Update: Incident near Ray Nixon Power Plant leaves one injured
A contract employee working near an ash landfill south of the Ray Nixon and Front Range power plants south of Fountain was injured Thursday, prompting the worker to be taken by helicopter to Denver.
Neither power plant was involved or affected by the accident, according to Colorado Springs Utilities, which put out a statement about the incident Thursday afternoon, according to Utilities spokesperson Alex Trefry.
The worker was employed by a contractor in charge of “maintaining our heavy equipment/large trucks that move material — such as ash and coal,” according to a press release sent out by Utilities.
The medical status of the injured worker was not known at press time. No other injuries were reported.
“Our focus right now is on the health of the individual,” Trefry said, adding that the Colorado Springs Fire Department would be investigating the incident.
Reports of an incident involving injuries and a possible explosion first came over emergency-response scanners shortly before 3 p.m.
The exact nature of the incident that injured the worker was not given by Utilities.
The Ray Nixon Power Plant is the only coal-burning energy provider for the city of Colorado Springs. It is scheduled to be in operation until 2029, according to Utilities’ website. Demolition of Utilities’ other coal power plant, Martin Drake, was completed just a week earlier.
The downtown power plant had been commissioned in 1925 and stopped operation in 2022.
The planned closure of the Ray Nixon Power Plant, and the recent demolition of Martin Drake Power Plant help the city meet state requirements to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2030, Utilities officials said in previous Gazette reporting.
In May 2018, two men were electrocuted and died during a drilling mishap near the Ray Nixon Power Plant. A drilling rig hit a power line, according to previous Gazette reporting.
Colorado Springs Utilities officials in 2018 said the two were taking soil samples for an expansion of the power plant’s main entrance gate when their truck hit a 12,250-volt overhead power line.
