LATEST NEWS
Petition on Diné Human Rights Violations Accepted for Merits Hearing
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. …
Mountain View Neighborhood Wins Small Victory In Fight Against Asphalt Plant
City Environmental Health Dept. Backs Off Efforts to Disqualify Air Quality Control Board Members
By Gwynne Ann Unruh, The Paper.
July 12th, 2021
Small victories can mean a lot when you have endured a long history of environmental injustice and environmental racism in your community. Members of the Mountain View coalition and their attorneys from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center NMELC were elated when the City of Albuquerque’s Environmental Health Department (EHD) backed off its efforts to get three board members kicked off the Air Quality Control Board (AQCB) for bias. EDH recently withdrew four motions on July 10 just ahead of a scheduled hearing set for July 17 to disqualify board members from a case against a hot mix asphalt batch plant proposed by New Mexico Terminal Services (NMTS)….
New Mexico Oil Oversight Agency, with Restored Authority, Plugs Orphaned Wells, Issues Fines
By Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican
July 7, 2021
The agency that regulates the state’s oil and gas industry is issuing citations and plugging abandoned wells at a faster rate since regaining enforcement power in 2020.
The Oil Conservation Division reported filing 23 complaints against operators — imposing $263,000 in penalties — while plugging 49 orphaned wells, the most in one year since at least 2016. The fines are the first the agency has meted out in more than a decade….
City Environmental Health Department Withdraws Motions to Disqualify Air Quality Control Board Members
July 9, 2021
City Environmental Health Department Withdraws Motions to Disqualify Air Quality Control Board Members
July 14 Hearing Cancelled
Mountain View Coalition Credits Community Mobilization Efforts for Raising Voices Against Environmental Injustice
ALBUQUERQUE, NM—The City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department (EHD) abruptly withdrew four motions to disqualify Air Quality Control Board (AQCB) members from a case by Mountain View residents to reverse the air pollution permit for a hot mix asphalt batch plant proposed by New Mexico Terminal Services (NMTS).
Attorneys for the EHD had requested three members of the AQCB to be disqualified for bias; attorneys for the groups making up the Mountain View coalition—Mountain View Neighborhood Association, Mountain View Community Action, and Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge—were prepared to argue in the July 14th hearing next week in front of the AQCB that the bias claims were baseless and that there is no evidence to support the city’s disqualification requests.
Mountain View is City’s Industrial Sacrifice Zone
By Nora Garcia, President, Mountain View Neighborhood Association; Lauro Silva, member, Mountain View Neighborhood Association; Marla Painter, President, Mountain View Community Action; David Barber, Board Member, Mountain View Neighborhood Association, President, Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge; and Aryn LaBrake, Executive Director, Friends of Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge.
June 28, 2021, Albuquerque Journal
The recent decision by the city of Albuquerque’s Environmental Health Department (EHD) to issue an air pollution permit for yet another polluting industry in the Mountain View neighborhood is a blatant case of environmental racism. For decades, Mountain View, a community along the Rio Grande just north of the Pueblo of Isleta, has been disproportionately overburdened with toxic and hazardous contamination.
New Mexico Terminal Services applied for an air pollution permit from EHD to construct a hot mix asphalt plant at 9615 Broadway SE, just south of the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in the Mountain View neighborhood. The property is next to the Rio Grande and the bosque, a green corridor that runs through the Middle Rio Grande Valley. The land is zoned for agricultural use; regardless, the city of Albuquerque issued an air pollution permit for the asphalt plant, ignoring Bernalillo County zoning laws.