Mining, long a major industry in New Mexico, has had a severe environmental impact on public and private lands and rural communities in the state. Modern mining involves:
• Contamination of land and water with toxic leachate elements such as cyanide and mercury
• Acid Rock Drainage, a perpetual water-pollution problem if left untreated
• Dangerous high walls and mine pits on public lands
On a national level, mining generates twice as much hazardous waste as all other industries and municipal landfills combined.
The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management also have to contend with the federal 1872 Mining Law which has been interpreted as an absolute right to mine on public lands anywhere an ore body is found regardless of potential environmental damage. The law was conceived during the Industrial Age of the 19th century to encourage migration to the western United States, and to help bolster western mining in order to feed a nation undergoing an industrial growth spurt.
The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management also have to contend with the federal 1872 Mining Law which has been interpreted as an absolute right to mine on public lands anywhere an ore body is found regardless of potential environmental damage. The law was conceived during the industrial Age of the 19th century to encourage migration to the western United States, and to help bolster western mining in order to feed a nation undergoing an industrial growth spurt.
For more information on the 1872 Mining Law and efforts to amend it, please visit Earthworks webpage on the 1872 Mining Law.
The Law Center has been a state leader in ensuring that regulators enforce the law as it was intended. Since the passage of the Mining Act, we have participated in nearly every major hardrock mine permitting proceeding in the state. We have succeeded in persuading the State to mandate some of the highest reclamation bonds in the nation, and have won battles to ensure that some of the world's largest corporations are held accountable for cleaning up the lands and waters that they have contaminated.
For more information about uranium mining, please see our page on the HRI-ENDAUM case.
The Forest Service could issue its approval this year, the newspaper reports… And once that happens, hoo-boy, is New Mexico in for an economic bonanza — the likes of which DeJoia can’t even describe to a reporter:
“I won’t run you through all the economics on that, but you can rest assured there is an awful lot of income tax paid on that,” he said. “There are a lot of New Mexico taxes in there.”
Thanks for sparing us the numbers. Nobody wants to be thinking hard when we could just be mindlessly digging for short-term profits. Grist.org
Go to Grist.org for full story.
But a coalition of organizations, including several Native American groups and an organization of former uranium miners, contends that a mining operation would imperil the area’s water supply and its quality. The group also believes it would severely impact an area designated by the Forest Service as a traditional cultural property that has great spiritual significance for indigenous people across the Southwest…
[Staff Attorney] Jantz said water pumped from the mine could result in significant drawdowns of surface water and springs. There is also concern that waste piles and toxic heavy-metal materials could make their way into ground and surface water, he said. Alamogordo Daily News
Go to Alamogordo Daily News for full story.
SANTA FE, N.M. - Today, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) filed a request for a public hearing regarding a proposed permit revision to put the Mt. Taylor uranium mine on active status. The mine, near Grants, NM, has been inactive (on “standby” status) without cleanup for 23 years. The mine’s owner, Rio Grande Resources, received a fourth renewal for the standby permit in January 2012, but on April 12, 2013 it notified the public it was seeking a revision to change the mine’s status to “active”. The NMELC filed the hearing request on behalf of its clients, Amigos Bravos and the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE).
Go to case page.
SANTA FE, N.M. - The New Mexico Court of Appeals struck down an effort by the Martinez Administration to repeal regulations favorable to the environment and reinstated the state’s energy efficiency building codes.
The energy codes, adopted before Governor Martinez came into office, were repealed by the State Construction Industries Commission in the summer of 2011. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) appealed the Commission’s move on seven grounds, including that the Commission failed to state the reasons for its decision as is required of all administrative agencies. The Court of Appeals agreed, and reversed the Commission’s decision. (Get PDF of Court of Appeals ruling)
Visit Repeal of Energy Efficient Building Codes case page
