by NMELC | May 26, 2021 | News, Press Releases
Albuquerque, NM – Dozens of grassroots community residents, small farmers and people concerned about dwindling water supplies gathered last week to become more informed and strategize about how to continue the fight against the proposed mega housing development project Santolina.
The Contra Santolina Working Group, along with the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP) and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), co-hosted an event over Zoom that featured a detailed history of the movement since 2013 presented by Dr. Virginia Necochea; updates about the future of water in the Middle Rio Grande Valley from Santiago Maestas, President of the South Valley Regional Association of Acequias; how the Development project would impact irrigation from small farmer Marcia Fernandez; legal updates from NMELC attorney Douglas Meiklejohn; and inspirational encouragement from Alejandría Lyons, Environmental Justice organizer at SWOP.
by NMELC | May 21, 2021 | NMELC in the News
By Jessica Dyer, Albuquerque Journal
May 21, 2021
With the New Mexico Supreme Court’s recent decision not to weigh in on the years-long legal battle over Santolina, the planned community project is bound for a do-over vote by the Bernalillo County Commission to get its desired zone change….
by NMELC | Apr 28, 2021 | News, Press Releases
Santa Fe, NM – On April 16th, the New Mexico Supreme Court refused to review a ruling by the State Court of Appeals addressing the Santolina development that is proposed for Albuquerque’s West Mesa.
According to New Mexico Environmental Law Center staff attorney Douglas Meiklejohn, the Supreme Court’s ruling means that the decisions by the Court of Appeals concerning Santolina remain in effect.
“The Court of Appeals ruling means that the land in question remains zoned Rural Agricultural and that it cannot be used for a planned community such as Santolina,” said Meiklejohn.
by NMELC | Apr 26, 2021 | NMELC in the News
By Adrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current-Argus
April 23, 2021
Oil and gas companies and Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Main joined U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich’s (D-NM) efforts to restore federal controls on methane emissions from oil and gas operations, a reversal of multiple regulatory rollbacks enacted by former-President Donald Trump.
Heinrich and a group of Senate Democrats previously introduced a resolution under the Congressional Review Act, seeking to rescind the Trump administration’s cancellation of policies of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that saw it regulating methane released from multiple sectors of the oil and gas supply chain….
by NMELC | Apr 26, 2021 | NMELC in the News
By Alyssa Bitsie, KRQE
April 22, 2021
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Air Force will give another update on the jet fuel spill at Kirtland Air Force Base. The leak, first detected more than 20 years ago, contaminated both soil and groundwater. The base has been working for decades to clean it up but it’s been an extremely slow process. Thursday night’s meeting will be held virtually starting at 6 p.m.
According to a news release from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, between five million and 24 million gallons of jet fuel remain underneath the ground in Albuquerque’s aquifer in a giant plume discovered in 1999. …