Environment
Peeling back the earth
After years of underground mining at a molybdenum deposit north of Taos, the mine owners are considering peeling back the earth and making it an open-pit mine, The Taos News reported this week.
Officials with Chevron Mining say they hope to decide soon on the future of the mine a few miles east of Questa. Molybdenum, which is used to strengthen steel, has been mined there since the 1920s, according to the environmental and social justice group Amigos Bravos. Open-pit mining was conducted from 1965 to 1983, when operations went underground. The mine's owner, Molycorp, was purchased by Chevron Mining in 2005.
Food rolls out to flood victims
Albuquerque’s Roadrunner Food Bank put its new Mobile Food Pantry into quick action during the recent floods in Ruidoso. On July 30, Roadrunner sent a truck containing 36,000 pounds of food and supplies to two churches: the Angus Nazarene Church in Capitan and Christian Services of Lincoln County, a Roadrunner spokeswoman told the New Mexico Independent.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Wait is longer at ABQ emergency rooms
Waiting time for emergency rooms in Albuquerque are up to four hours, the Albuquerque Journal reports today.
Acknowledging political reality, Gov. Bill Richardson has scaled down his health care priorities for the special session that starts Aug. 15, the Journal reports. Instead of universal health coverage, Richardson's focus will be on the state's children.
Developers are talking about rental properties and neighborhood services near a planned Rail Runner Express train stop, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
The Federal Aviation Administration will conduct the last of scheduled public hearings on the potential environmental impact of the spaceport today in Las Cruces, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports. The hearings are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the Dona Ana County Government Center, 845 N. Motel Blvd., in Las Cruces.
No room for bikes at the 'greenest convention in history'
From the Colorado Independent Organizers for the Democratic National Convention and party leaders have touted the official greenness of the upcoming convention in Denver, including everything from biodiesel buses and recyclable materials to carbon counting. But in the rush to secure everything green—even setting up a “hybrid-only parking lot” at the Pepsi Center—it seems one simple and fairly obvious LEED-certified step was overlooked: Installing bike racks.
Report: Want to save a trillion gallons of water, American West? Here's how
Southwestern states could save more than 1 trillion gallons of water a year by cutting use in four key areas, a report released today by Environment New Mexico suggests.
According to the authors of "Using Water Wisely," the region might reduce water use by more than 5 million acre-feet per year — 1.8 trillion gallons by doing the following:
Help farmers make the switch to drip irrigation
Help homeowners embrace low-water landscaping
Reduce the use of coal and natural gas to make electricity
Provide conservation incentives to businesses
Santa Fe architect gets props in Business Week
Santa Fe architect Edward Mazria's challenge to the building industry -- to achieve carbon neutrality in construction by the year 2030 -- has caught the attention of Business Week magazine, which is running a full-length story on Mazria's 2030 Blueprint message in its current issue.
The article, "Building a Greener America," says the "bold" challenge Mazria's nonprofit Architecture 2030 issued to the building industry in 2006 "now seems prescient."
"A survey published by McGraw-Hill Construction Research & Analytics with the U.S. Green Building Council in July stated that green building is expected to represent 6% of American residential construction this year, up from 2% in 2005. Given the battered state of U.S. housing, that kind of growth is promising."
Drilling in the West
Oil production on western lands during the Bush administration is down 12 percent from the average during the Clinton era, according to an article in the New York Times August 3. Average production overall was 97.9 million barrels annually from 2001 to 2006, while production in the 1990's averaged 111.5 million barrels per year.
The Bush administration, though, has issued three times as many permits as Clinton did in the last six years of his administration. As it turns out, companies are going for natural gas instead of oil, with production of that commodity being 34 percent higher, at 2.4 million cubic feet annually, than the 1.8 billion it was during Clinton's administration.
Can cow manure power homes? NY firm and Amarillo dairy give it a go.
A company in west Texas is doing what its competition couldn't over the border in New Mexico — using cow manure to power homes.
Using a process known as methane digestion, the New York company Microgy is planning to turn millions of tons of cow manure, food scraps and bacteria every year into natural gas at a plant now under construction about 40 miles southwest of Amarillo, The Amarillo Globe-News reports.
Cnossen Dairy, which has about 10,000 head of cattle near the town of Hereford, will remain in the milk business, and therefore in the manure business. Microgy, a subsidiary of Environmental Power, plans to install six large digesting tanks that turn the manure and other materials into clean methane gas. The resulting methane, which the company markets under the trademark name Renewable Natural Gas, will be pumped into an existing natural gas pipeline.
State lawmakers talk tough on adjudicating water rights
State legislators meeting in Las Cruces this week are talking about springing loose millions of dollars in state funds to help untangle one of the state's thorniest issues: who is entitled to water and how much are they entitled to?
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that state Sen. Mary Kay Papen, a Las Cruces Democrat, suggested at a meeting of the Water and Natural Resources Committee that the Legislature appropriate $10 million for the process of adjudicating water rights. And rather than wait, she suggested making the allocation during the special session that begins next week in Santa Fe.
Green crude may come to Las Cruces
Although Las Cruces is known for its desert landscape, a bio-fuel company may be looking to grow algae there. Sapphire Energy has found a way to extract what is known as "green crude" from the water plant. This green-colored crude is the chemical equivalent of sweet crude oil.
The company's Website calls it "the world's first renewable gasoline," and states:
Sapphire Energy has built a revolutionary platform that uses photosynthetic microorganisms to produce a renewable, high-value replacement for fossil fuel petroleum. This domestic crude oil requires only sunlight, CO2 and non-potable water – and can be produced at massive scale on non-arable land.
A very wet bargain
Albuquerque has a lot of water conservation to do in the next few years even after sucessful toilet rebates and educational campaigns. But the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has shown little interest in another conservation method that has worked in Santa Fe, Alamogordo and other arid communities: The more you use, the more you pay.
Honeybees gone wild
I got a chance to check out the Costanza family’s Belen apple orchard last week with some of my colleagues from KNME. We paid the visit in order to get up close and personal with one of the many bee hives Ed Costanza helps maintain. In the one he took apart in front of me over the course of about an hour, I gazed down at what the beekeeper estimated to be 60,000 bees.
Costanza took apart the hive one thin shelve at a time, each jam packed with clusters of buzzing bees on top of elegantly symmetrical honey combs. Video by KNME
FEMA braces for slew of trailer suits
FEMA has asked a federal judge for immunity in cases filed over high levels of formaldehyde found in trailers used to house Hurricane Katrina victims. Congressional hearings have revealed that FEMA knew about the formaldehyde problem in its trailers, which it bought, and failed to take action for almost two years.
Solar eureka? Not so fast!
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they have discovered a cheap and easy way to convert solar energy into energy that can power homes and cars. Already it is being touted by some as a "giant leap" and "major discovery that has enormous implications" for mankind.
But at least one solar technology researcher at Sandia National Laboratories says it's a bit early to break out the champagne. While the MIT crew may have a significant discovery, "I don't think they can go so far as to say this will lead to a revolution in solar energy," said Nathan Siegel.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
New Mexico's highways have been ranked third in the nation by a new study by the Reason Foundation, according to New Mexico Business Weekly.
Families shopping for back to school items will get a break this weekend as New Mexico tax-free weekend starts today. According to the Farmington Daily Times, clothing and shoes costing less than $100 will be tax-free as well as school supplies under $15.
Proposed legislation in Washington would settle outstanding and ongoing Indian water rights cases in the Santa Fe and Taos areas, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
State will challenge EPA's air quality permit for Desert Rock coal-fired plant
Gov. Bill Richardson and New Mexico Attorney General Gary King announced today that they will immediately file an appeal of the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency’s issuance of an air quality permit for the proposed Desert Rock coal-burning power plant. The plant would be built on the Navajo Nation about 25 miles southwest of Farmington.
The EPA in a press release today claimed that the plant would be one of the cleanest coal-fired power plants in the nation.
But in a joint press release countering those claims, Richardson and King, along with NM Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry, called the permit "ill-advised" and suggested that the EPA and Sithe Global of Houston cut a deal to evade judicial review of the power plant. They allege that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in issuing the permit, and didn't require appropriate analysis of air requirements before issuing it.
N.M. gives agricultural chemical giant slap on the wrist for violations
The New Mexico Environment Department has just issued a $279,000 fine to Helena Chemical Co. for air quality violations at its Mesquite, New Mexico location. The state Environmental Protection Division delivered the citation yesterday and it included 11 alleged violations.
Helena is one of the nation's largest producers of agricultural chemicals and fertilizer. The company is an American subsidiary of one of Japan's largest trading companies, Marubeni, which has recorded record profits for the last five years, including nearly $1.5 billion last year. Marubeni deals in a variety of business areas including energy, electronics, textiles, food and real estate to name a few.
Voters: End oil dependence, but don't make us pay too much.
Congress and the next president would be advised to lean green, based on the results of a new poll that finds Western voters strongly support a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks, increased spending on mass transit and a shift away from oil as a transportation fuel.
The environmental advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists, perhaps best-known for its role as a nuclear safety watchdog, polled 2,003 voters in New Mexico and six other western states July 19-23, just as crude oil was starting to retreat from record high prices and gasoline prices were starting to drop. Nine out of 10 of those polled said it is critical for the United States to end its dependence on oil, 95 percent said the government should act now to avoid future energy crises and 89 percent said they were concerned that the country has no plan for transitioning to fuels other than oil.
Feds tackle hot-button issue of domestic wells, who gets water first
The federal agency that manages the lower Colorado River is tackling an incendiary issue that recently exploded to life in southeastern New Mexico: domestic wells taking water that doesn't belong to them.
Earlier this month, a state judge in Silver City found that new domestic wells on the Mimbres River were tapping water that the New Mexico Constitution says belongs to others with more senior rights. His ruling sent shock waves through New Mexico's water community and prompted the Office of the State Engineer to appeal.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Is the guv out of the veepstakes?
These days, Big Bill doesn't seem to be looming so big as a Vice Presidential contender, the Albuquerque Journal notes. The print edition devotes most of page A4 to an AP story about the contenders, with a sidebar by Jeff Jones.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Transportation is in a pickle because two tunnels and an overpass it built for the Rail Runner Express meet height guidelines set by the feds—but not the state. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports this morning that the state won't rebuild the tunnels because the older state guidelines were set for bigger freight trains, not today's smaller passenger trains.