Southern New Mexico Group Project Jupiter Raises Concerns Over Pollution, Transparency. Beware the Sleight of Hand. If Something Seems “Too Good to Be True,” It’s Worth Investigating

The 21st century has seen an advancement in technology like no other point in history, but due to the rapid pace of these advancements, we are often unaware of the potential downsides. State and federal governments have taken certain steps when it comes to the supervision and regulation of emerging technologies, but these steps are often insufficient to address potential risks. Worse, the public is often left unaware and uninformed.

Project Jupiter — a massive new data center planned for Doña Ana County in southern New Mexico — is an example of private companies rushing ahead with development without adequate oversight and transparency.      The developers promise to bring significant monetary investment and job opportunities. But there has been a troubling lack of transparency about the project, which is especially worrisome given how fast the project is moving.

There’s no doubt that the regional economies of the El Paso-Las Cruces area are going to see massive changes if the project moves forward. But the environmental harms may be drastic as well as the developers intend to install a large natural gas plant to power the facility, but they have not been transparent about how big it will be or the pollution impact. According to notices published in November 2025, the project will emit about 500 tons of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides per year. That is a major public health concern in an area that struggles with dangerously high ozone pollution already.      The November notices also report the plant will emit a staggering 12.7 million metric tons of green-house gases per year — considerably more than the 8.5 million metric tons emitted annually by the entire El Paso metro area.      An October notice showed an even greater climate impact, apparently underscoring the fact that even the developers are unclear regarding the true impact of the project. And we haven’t even touched the topic of the water demands of the project.

If the Project Jupiter developers truly want to partner with the community, it is imperative they not leave us in the dark about the risks involved. Better still, the developers should use solar power and battery storage instead of fossil fuels to run their power grid. This would be easily affordable, particularly since the region is one of the sunniest places in the country. It would also demonstrate a commitment to delivering positive change for our community.

More information on Project Jupiter – https://projectjupitertogether.com/

Michelle Compean is a senior at Pebble Hills HS in El Paso, Texas.
Fernanda Theresa Compean is a senior at UTEP, studying Art.
David Baake is the Chair of the Southern New Mexico Group of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.

What is a Sacrifice Zone? When I taught freshman English at Eastern New Mexico University-Ruidoso, I taught the two-part section, “Cancer Alley, The Poisoning of the American South” and the class was introduced to the concept of Environmental Justice and specifically the term “environmental racism.” Today, ten years later, those living along the 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River have a cancer risk 47 times the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “acceptable” standard due to poor air and water quality. Their lives continue to be sacrificed in the name of progress.

Fifty years ago the uranium mining industry moved into the Four Corners area and promptly compromised the culture of our Hopi, Navajo, and Mormon communities. As a result of the cultural devastation, the 1983 Academy Award film, Four Corners: A National Sacrifice Area? was released. And for the most part, ignored.

Today, there are more than 250,000 Americans living in areas where incidences of cancer caused by air pollution exceed the EPA’s current upper limit of acceptable risk. Fruitland, NM in the Four Corners area, currently has a cancer risk documented at 29 times the national “acceptable” standard. The health and well-being of these 249 people have been sacrificed in the name of industrial progress.

On 6 April 2023, NBC televised a news story featuring Michael Regan, the current EPA Administrator, who was on “a journey to justice tour.” The tour focused on his visit to an elementary school approximately 450 feet from the Denka rubber plant in the infamous 85 mile Cancer Alley of Louisiana. When asked about the term “sacrifice zone” his response in part was, “… There are none of these facilities in Beverly Hills … most of these individuals are Black, Brown, Tribal and/or low income … . There is a consistent pattern here.”

The Climate Reality Project intensifies the definition as “Sacrifice Zones are often defined as populated areas with high levels of pollution and environmental hazards … (due) to nearby toxic or polluting industrial facilities. These are called ‘sacrifice zones’ because the health and safety of people in these communities is being effectively sacrificed for the economic gains and prosperity of others.”

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) understands this concept and verifies the practice when, on its Air Quality Permit application, it mandates notification of property owners within one half mile and Tribal entities within ten miles of a proposed industrial build site such as a concrete batch plant. NMED also asks for the identification of “sensitive areas” including populations of children and the elderly. After receiving unprecedented local opposition, NMED wisely chose to protect the people and the environment when the Department denied the application for the proposed concrete batch plant on the State Highway 220 corridor and possibly terminating the publicly declared creation of an area industrial complex that would compromise the well-being of invisible New Mexicans. Now the Environmental Improvement Board, in a complete disregard for the residents of the area, reversed the Cabinet Secretary’s “final decision,” a decree which is currently the subject of a lengthy appeal.

There are many Americans who have paid the price of invisibility due to the lack of resources to fight environmental injustice. The world’s number one consumer product, concrete (which uses the world’s number one resource, water), costs too many New Mexicans their health and well-being because of their socio-economic positioning.

There are approximately 140 residents and property owners who live within this newly created sacrifice zone on the Billy the Kid National Scenic Byway. Historically, even within the state of New Mexico, there have been proven environmentally sound alternatives for industrial enterprises. The contractor proposing the concrete batch plant site on State Highway 220 has a 146 acre isolated tract of land where he has a current rock crushing facility a mere five miles away. He has alternative location choices. Communities need to collectively enable appropriate humanitarian and environmental solutions that enable equatable business outcomes. No one’s health should be compromised in the name of progress.

Featured image: Alpha Stock Images
Found on: Blue Diamond Gallery
Original Author: Nick Youngson

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” —John Muir

It was a beautiful morning in Southern New Mexico for a hike and remembering the importance of spending time outdoors, breathing fresh air and connecting with the beautiful landscapes of the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument on Earth Day.

The hike and picnic, which was organized by the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter’s Southern New Mexico Group and Friends of the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks along with the Bureau of Land Management, drew a healthy crowd of roughly 45 community members, activists, and representatives from U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján and U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, as well as state Sen. Carrie Hamblen, state Rep. Joanne Ferrary, Doña Ana Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor Gill Sorg and Las Cruces city councilors Becky Graham and Yvonne Flores.

FOMDP led a hike to Filmore Canyon, and Bureau of Land Management led the one to La Cueva, each with about 10-15 eager hikers, while a group stayed behind at the picnic site and enjoyed time together with Sierra Club staff and other members, all while soaking in the beautiful weather of Southern New Mexico’s spring.

One attendee said she loved hearing stories about the Filmore Canyon cave and waterfalls, some of which she had never heard before. No scraped knees were reported, but many smiles!

We would like to offer a special thank-you to Gayle Eads, political chair of the Rio Grande Chapter Southern New Mexico Group, for her hard work organizing and working logistics, volunteer and member Craig Severy, Patrick Nolan with Friends of the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks for co-organizing with our chapter and leading a fun and informative hike, and also the staff at the Bureau of Land Management for leading and educating throughout the La Cueva Hike.

Photos by Luis Guerrero

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled in early 2023 to grant Holtec International a license to ‘temporarily’ store high-level nuclear waste near Carlsbad.

In September 2021, the NRC granted a similar license to WCS/ISP in Texas near the New Mexico state line. The Texas Legislature passed a bill to prohibit state permits for the facility, and Texas Gov. Abbott signed the legislation.

We need to follow the lead of Texas and pass a bill to block any state permitting needed by Holtec to build their facility (a building permit, water to make concrete, etc.).

During the 30-day legislative session earlier this year, state Sen. Jeff Steinborn and state Rep. Matthew McQueen successfully passed out of committee a bill to accomplish this, but time ran out for the full Legislature to pass the bill. The longer 60-day session this year will be our chance to pass this bill before Holtec gets the required state permits.

The Sierra Club and other organizations have challenged the NRC’s process in the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and may challenge the final environmental impact statement in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the State of New Mexico also has filed suit.

The Texas attorney general and Fasken Oil have challenged the WCS/ISP license in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. In oral argument last month in that case, Texas and Fasken argued that the NRC doesn’t have explicit authority to issue the license under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. This argument is based on a summer decision of the Supreme Court that ruled that the US Environmental Protection Agency does not grant explicit authority to control greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. The 5th Circuit decision could go to the Supreme Court.

Federal law requires a permanent disposal site to be identified before any interim site is established, but no such site has been identified. The federal laboratories continue state-of-the-art research collaboratively with other research around the world. We need to keep up the pressure on our legislators in DC to move that research into reality.

Holtec argues that their waste storage casks are very safe, pointing out the decades of accident-free transport by the Navy. The Navy uses 8-inch-thick casks. Holtec uses 5/8 inch. The more you move this radioactive waste around, the more likely it is to have an accident or experience a terror attack.

It is urgent that we support the efforts of Sen. Steinborn and Rep. McQueen bill to prohibit state permits in order to stop Holtec’s scheme to make money off the Federal indecision in creating a long-term disposal facility, putting our communities at risk.

By Galen Farrington, Alto Coalition for Environmental Preservation
From the Fall 2022 newsletter

Retired and tranquil, our space in the world had just been shattered by the nondescript legal posting placed on the fencing across the two-lane highway from our subdivision’s postal pod. As my wife and I stood in the drizzle, we read that a concrete batch plant was to be erected in the elk-inhabited meadow before us. We and two other retired couples met and developed an action plan that began with two opposition letters to the New Mexico Environment Department, as directed by the posting.

Here is the nightmare that would ensue if that plant were built: The world’s No. 1 industry, which uses the world’s No. 1 life-sustaining resource, water, would be located within destructively harmful breathing distance of at least 200 residents/property owners and numerous endangered species, some of which are protected in the Class I White Mountain Wilderness area less than 1.2 miles to the west.

The air quality surrounding concrete batch plants has been studied at length, and the common denominator contributing to compromised health is the ingestion of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, nickel, formaldehyde, and crystalline silica. This is especially true for the breathing-impaired segments of the elderly and youth populations.

According to Rice University, “The most recent data show that, in 2015 alone, particulate matter was linked to 5,200 premature deaths in Houston,” where there are dozens of concrete batch plants.”

The Environment Department’s Air Quality Bureau states that its mission is “to protect the inhabitants and natural beauty of New Mexico by preventing the deterioration of air quality.”

The proposed concrete batch plant will not enhance air quality or add to the natural beauty along The Billy the Kid National Scenic Byway. National guidelines preclude heavy industry from disturbing the natural beauty of these designated areas.

Earlier this year, the Environment Department denied the contractor’s permit request with more than 50 pages of rationale. Roper Construction then waited until the eleventh hour to appeal. Now the state Environment Improvement Board will provide a second public hearing Oct. 18-20 to determine the legitimacy of the Environment Department’s “final order.”

The contractor has ignored crucially sensitive populations, has misrepresented modeling procedures required in the permit request, has ignored the neighborhood opposition, has demonstrated a complete disregard for the environment with an assault on government regulations, and has requested an operations schedule of 18 hours per day from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. from May through August, an obvious disrespect for his neighbors’ quest for environmental peacefulness.

The Lincoln County commissioners have not reviewed the prospects of creating an ordinance that would apply to the NM Highway 220 corridor’s uniqueness, a responsibility granted to them in at least three documents they have pledged to adhere to.

During the last 17 months, Roper Construction has pursued its business plan in spite of the universal destruction that would result.

My wife and I dedicated a combined 85 years as educators to instill the first tenet the system addressed: to create a better citizenry that produced individuals who served the common good of their communities. This contractor missed that lesson.

TAKE ACTION: Please click here to tell the Environmental Improvement Board to reject Roper’s appeal and the polluting plant’s permit once and for all.

Photo: Roper’s concrete batch plant in Carrizozo. Courtesy Mark Severance.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the WCS/ISP high-level “temporary” storage for used fuel rods from commercial nuclear reactors. These fuel cores remain extremely radioactive for a million years.  This site is 5 miles from Eunice, NM, the largest nearby city.  In Texas, the legislature quickly passed a bill banning this proposal, concurring with Gov. Greg Abbott’s objections to this risky proposal. The oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin are at risk of permanent shutdown if a substantial accident occurs, and Gov. Abbott realizes this risk.

Out of concern for the safety of New Mexicans, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has taken a strong position in opposition to the WCS/ISP storage and the Holtec proposal for a site near Carlsbad, as has state Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard. State Sen. Jeff Steinborn has attempted for years to craft a bill to provide greater oversight of such sites. A stronger proposal is needed, and we appreciate the senator’s work to fight these “temporary” storage sites.

Now that Texas is placing further roadblocks on the WCS/ISP proposal, our hopes are that the New Mexico Legislature will similarly put many barriers in place. Although federal law requires the creation of a permanent facility, there is not yet adequate technology nor political support for the work needed to permanently store this very radioactive waste. New Mexico faces the prospect of this waste being stranded here, with the casks and cladding holding the uranium fuel pellets degrading over time.

We have been fortunate this year to have Attorney General Hector Balderas join in with legal objections to Holtec’s proposal. The Rio Grande Chapter also has legal challenges to both projects. Now is the time for New Mexico to place as many additional barriers in place as we can possibly think of.  Why should the City of Eunice give some of their water to a facility that may ultimately force them from their homes?

In 2006, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a license for a similar facility in Utah.  The Skull Valley Goshute tribe (led by Margene Bullcreek and Sammy Blackbear), the State of Utah, and the Utah congressional delegation all fought this facility.  It has not yet been built.

We hope Gov. Lujan Grisham will provide a strong budget to our Environment Department, Transportation Department, and other state agencies to fund the fight. The legislature needs to support the needed resources to fight these dangerous proposals and to enact a prohibition on such projects, as other states have done.

What’s next: New Mexico Sen. Jeff Steinborn is looking at ways to protect southeaast New Mexico from the risks of Holtec’s high-level radioactive waste, perhaps with legislation in the January 2022 session. Write to luis.guerrero@sierraclub.org to get on our listserv for legislative updates and actions.

Featured image: concept illustration for Application for a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel by Holtec Internationals, from NRC application documents

After two years of negotiations, Del Oro Dairy in Anthony, NM, has agreed to several modifications to its original plan to capture polluted shallow groundwater from beneath its facility.  This revised plan is the culmination of efforts between  the New Mexico Environment Department’s Groundwater Quality Bureau, the New Mexico Citizens Dairy Coalition and Del Oro. It represents the hope that this plan spells the end for the shallow-water pollution plume that is already under residential neighborhoods and has been contributing to the larger pollution plume produced by the dozen or so dairies along Dairy Row on I-10 around Anthony.

The polluted water will be pumped into a storage tank from 10 wells that will pump continuously.  That water will be used exclusively to wash down the floors of the milking parlor — not equipment.

It will then be captured in a sump and pumped into an evaporative lagoon.

As part of the agreement between the parties, the dairy and the Environment Department will hold a virtual Town Hall in mid-December to explain the process and take questions from online participants.  The town hall will be bilingual to encourage fuller participation.

Despite New Mexico’s dairy industry being a strong economic generator, its Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) production and business model exacts a very high price from our land, air and, especially, water.

The New Mexico Citizens Dairy Coalition has served as the voice of the public regarding dairy issues since 2009, when it helped the Environment Department and the industry develop and implement the industry-specific New Mexico Dairy Rule. It has spoken for New Mexicans in numerous situations, like this one, since the adoption of the revised Dairy Rule in 2015.

Along with the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, the Citizens Dairy Coalition combines the energy and resources of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Food and Water Watch, Animal Protection New Mexico, Amigos Bravos, Del Valle Concerned Citizens, and Mesquite Community Action Committee.

Dan Lorimier is the former conservation organizer for the Rio Grande Chapter.

Featured image: Google Earth view of Del Oro Dairy in Anthony, NM. Del Oro Dairy has been in negotiations with the New Mexico Citizens Dairy Coalition and Environment Department to properly clean up a pollution plume that is already under residential neighborhoods.

El Paso Electric Commits to Fossil Fuel Moratorium, Substantially Reduced Emissions; Community Organizers Continue to Advocate For Clean Energy

Contact:

Dr. David Garcia, Chaparral resident, former Doña Ana County commissioner, drdavidjgarcia@yahoo.com 

Antoinette Reyes, Organizer,, Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, antoinette.reyes@sierraclub.org , (c) 575 342-1727

Miguel Escoto, Campaign Representative, Earthworks ,mescoto@earthworksaction.org (c) 915 500-9751

NOTE: All of the individuals quoted are available to speak to the press.

EL PASO, TX —  Today, the Chaparral Coalition for Community Health and the Environment, the Sierra Club, and Earthworks (the Community Groups) reached an agreement with El Paso Electric (EPE) that will substantially reduce air pollution in El Paso and southern New Mexico. The agreement will temporarily block new fossil fuel power plant construction while pushing EPE toward a clean energy future. In exchange for these concessions from EPE, the Community Groups agreed to withdraw their legal case challenging EPE’s application for an air permit for Newman 6, a new unit that EPE intends to construct at the Newman methane gas power plant.   

“The legal deck was stacked against us, fighting a utility like El Paso Electric,” said Dr. Jeanette Lara, a Chaparral resident. “The health and climate concessions we forced from EPE were because we worked hard to organize our community. The struggle is not over until EPE replaces all its fossil fuels with the clean, renewable energy that we deserve and the world desperately needs.”

Under the agreement, El Paso Electric:

• Is prohibited from ever constructing another fossil fuel unit at the Newman power plant site after Newman 6 is built;
• Is prohibited from constructing any new fossil fuel units, anywhere, for the next four years, with limited exceptions;
• Must begin the process of retiring two existing gas units, which were constructed before the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and lack basic emissions controls;
• Must reduce CO2 pollution from Newman 6 by 500,000 tons—the equivalent of taking 100,000 cars off the road, or planting 8 million trees.
• Must reduce ozone-forming NOx pollution from Newman 6 by 50 tons;
• Must dedicate funds to reducing ozone-forming volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution across El Paso County, fully offsetting the emissions from Newman 6; 
• Must create a fund to support the impacted communities and mitigate the local effects of pollution generated by Newman; and
• Make environmental reports from Newman Unit 6 publicly available online.

The full text of the settlement agreement is available online here.

“We do not want Newman 6. But if it’s going to be built anyway, it’s better built with this settlement than without it.” said Dr. David Garcia, Former Doña Ana County Commissioner and Chaparral resident. “Newman 6 will now pollute our community less than it would have otherwise, and EPE will pay into a fund to support the community they are impacting.”

This settlement follows unsuccessful attempts by the El Paso City Council and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to block the construction of Newman Unit 6. EPE is prohibited from providing New Mexicans with power from this plant, meaning the project’s high price tag will be footed entirely by Texas ratepayers. This settlement was the result of intense community organizing and public advocacy, but more work remains to be done; while the Newman 6 methane gas-fueled power plant will operate more cleanly than it would have otherwise. EPE–the only private monopoly electric utility in Texas—has still decided to lock in years of fossil fuel consumption despite EPE’s own experts showing that all gas projects are more expensive than those that include any level of renewables. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just announced a “code red for humanity” regarding the emergency need to reduce carbon emissions. 

“After Unit 6 is completed, El Paso Electric committed to no new fossil fuel generation at Newman ever again,” said Antoinette Reyes from the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club. “While we are far from attaining a 100 percent clean and renewable grid, this settlement brings us that much closer while also giving a traditionally marginalized community of color a fighting chance.”

“It is tragic that, just after the world’s climate scientists put us on red alert, the sunniest city in Texas is locking itself into decades more fossil fuel generation,” said Miguel Escoto, an organizer with Earthworks who lives in El Paso. “Through unrelenting legal and public pressure, we were able to bring EPE to the table and get these health and climate concessions. The fact that this deal is the best the community could possibly, legally accomplish is a demonstration of the complete failure of our regulatory systems, and I’m proud of how my community stood up to pollution and climate injustice.”

“This agreement is an important step towards achieving cleaner air in El Paso, even though far more needs to be done to reduce emissions in the El Paso area” said David Baake, a Las Cruces-based attorney who represented the Community Groups in challenging the Newman 6 air permit.  “We have forced El Paso Electric to substantially reduce dangerous emissions and to commit to a moratorium on fossil fuel development–a historic achievement that can and should serve as a precedent for utilities across the country.  But as long as El Paso Electric continues to run any of its fossil fuel units, our community will continue to suffer.  The next step is for EPE to commit to achieving 100% clean energy–and we will keep fighting to make sure it does.”

“The money we secured for the Chaparral community is just the beginning,” said Emma Pabst, Sierra Club Campaign Representative. “Fracked gas pollution causes huge health problems, including higher rates of asthma, often in communities that have already been hit hard by the pandemic. Until El Paso Electric truly says ‘no’ to fossil fuels altogether, we and the Chaparral community will continue to push.” 

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About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.8 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.

About Earthworks

Earthworks is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the adverse impacts of mineral and energy development while promoting sustainable solutions. For more information, visit www.earthworks.org.

About the Chaparral Coalition for Community Health and the Environment

The Chaparral Coalition for Community Health and the Environment includes people who live within two miles of the proposed Newman plant and oppose the expansion of dirty fossil fuel infrastructure in their backyard.

As I look to the east of town at night, it looks like a prison or an airport, something of importance.

Initially the lights were white, then some yellow ones were added years later, and now I can see red blinking lights, the signs of industrial activity where there used to be almost none. The area is about 5 miles from my house, but all activities in the area are of Urenco, the uranium-enrichment facility, Waste Control Specialists-ISP, the nuclear dump that is on the other side of the Texas state line from Urenco, and then there are the new windmills on the Texas side. Then there is the ever-present Lea County landfill for all of the Lea County communities and now a new Loves Truckstop.

Some people call it economic diversity for Lea County, N.M. I call it a paradox. I recall the days when I would see a calm and dry desert scene common in this area, with cows and the occasional coyote or rabbit. I remember when the basic jobs picture involved oil and gas extraction and all the necessary ancillary businesses required for that industry.

Now I find myself going from one environmental fight to another. I tried fighting off Urenco, after it had been run off from Louisiana and Tennessee because they weren’t wanted there. I tried fighting Waste Control Specialists when they wanted their low-level nuclear-waste license. I spoke against the changes that the Department of Energy wanted to make on waste volume and expansion at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (even as I recall the fire and waste explosion in 2014), about 37 miles from my house, and now I fight the proposed Holtec International project sited 35 miles from my home near WIPP.

Holtec seeks to bring 173,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste from around the country and even possibly from overseas. They talk of possible reprocessing of the waste in the future. I am also fighting the high-level nuclear waste license application by WCS-ISP, which wants to bring 40,000 tons of high-level commercial waste to a site just on the other side of the Texas border from us. Interestingly, both applications are being considered simultaneously.

The draft Environmental Impact Statement on both Holtec and WCS-ISP claim there will be small impacts to the area, to jobs, to people, yet no one really knows since this will be an experiment that hasn’t been done anywhere on anyone else. I feel especially indignant about these two projects because of their proximity to me and my family.

My community in Eunice is small, about 2,700 people, and yet we are disproportionately bearing the brunt of health impacts if these projects go forward. Are we considered expendable? Is the idea “Someone has to do this, so why not here”? Is it our patriotic duty to suffer the known and unknown illnesses that come with living near a high-risk nuclear dump or facility?

We live in the county with the highest cancer rate in New Mexico. We live with the risks associated with oil and gas emissions, and many live with allergies and asthma, like my two grandchildren. How much more should we be required to take for the economy to be diversified enough to satisfy the money whoremongers? I do not consent to be a guinea pig for these companies, nor will I consent to be the national sacrifice area for high-level nuclear waste generated elsewhere and sent to poison me and my family.

Rose Gardner chairs weekly meetings of activists protecting their community from harmful pollution impacts.
Featured image from from World Resource Simulation Center, 

Holloman Air Force Base (AFB) in Alamogordo wants to expand its F-16 pilot training airspace across southwestern New Mexico. Although the Air Force acknowledges that current airspace is adequate for F-16 combat training, it proposes an annual additional of 10,000 sorties, discharge of 15,000 flares and 15,000 bundles of chaff. The future of Holloman AFB is not at risk. We shouldn’t sacrifice the Gila, America’s first wilderness, and other special places in southwestern New Mexico. This region is critical to state and local tourism, retiree, and outdoor recreation economies.

Holloman’s Alternatives 2 and 3 would create a 7 million-acre Military Operations Area (MOA) over southwestern New Mexico including training flights for; low-level (500 feet Above Ground Level), high-level (above 13,500 Mean Sea Level or about 7500 AGL depending upon location), supersonic (above 30,00MSL) and nighttime training.

Population centers impacted include the Rio Grande Valley communities of Socorro, Truth or Consequences, and Las Cruces; Gila Gateway communities, including Silver City, Bayard, Santa Clara, Hillsboro, Kingston, Cliff, and Gila; and northern, including Datil and Magdalena.

Impacts include:

• Extreme noise from training operations that will disturb the peace and quiet of rural communities and national forests and wilderness areas.
• Dropping of flares poses a significantly increased level of wildfire risk to an area already vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire that doesn’t have many resources for firefighting.
• Use of chaff pollutes our environment.
• Military training over our area puts people at risk from military aircraft crashes, affects the thousands of veterans that have sought refuge in our communities to heal PTSD, and startles horses, livestock and wildlife affecting ranching, hunting, and backcountry recreation.
• These impacts undermine the quality of life and the natural amenities that are the foundation for retiree, local tourism and outdoor recreation economies

The Air Force acknowledges that Alternative 1 – expansion and reconfiguration of Talon MOA, east of Alamogordo – meets its additional training needs with the fewest risks and impacts because it builds on existing airspace. We recognize the role of Holloman’s F-16 pilot training mission to national defense. Alternative 1 best meets those needs.

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