LATEST NEWS
Lujan Grisham Signs Bill to Allow State to Get Tougher than Feds on Environmental Policy
By Adrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current Argus
April 12, 2021
A bill New Mexico Democrats pushed as allowing for greater state control of environmental regulations was signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham following the 2021 Legislative Session.
Senate Bill 8 allowed the State to set environmental standards “more stringent” than federal law, a change from how the law is currently written to allow state regulations by “no more stringent” than policies enacted at the federal level.
Can a Wildlife Refuge Help a Community’s Fight for Environmental Justice?
By Jessica Kutz, High Country News
April 9, 2021
Albuquerque’s South Valley was once a thriving oasis of food production watered by a network of historic irrigation canals, or acequias. Today it’s home to several historic neighborhoods along the Rio Grande including Mountain View.
After much of the area was rezoned in the 1960s, the residents, who are mainly Chicanos as well as recent immigrants, came under siege by the structural forces of environmental racism that dictate who lives near polluters and who doesn’t. Mountain View was soon enveloped by industry — auto recyclers, Albuquerque’s sewage plant, paint facilities, and fertilizer suppliers — that left a legacy of contaminated groundwater, two Superfund sites and high levels of air pollution.
Now, six decades later, Mountain View is facing yet another transformation….
Proposal in South Santa Fe Has Kids Speaking out on Environmental Justice
By Sean P. Thomas, Santa Fe New Mexican
March 27, 2021
When El Camino Real Academy teacher Ed Gorman became aware of a proposal to consolidate two asphalt facilities into one larger complex just miles from the southwest Santa Fe school, it sparked an idea.
He broached the topic with his fifth grade science students to gauge their interest in the proposal, taking it as an opportunity to engage them in the nuts and bolts of public policy and the intersection between civic government and the environment….
Southside Community Comes out in Full Force against the Proposed Asphalt Plant Permit in Spite of Systemic Barriers to Participation
Santa Fe, NM—More than 100 community members attended the three-day hearing on the proposed Air Quality Permit for Associated Asphalt & Material’s plant consolidation which was held before the NM Environmental Department and took place Monday, March 22 through Wednesday, March 25. Participants ranged in age from elementary school students at El Camino Real and Cesar Chavez, to seniors living in the impacted area. Every single member of the public who provided comment during the Public Hearing spoke against the permit except one.
Air Quality Permit for Asphalt Company Considered
By Isabella Alves, Albuquerque Journal
March 23, 2021
SANTA FE – Approval of Associated Asphalt and Material’s air quality permit will soon be in the hands of the state Environment Department.
But it could take more than three months before the department reaches a decision that would allow the company, located off N.M. 599 near the Santa Fe Regional Airport, to consolidate its operations. Hearing officer Gregory Chakalian has 30 days to file his report, which will then go to the department for review….