics, for security reasons, but said crisis drills "on an array of different situations" are conducted on a regular basis with employees.

"We went through this during Y2K also," Grey said, referring to the doomsday scenarios that were predicted but never materialized during the millennium switch. "As far as security with power plants, it is by design. In other words, the transformer systems are built so that loads can be picked up by other plants if one goes down. It is a redundant network that ensures power is delivered."

The San Juan Generation Plant provides the power for Tri-state Electric Co-op, which services the Cortez area.

Scott Harelson, a spokesperson for the Navajo Generating Plant in Page, Ariz., reported that the plant has initiated stricter identification monitoring and is on a higher level of alert. Security staff has stayed the same.

The above plants together supply much of the power for Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix, El Paso, Modesto, Santa Clara and Redding. Every megawatt serves 1,000 customers generally.

None of the plants contacted were aware of any threats against power operations.

In another security-related concern, the Federal Aviation Administration is warning agricultural communities that the same airplanes used to spray poison on unsavory plants and bugs infesting farms could also be used by nihilistic terrorist organizations against American citizens.

As a safety precaution, the FAA grounded all of the nation’s 3,500 crop-dusters until 12:05 a.m. today. The ban was suggested by the FBI, which suspects that terrorists may use crop-dusters for bio-terroism.

A private crop-duster in Florida reported to the FBI this week that suspicious men have been inquiring about the use of his planes, asking persistent questions regarding capacity, range and flying techniques.

"The FBI made the request, and we hope those operators will take extra precautions on who they rent their planes to and what the potential is there for use," said Mike Fergus, a public-affairs spokesman for the FAA, on Monday. "It’s the first ban of this specific type by the agency."

Bio-terrorism — or the intentional release of toxic agents into the air or water for the sake of harming citizens — is considered a real threat. And the U.S. believes crop-dusters may be a tool used to spread chemical and biological poisons produced by some Middle Eastern nations, such as anthrax, serin gas or the smallpox virus.

Countries supporting terrorism are known to have "very active chemical- and biological-warfare programs," warned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on CBS’s "Face the Nation" Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.