by NMELC | Sep 2, 2021 | NMELC in the News
Water War Leaves Community Determined to Defend Sustainable Development and Water Rights
by The Paper. Staff
September 1st, 2021
“Masterpiece Theater” couldn’t put more drama into a scene. It’s a David and Goliath confrontation from time immemorial. Bernalillo County Commissioners were rehearing an appeal for a zone change from agricultural to the planned community they voted for eight years ago that was remanded back to them by the New Mexico State Supreme Court….
by NMELC | Sep 1, 2021 | NMELC in the News
by Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican
August 31, 2021
A federal judge has struck down a Trump-era rule that removed federal protections from nearly all of New Mexico’s waters, a court decision that environmentalists said was vital while the Biden administration works through a lengthy process to create a new water rule.
U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Marquez on Monday wrote the Trump rule contained serious errors and, echoing conservationists’ concerns, argued it would cause “serious environmental harm” to the nation’s waterways if left in place.
Known as the navigable waters rule, it only protected waterways that flow year-round or seasonally and connect to another body of water….
by NMELC | Aug 23, 2021 | NMELC in the News
‘Additional observations’ being accepted in human rights petition
By Kathy Helms, Gallup Independent
Special correspondent, khelms@gallupindependent.com
August 23, 2021
CROWNPOINT – Jonathan Perry had been with the Navajo grassroots organization Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining about four months prior to the group filing a petition with an international human rights body alleging the United States violated members human rights by licensing uranium mining activities in their communities.
A decade later, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights accepted ENDAUM’s petition. It is only the second time the commission has found admissible a case of environmental justice against the United States. The first case involved environmental racism in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” according to the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which represents ENDAUM….
by NMELC | Aug 18, 2021 | NMELC in the News
Santolina Developments’ Ducks Aren’t in a Row and They Have No Water to Swim In
By Gwynne Ann Unruh, The Paper.
August 17, 2021
El Agua No Se Vende, El Agua Se Defiende. Water is Not for Sale; We Will Always Rise to Defend Our Precious Water. New Mexicans are passionate about their water, and with good reason. Water can be here today and gone tomorrow in a high mountain desert climate where, during a drought, monsoons can go MIA and rivers can run dry for years. Many elected officials have begun taking into account the conditions of climate change and being in a long-term, 20-year megadrought and how that will affect decisions they make.
by NMELC | Aug 4, 2021 | NMELC in the News
Navajo Nation Says No To More Uranium Mining Development
By Gwynne Ann Unruh, The Paper.
August 3rd, 2021
Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining(ENDAUM) just said No! to the U.S. government to further uranium development. Finally, after drawing that line 10 years ago, their case alleging the U.S. violated the human rights of Navajo communities will be heard by the International Human Rights Body, an independent commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) based in Washington, D.C….
by NMELC | Aug 3, 2021 | NMELC in the News
Friday, July 16, 2021, Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms, Special correspondent
khelms@gallupindependent.com
SANTA FE – In a potentially “groundbreaking” case, the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has agreed to hear the merits of a petition filed a decade ago by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center on behalf of Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining and several of its grassroots members.
The petition alleges that the United States, through its U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, violated Eastern Navajo Diné’s human rights and breached its obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man when, in 1998, the federal agency granted Hydro Resources, Inc. a license to conduct uranium mining at four sites in the Navajo Nation communities of Churchrock and Crownpoint. …
