Friday’s show: Caja del Rio
Last week, the U.S. Forest Service announced that a proposed new transmission line to Los Alamos National Laboratory will have “no significant impact” on the cultural and environmental resources in the area, and specifically, the Caja del Rio. (If you’re not quite sure of the project area, you can find a map, aerial view, and a shot of the Rio Grande in this newsletter from January.) As Bryce Dix reported at KUNM, tribes say the federal government ignored them during this approval of the project.
This week, I’ll be hosting two conversations about those plans, so please plan to watch New Mexico in Focus on Friday night or stream anytime on the PBS App. Both interviews will be the kind of deep conversations I love hosting on NMPBS.
In addition, stay tuned to the Rio Grande through Albuquerque. According to the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, the river may dry soon. The district stopped releasing irrigation water on September 6, and non-pueblo irrigators will not receive additional water deliveries, unless rains boost the river’s levels. You can read the September Water Update from the district online.
Some of the news:
• “Regulatory turmoil, Air Force resistance waylay Kirtland jet fuel plume cleanup” (Scott Wyland, Santa Fe New Mexican)
• “As New Mexico Shakes, State Cancels Dozens of Planned Wastewater Injection Sites” (Jerry Redfern, Capital & Main)
• “Feds, irrigation district say keep your wheels off of the silvery minnow” (Danielle Prokop, Source NM)
• “Six bridges damaged in Ruidoso disaster had been awaiting repairs from flood 16 years ago” (Patrick Lohmann, Source NM)
• “City sues construction contractors, alleging faulty work on dams required costly repairs” (Carina Julig, Santa Fe New Mexican)
• “A major Colorado River water transfer has some asking for more details” (Alex Hager, KUNC)
• “City’s climate action plan aims for a greener future” (Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ)
• “Returning Home: Two Sovereign Nations Reclaim Land Following U.S. Government Extraction, Removal, and Displacement” (DezBaa´, El Palacio)
• “Climate Lawsuits Are Exploding. Are Homicide Charges Next?” (Karen Zraick, The New York Times)
• “Richard Powers on what we do to the Earth and what it does to us” (Hua Hsu, The New Yorker)
• At Searchlight New Mexico, Alicia Inez Guzmán follows up on her August story about 80-year-old plutonium contamination in Los Alamos’s Acid Canyon.
As she notes in “Elemental questions,” after the publication of her story in August, LANL released op-eds from director Thom Mason, criticizing media coverage of the study showing continued contamination in Acid Canyon.
In her new piece, Guzmán notes that while she was reporting on the study, a LANL spokesperson declined to answer questions. And, she adds in her new story: “The lab declined Searchlight’s request to interview Mason for this article. The Environmental Protection Agency did not respond to Searchlight’s questions about its remediation levels and how its regulations apply to LANL.”
An analysis about the power dynamics at play when it comes to the northern New Mexico nuclear weapons laboratory could span years’ worth of seminars and conferences. Suffice it to say, a few of those discussions could focus on the lab’s common practice of ignoring, delaying, and declining interview requests — and then framing media coverage of the lab as deliberately lacking substance, facts, or perspective. As always, I appreciate Guzmán’s work, and her transparency about the challenges of reporting on the lab.
• Check out this guide from Bernalillo County, “Field Guide for Passive Rainwater Harvesting.” There are lots of great ideas and techniques, for no matter where in New Mexico you live.
Lastly, if you live near Cannon Air Force Base and draw your drinking water from a private well, the New Mexico Environment Department is offering free testing for PFAS. As you’ll recall, in 2018, the state learned that the Air Force had contaminated local waters with PFAS from its firefighting foams. The Air Force has yet to clean up or contain the plume from spreading, and according to a press release, the state is doing this new testing because the Air Force has neglected to do it — or deliver promised filtration systems to residents. From the state:
“The testing is available to anyone who lives in areas around Cannon AFB on a first come, first serve basis to 150 households. Depending on the response, NMED may expand the initiative. To sign up, email NMED at strategic.initiatives@state.nm.us with your full name, email address, street address, and phone number. In addition, those with questions can call Claudia Trueblood, Science Coordinator, at (505) 629-3551.”
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