Why? As Larry said, for the steam plant. Steam plant? Yes. From 1970 until almost 2000 they mined coal from the old Tono mine and Hanaford valley coal deposits. Burned the coal to make steam to power the turbines to make electricity. It's not for irrigation. Some time before 2000 they stopped using the local coal, which was originally estimated to tap out after 30 years anyway, and began importing cleaner burning coal from Utah. Now they import it from either Montana or Wyoming as well. Since the facility is past its planned service life, it's time to shut down the major air polluter in western WA. But family wage jobs are at stake, so it continues, even though it would probably be cheaper to burn the coal in Utah or wherever it is mined and ship the electricity through the grid.

Sg