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.
TELL THE EPA TO DO THE RIGHT THING:
Don’t Sacrifice Navajo Water for Uranium Mining
Recently, something unprecedented happened: the EPA agreed to revisit its 1989 decision to grant Hydro Resources Inc.‘s “aquifer exemption” permit. We hope the EPA reconsiders all the facts and revokes this permit, but we need your help.
Revoking this permit could be our last chance to protect Navajo communities’ aquifer from uranium mining.
Groups Urge EPA to Revoke Exemption for Uranium Mining Operation in Western New Mexico
Environmental groups are hopeful that a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider a permit for a uranium mining operation in western New Mexico could lead to the end to the project. Members of Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center had voiced concerns to the EPA about deficiencies in the decades-old permit application.
The Republic
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State Regulators Consider Revisions to Oil, Gas Rules
Schreiber says in his experience, industry simply wasn’t cleaning up after itself, and the pit rules helped change that. “In exchange for the benefit our land delivers to the state, we expect the state to responsibly regulate industry,“ Schreiber said.
Eric Jantz, attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, predicts what will happen after next week’s hearing. He said the oil and gas industry is calling in favors on Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and the Oil Conservation Commission she hand-picked. “We expect [the Oil Conservation Commission] to give industry everything they want,“ he said. “Bottom line is, if the pit rule is gutted, we’re going to have increased incidences of groundwater and surface water contamination.“ Santa Fe New Mexican
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NMELC Questions Oil Conservation Commission Members Bias
Commission Set to Hear Petition to Amend Pit Rule
SANTA FE, NM - On Tuesday, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) filed a Motion to Recuse on behalf of its client, Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) in New Mexico’s new oil and gas “Pit Rule” hearing. The motion asks for one member of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Commission to withdraw from the decision-making process, and for another to disclose her previous dealings with the oil and gas industry. The motion is based on public documents indicating that some Commission members may have already made up their minds to remove most of the substantive environmental protections found in New Mexico’s Pit Rule.
Activists Mount Campaign for EPA to Scrap N.M. Uranium Mine Permit
Environmental advocates are pressing U.S. EPA to revoke a key permit for a planned uranium mining facility in northwestern New Mexico adjacent to the Navajo Nation. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center and Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining say EPA is reconsidering a 23-year-old aquifer exception for Uranium Resources Inc.‘s project in the community of Church Rock, N.M. It is an area already polluted by past mining activities.
Eric Jantz, an attorney for NMELC, which has been helping ENDAUM fight new mining for years, said it “would contaminate potable water with radiation and heavy metals, making it unfit for consumption forever. The EPA has both the legal authority and moral obligation to revoke the aquifer exemption.“ Red Lodge Clearing House
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EPA Revisits Permit for What Could Be First in New Wave of Uranium Mines
But Eric Jantz with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center says the permit was based on limited and misleading water quality data. And now the Law Center is helping the group Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining petition for a revocation of the permit. So far, the groups’ online petition has gathered close to 10,000 signatures. Jantz says he thinks speculation in uranium may be overblown.
“That said, even if only a few materialize, based on history, those mines could do a lot of damage to state resources and public health.“ KUNM