Betty Thompson still tears up when she recalls what her mother said every time they drove past the Navajo Generating Station.
“I put that there,” she said. “With my thumbprint, I put that thing there.”
It might seem unlikely that a frail Navajo grandmother would have had anything to do with the behemoth power plant that has dominated the skyline of Page, Arizona, since the 1970s, sending its coal-fired electricity to the distant cities of Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles and its hazy emissions to the canyon country that forms a much-loved centerpiece of Southwestern tourism. But the environmental legacy of fossil fuels is long—and so are the bitter memories of people who live next door to where those fuels are consumed.
Read the full story, from National Parks magazine.
Comments are closed.