A long-awaited piece of federal legislation, the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Conservation Act, was introduced by U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich on June 10. This legislation would designate around 240,000 acres of the new Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument as “Wilderness.”
Click here to send a thank-you note to Sens. Udall and Heinrich.
This permanent Wilderness designation will assure higher levels of protection for the landscapes, wildlife, archeological and historic resources located in these especially rough and fragile portions of the 486,000-acre Monument. The Wilderness designation doesn’t allow motorized vehicles and will have a more protective management plan than the rest of the monument and prevents most development in the designated area.
“After working with many groups, governments, agencies ...
New Mexico Copper Corp. wants to re-establish a polymetallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro, N.M.
The Copper Flat Mine is not the answer to Sierra County’s economic woes. Just like Grant County’s copper mines, it will be subject to the boom-and-bust economic cycle caused by volatile global copper prices and will potentially create a huge environmental liability for the public to clean up. Read more about the problems with the DEIS and proposed Copper Flat mine plan here.
Please click here to comment to the BLM about Copper Flat Mine.
The 2,190-acre project would use BLM-managed public land and private property to mine and process copper and molybdenum. The Bureau of Land Management has requested public review and comment on its Draft ...
By Allyson Siwik
Gila Resources Information Project and Chapter Water Committee
The Bureau of Land Management in November issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Copper Flat copper mine in Hillsboro, Sierra County, N.M. The agency has extended the public comment period by 45 days and requests comments by March 4.
The New Mexico Copper Corporation proposes re-establishing a poly-metallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro. The operation would produce copper concentrate with gold and silver, as well as molybdenum concentrate. Quintana Mineral Corp. operated the mine for three and a half months in 1982.
The 2,190-acre project would use BLM-managed public land and private property. It consists of an open-pit mine, flotation mill, tailings-storage facility, disposal areas for waste rock, ...
Are you wondering how things work at the Roundhouse? Are you concerned about the new composition of the State House of Representatives? Are you worried about legislation that could harm all New Mexicans? Are you looking for a way to help? Join our Grassroots Lobbying Training.
Learn how the legislature works, what elected officials are thinking, the importance of their staff, and how to communicate your message effectively. In the first part of the training, you’ll learn the concepts behind lobbying; in the second half you’ll have the opportunity to hear about specific legislation that we’ll face in this upcoming session and about what you can do to help.
Las Cruces, Wednesday, January 6th, 6-8:30pm
Southwest Environmental Center, 275 North Downtown ...
New Mexico is a test case for the utility industry’s coordinated nationwide effort to kill residential solar energy, and you just helped win another battle for solar!
The latest test case in utilities’ nationwide anti-solar scheme is in Southern New Mexico, where El Paso Electric has attempted to become the first utility in the nation to put solar customers into a separate rate category — so they can be charged much higher rates than other customers.
Many of you attended Public Regulation Commissioner SandyJones’ public hearings about EPE’s rate case in Southern New Mexico, and many more wrote to Commissioner Jones asking him to oppose this unfair proposal.
And guess what? It worked!
The Public Regulation Commission last week voted 3-2 to eliminate the anti-solar proposal from ...
We wish Margot Wilson a relaxing and rewarding retirement! From forest-restoration projects to travel management plans to injudicious mining proposals to State Game Commission meetings, Margot Wilson has advocated for the outdoors, our wildlife, our water and our natural landscapes from low elevations to high for decades. And even when doing all that, she also led outings to so many special places across New Mexico.
I first met Margot in the mid ’90s when she started a Sierra Club section in Truth Or Consequences — as unlikely a place to find fellow Sierrans as I thought could exist. But find each other we did as Margot organized and brought speakers to tell about the environmental plights of the places we ...
Allyson Siwik, Chapter Executive Committee Gila Resources Information Project
As the dust settles on the 2015 legislative session, I’m heartened by many of our state senators who voted to hold the Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) accountable for its misguided and wasteful plan to divert the Gila River. The ISC is spending millions of dollars planning a massive diversion project that is unlikely to ever be built and may yield little water — at a likely cost of more than a billion dollars. These funds should instead be spent on cost-effective community water projects that will meet long-term water needs without harming New Mexico’s last free-flowing river that contributes significantly to our hunting, fishing, and recreation economy.
The ISC’s Gila planning process has lacked ...
Allyson Siwik, Chapter Executive Committee, Gila Resources Information Project Director
With only 16 days left in the 60-day legislative session, mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, owner of the Chino, Cobre and Tyrone copper mines in Grant County, tried to push through a bill to roll back critical safeguards in the New Mexico Mining Act. Although a strong defense by environmental groups and legislative champions prevented HB625 from ever coming up for a vote in the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, we expect that the mining industry will bring the bill back during the 2016 legislative session.
Freeport-McMoRan owns and operates in Grant County two of the nation’s largest open-pit copper mines that contaminate a billion gallons (3,345 acre-feet) of water ...
