by NMELC | Jul 6, 2023 | NMELC in the News
July 6, 2023
By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Environmental groups said they were surprised by the ruling, but expect the fight to continue over site in Cibola County.
In early June, federal regulators rejected a mining company’s proposal to loosen current cleanup standards at a former uranium mining operation in Western New Mexico.
Beginning in 1958, The Homestake Mining Company operated a mine in Cibola County, just five miles outside the town of Milan. The consequences have carried 65 years into the future. In the early 2000s, one of the world’s largest mining companies, Barrick Gold, bought out Homestake….
by NMELC | Jun 27, 2023 | News, Press Releases
June 27, 2023
Press Release
Homestake/Barrick Gold Request for “Alternate Concentration Limits” at Grants Reclamation Project Not Accepted by NRC
Albuquerque, NM —The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently took the unusual step of denying a License Amendment Request from Homestake Mining Company for Alternative Concentration Limits, which allow corporations to avoid cleaning up contaminated groundwater to pre-operational conditions. …
by NMELC | May 9, 2023 | NMELC in the News
May 9, 2023
Guest Column, Albuquerque Journal
By
BY LAURO SILVA, PRESIDENT, MOUNTAIN VIEW NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION; NORA GARCIA, BOARD MEMBER, MVNA; MARLA PAINTER, PRESIDENT, MOUNTAIN VIEW COMMUNITY ACTION (MVCA); ALAN MARKS, BOARD MEMBER, MVCA; DAVID BARBER, PRESIDENT, FRIENDS OF VALLE DE ORO NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE (FVDO) AND KATIE DIX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FVDO
On May 1, under cover of darkness, the Albuquerque City Council voted to put thousands of Bernalillo County residents at risk for asthma, heart disease, cancer and other diseases associated with air pollution.
Albuquerque and Bernalillo County are becoming increasingly known for bad air quality – the American Lung Association recently gave Bernalillo County an “F” for air quality related to ozone – and the health effects associated with air pollution. But air pollution does not affect everyone in Albuquerque equally; air polluting industrial permits overwhelmingly impact low-income communities, and communities of color experience the adverse health impacts of air pollution disproportionately….
by NMELC | Apr 27, 2023 | NMELC in the News
April 27, 2023
by John Larson, El Defensor Chieftain
The late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater once said a man from the West will fight over three things: water, women and gold, “and usually in that order.”
In 2023, Goldwater’s words still ring true, especially in Socorro and Caton counties, as the 16-year fight over the San Agustin Aquifer continues.
One of the players in that fight, the San Augustin Water Coalition, is sponsoring a 5K Run/1 Mile Fun Run/Walk on Saturday, May 6, to raise money to help with legal fees to help prevent Augustin Plains Ranch LLC (APR) from mining water from the aquifer beneath the San Agustin Plains, west of Magdalena. …
by NMELC | Apr 14, 2023 | News, Press Releases
Industry Filed 4 Meritless Motions to Disqualify Air Board Members for Alleged Bias
Mountain View Coalition’s Motion for the Air Board to Consider Alternative Recording Methods due to Exorbitant Costs to the Coalition for Hearing Transcription Was Approved
ALBUQUERQUE, NM—The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board denied all four motions filed by industrial businesses attempting to disqualify three Air Board members and the Board in its entirety from participating in the upcoming rulemaking for a cumulative impacts regulation over air quality in Bernalillo County. The proposed regulation is called the Health, Environment & Equity Impacts (HEEI) Regulation and can be accessed here. …
by NMELC | Feb 21, 2023 | NMELC in the News
February 21, 2023
by Maddie Pukite, Daily Lobo
Earlier this month on Feb. 8, the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board approved a joint motion that dismissed a hearing for an air quality permit to build an asphalt plant in the Mountain View community in the South Valley of Albuquerque.
The Environmental Law Center joined community organizers in the legal fight to get the asphalt site out of the community in 2018 when the Environmental Health Department issued a permit to New Mexico Terminal Services to create the plant, according to staff attorneys Maslyn Locke and Eric Jantz….
