The Forest Service could issue its approval this year, the newspaper reports… And once that happens, hoo-boy, is New Mexico in for an economic bonanza — the likes of which DeJoia can’t even describe to a reporter:
“I won’t run you through all the economics on that, but you can rest assured there is an awful lot of income tax paid on that,” he said. “There are a lot of New Mexico taxes in there.”
Thanks for sparing us the numbers. Nobody wants to be thinking hard when we could just be mindlessly digging for short-term profits. Grist.org
Go to Grist.org for full story.
05/21/2013 • Back to top
But a coalition of organizations, including several Native American groups and an organization of former uranium miners, contends that a mining operation would imperil the area’s water supply and its quality. The group also believes it would severely impact an area designated by the Forest Service as a traditional cultural property that has great spiritual significance for indigenous people across the Southwest…
[Staff Attorney] Jantz said water pumped from the mine could result in significant drawdowns of surface water and springs. There is also concern that waste piles and toxic heavy-metal materials could make their way into ground and surface water, he said. Alamogordo Daily News
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05/19/2013 • Back to top
The U.S. Forest Service expects to close the comment period in mid-June on a draft environmental impact statement prepared for the proposed Roca Honda uranium mine near Mount Taylor, which the developers say would be the largest in the U.S.
“It is essentially the same as proposing a huge uranium mine in the middle of the Vatican. There’s just no way to avoid the impacts,” said attorney Eric Jantz of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which is representing the coalition, the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment. Albuquerque Journal
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05/19/2013 • Back to top
In response to Republicans who say the EPA imposes far too many costly regulations, the latest annual review from the Office of Management and Budget shows that the benefits of EPA rules far exceed their costs. To find out more about the report, Joe Aldy, a former Obama White House staffer who now teaches at the Kennedy School at Harvard, talks to Living on Earth.
Go to Living on Earth to listen to full interview.
05/17/2013 • Back to top
How New Mexico’s copper industry wrote its own rules
To industry, the new rule represents the chance to profit and create jobs in New Mexico. Others see it as an abdication of the state’s responsibility to protect groundwater—and a move to hand over the public’s water to private companies…
when it comes to actually writing the rules—and upholding their integrity—it is NMED’s staffers who matter most. And that, to some observers, reflects another worrisome aspect of the changing rules. Over the past two years, NMED has seen an exodus that includes some of its best, most senior employees—including several longtime bureau chiefs. Santa Fe Reporter
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05/15/2013 • Back to top
The New Mexico Environmental Law Center says the change in the company’s plan is curious given that the market is soft and uranium mines in the U.S. are operating at less than one-third of their capacity.
The law center’s clients have also been pushing state mining regulators to require reclamation or cleanup of the mine under the existing standby permit. They are also appealing that permit. KOB.com
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05/15/2013 • Back to top
For 25 years,
the New Mexico Environmental Law Center has worked every day to protect our region's water, land and air from toxic pollution; and to help New Mexico's many and diverse communities protect their environment.
SANTA FE, N.M. - On June 6th, the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission issued its final order adopting most of the oil and gas industry’s proposed changes to the oil and gas waste pit regulation (the Pit Rule). As it stands, New Mexico has lost major groundwater and public health protections during a time of unprecedented drought. The losses include reduced setbacks for mining waste pits from homes, schools and fresh water sources. The new Pit Rule also now allows “frack lakes,“ artificial lakes filled with toxic drilling waste fluids.
“The new Pit Rule calls them multi-well fluid management pits,“ says Eric Jantz, New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) Staff Attorney, “but they are really multi acre artificial lakes filled with toxic fracking fluids. They have no size limit. These lakes are new to New Mexico and they may remain in place until drilling or fracking operations are completed – typically ranging from 5-15 years.“
SANTA FE, N.M. - Today, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) filed a request for a public hearing regarding a proposed permit revision to put the Mt. Taylor uranium mine on active status. The mine, near Grants, NM, has been inactive (on “standby” status) without cleanup for 23 years. The mine’s owner, Rio Grande Resources, received a fourth renewal for the standby permit in January 2012, but on April 12, 2013 it notified the public it was seeking a revision to change the mine’s status to “active”. The NMELC filed the hearing request on behalf of its clients, Amigos Bravos and the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE).
Go to case page.
