Environment

AGU: Why We Can No Longer Ignore Consecutive Disasters

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AGU News:

In recent decades, a striking number of countries have suffered from consecutive disasters: events whose impacts overlap both spatially and temporally, while recovery is still under way.

The risk of consecutive disasters will increase due to growing exposure, the interconnectedness of human society and the increased frequency and intensity of non‐tectonic hazard.

This paper provides an overview of the different types of consecutive disasters, their causes and impacts. The impacts can be distinctly different from disasters occurring in isolation (both spatially and temporally) Read More

Heinrich, Udall Introduce Bill To Designate Cerro De La Olla Wilderness

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Cerro de la Olla (Pot Mountain) on the horizon above the Rio Grande Gorge in Rio Grande del Norte National Monument.  Courtesy photo

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) introduced legislation Friday to establish Cerro de la Olla Wilderness within the Río Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico.

For hundreds of years, people of the Taos area have hunted, gathered herbs, and collected firewood on the flanks of Cerro de la Olla. This proposed wilderness Read More

Y Now Accepting Trail Summer Job Applications

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YMCA News:

The Family YMCA,  is taking applications packages for employment in their Summer Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) program from now through March 16.

The positions are open to all regional youth.

Application packages and job descriptions are available online at laymca.org/y-corps. 

Applications are available at the Los Alamos and Española YMCA teen centers.  Early application is recommended but applications will be taken at the teen centers until close of business, 8 pm, on Monday, March 16, or delivered by 10 pm to The Family YMCA, 1450 Iris Street in Los Alamos. The Y is open on weekends Read More

New Mexico Supreme Court Reaches Decision: Energy Transition Act Does Apply To Closure Of San Juan Generating Plant

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The New Mexico Supreme Court at 237 Don Gaspar in Santa Fe is the highest court in the state of New Mexico. It is established and its powers defined by Article VI of the New Mexico Constitution. Courtesy/NMSC

NM SUPREME COURT News:

SANTA FE — The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Energy Transition Act (passed and signed into law in 2019), must be applied by the PRC to the San Juan Generating Station abandonment proceedings.

In response, the bill’s sponsors issued the following statements:

“The Energy Transition Act is the law of the land,” said Sen. Jacob Candelaria, who co-sponsored Read More

Tales Of Our Times: Combating Pollutant Plumes In Groundwater Is Slow-Going

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Tales of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water

Combating Pollutant Plumes In Groundwater Is Slow-Going

The U.S. EPA delivered unwelcome news five months ago about Española’s stubborn problems at the “North Railroad Avenue Plume Superfund Site”.

A letter from the EPA told the New Mexico Environment Department that the problems of it now belong to the NMED. The details of the case keep shifting, which makes the primary lesson clearer: Cleaning up pollution messes is immensely harder than avoiding them from the start.

The story goes back more than 50 years and has Read More