by NMELC | Sep 13, 2022 | NMELC in the News
By Gov. Vernon B. Abeita, Pueblo of Isleta, with co-authors Lauro Silva / board member, Mountain View Neighborhood Association; Marla Painter / president, Mountain View Community Action; Katie Dix / executive director, Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge; and Virginia Necochea / executive director, N.M. Environmental Law Center.
Albuquerque Journal
September 11, 2022
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, the Bernalillo County Commissioners will make a decision with outsized consequences for the South Valley and the Pueblo of Isleta, directly across the railroad tracks from a new housing development. The county zoning ordinance does not allow this type of land use, and the locals do not want it. The county zoning administrator, the county Board of Adjustment, and Albuquerque’s Environmental Health Department have thus far denied all requests relating to the new asphalt plant. Commissioners are now considering Star Paving’s appeal of a zoning administrator decision that it cannot build an asphalt plant on this site. Commissioners should deny the appeal. …
by NMELC | Aug 18, 2022 | NMELC in the News
By Gwynne Ann Unruh
The Paper.
Bernalillo Commission Votes Unanimously to Support Santolina Industrial Park Amendments
Santolina’s solar arrays, wind turbines and tire recycling plant were approved by the Bernalillo County Commissioners Tuesday at their zoning meeting. It looks like “Culligan Man” is the new water source for the development’s 630-acre industrial business park located next to their Santa Fe size housing development. The development has been sidestepping the New Mexico Water Authority for years after their original permit expired as they fought members of the Albuquerque community through the court system this past decade….
by NMELC | Aug 18, 2022 | News, Press Releases
August 18, 2022
ALBUQUERQUE, NM—The Bernalillo County Commission voted 4-0 in favor of an amended Santolina Level A Master Plan and 3-0 to approve the Level B.II Master plan during their 4-hour-long hearing on Tuesday, August 16. Commissioner Pyskoty was absent for both votes, and Commissioner Barboa lost her internet connection during the second vote. She had indicated an intention to support both plans during the discussion….
by NMELC | Aug 12, 2022 | News, Press Releases
Second Annual Green Amendment Day Tackles Environmental Injustice Through Collective Action
Yesterday, over one hundred environmental advocates from 23 states across the country gathered virtually to celebrate the Second Annual Green Amendment Day. Entitled “Green Amendments: Transforming Environmental Rights from Rhetoric to Reality,” programming aimed to shine a light on how enforceable environmental rights, in the form of constitutional Green Amendments, can help frontline communities’ address toxic pollution, environmental racism, climate injustice, and air and water pollution harming their communities….
by NMELC | Jul 4, 2022 | NMELC in the News
By Gwynne Ann Unruh
The Paper.
July 4, 2022
There is a lot at stake for community members in opposition to the Santolina development and they want to be sure that, when they raise their voices in disapproval, they are heard.
The Bernalillo County Commissioners (BCC) Santolina hearing (Zoning Meeting) scheduled for June 28 was originally an in-person meeting only. Community members and their representatives, who have opposed the massive development for over a decade, mobilized phone callers asking for the same treatment for the Santolina hearing as the BCC’s June 21 meeting, which was scheduled online “due to an increase in COVID cases in the state and out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of county employees and citizens at-large.”
by NMELC | Jun 17, 2022 | NMELC in the News
By Noel Lyn Smith
Farmington Daily Times
June 17, 2022
FARMINGTON — A decision that was expected this month about whether to remove uranium mine waste from an area near a Church Rock community or store it onsite near the community has been delayed for now by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. …
