UC&M's Alexander (Bud) Wilson and Ed Littlefield flank Navajo Tribal Chairman Raymond Nakai, third from left, at the dedication of the Four Corners Power Plant. Both Marriner Eccles and Ed Littlefield emphasized ethical operations. Company-wide integrity "cost us something," Littlefield conceded, "but the rewards have been most satisfying." The definition of corporate integrity evolved with the times. By the late 1960s environmental awareness was growing, and environmental groups began to protest not only strip and open pit mining, but also the constant air pollution by the Four Corners Power Plant. "The sub-bituminous coal produced a lot of ash when burned, which forced us to produce an ash recovery program," Littlefield explained. "Some of the scientists from the government installations in Los Alamos, [New Mexico,] boarded a plane and flew over the site. They found the pollution source that caused us to solve this problem. Now the utilities take that ash out at the power plant, and we use it to replace the earth we strip away. "Another problem we had was trying to get something to grow on the restored land. We tried every sort of flora and fauna from all over the world. The only thing we could find was Russian thistle, which is tumbleweed. Of course that didn't surprise us. That's about all that ever grew there anyway!" Littlefield added, "We finally worked out a way to restore the land, but it required us to irrigate for a year or two. This was never done before. We probably spend $5,000 reclaiming an acre worth about $100. But we do it."