The Easy Road For Bernalillo County Air Quality Polluters Is Closing
December 13, 2022
by Gwynne Ann Unruh, The Paper.
Bernalillo County residents are sick and tired of getting the short end of the stick when it comes to businesses affecting their air quality. They want to close the loopholes polluters use and make the health of the community paramount.
The Mountain View Coalition and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center have teamed up to present the Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board with a proposed Health Environment & Equity Impacts Regulation on December 14, that would make it virtually impossible for businesses to squeak by the Board if they produce any air pollution. …
Mountain View Coalition Action Today in Albuquerque
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022
MOUNTAIN VIEW COALITION TO ASK THE ALB-BERNCO AIR QUALITY CONTROL BOARD TO SCHEDULE A PUBLIC HEARING ON THEIR PROPOSED “HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT & EQUITY IMPACTS REGULATION”
ALBUQUERQUE, NM—The Mountain View Coalition and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center invite community members to attend the ABQ-Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board meeting which is to be held hybrid tonight, Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 5:30pm to comment on the proposed draft Health, Environment & Equity Impacts regulation. We are urging community members to ask the Air Board to schedule a PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED REGULATION. …
Groups want tighter rules for businesses seeking South Valley air permits
December 12, 2022
by Alexis Skonieski, KRQE Reporter
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – On a good day, Marla Painter says you can smell the fresh air in the South Valley. On others, she says all you smell are chemicals coming from the many industrial developments in the area.
“We have just seen one air permit after another rubber-stamped without any consideration for the health and wellbeing of the community,” Painter says. She feels the South Valley, her home for the last 25 years, has become a haven for industrial developments….
New Mexico Residents Raise Environmental Justice Concerns
By Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press
US News
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — On the southern edge of New Mexico’s largest city is a Hispanic neighborhood that used to be made up of a patchwork of family farms and quiet streets, but industrial development has closed in over the decades, bringing with it pollution.
Neighbors point to regular plumes of smoke and the smell of chemicals wafting through the neighborhood at night, saying contamination has disproportionately affected the area when compared with more affluent neighborhoods in the Albuquerque area. …
BernCo, Don’t Let Another Polluter into the South Valley
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. …
The “Culligan Man” Might be the New Water Source for Santolina Developers
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….
Community Opposition Forces Santolina Hearing to Reschedule
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.”
NRC delays decision on plan to remove uranium mine waste from Church Rock site
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. …
Nuclear Regulatory Commission slows decision about Church Rock uranium cleanup
by Marjorie Childress
New Mexico In Depth
June 16, 2022
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission appears to have slowed its timeline for deciding whether to let another federal agency house uranium-contaminated debris on a mill site it regulates near Church Rock. Local Navajo people and Navajo Nation officials object to the plan, saying the proposal doesn’t move debris far enough away from the community. …
Group claims discrimination over hearing asphalt plants
by Claudia L. Silva
Santa Fe New Mexican
May 7, 2022
Residents of neighborhoods in southwestern Santa Fe who have fought a proposed asphalt plant consolidation, arguing its effects would amount to environmental racism, also allege they faced discrimination during a public hearing before the New Mexico Environment Department….
It’s a Win for Barclays Bank in the Santolina Saga
Santa Fe-Size Development Could Put a Huge Straw into New Mexico’s Scarce Water
by Gwynne Ann Unruh
The Paper.
May 6, 2022
Hang in there, folks, as the “Santolina Saga” continues. The saga is a win one, loose one, a piecemeal maze of plans, interim use, solar panels, an old tire dump and nearly a decade of court battles. There are Master Plans, Interim Use and Development Agreements ad nauseam. Deciphering the bottom line for the development is like a puzzle the mind can’t quite grasp. …
State adopts rule to require more electric cars
by Scott Wyland
Santa Fe New Mexican
May 6, 2022
New Mexicans will see thousands more electric vehicles available to buy in 2025 when a rule approved by two environmental boards takes effect.
Dubbed the clean-car rule, it will require that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids make up at least 7 percent of automakers’ new sales within New Mexico — adding up to an estimated 3,800 vehicles. …
Thumbs Up for the Clean Car Rule
New Mexico Clean Cars, Clean Air Coalition Celebrates the Step Away from Fossil Fuels
by Gwynne Ann Unruh
The Paper.
May 6, 2022
It’s a win for the Land of Enchantment’s air, thanks to a coalition of over 35 organizations across the state who supported clean car rules. Over the past year, the New Mexico Clean Cars Clean Air Coalition, with the help of New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) hustled to make their voices heard. They got a thumbs up just after public hearings on May 4 and 5, as the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board and the City of Albuquerque – Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board voted to adopt The Clean Car Rule. …
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Travels to Navajo Nation, Hears of Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Mining
By Darren Thompson
Native News Online
April 25, 2022
Last Friday, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) traveled to Church Rock on the Navajo Nation, by invitation from the Navajo Nation and Redwater Pond Road Community members to discuss the impacts of uranium mining. NRC officials heard, for the first time in history, of the health and environmental impacts caused by uranium mining on the Navajo Nation. …
Marginalized communities in Albuquerque, Santa Fe fight environmental racism
Santa Fe asphalt consolidation appeal results expected this summer
By Megan Gleason
UNM Daily Lobo
April 25, 2022
Areas with people of color, low-income residents and immigrants have historically been forced to endure environmental racism around the U.S., but New Mexico locals are fighting against it. Santa Fe’s Southside and Albuquerque’s South Valley continue in their efforts against unjust environmental decisions that disproportionately affect marginalized groups….