ABQjournal: Judge Endorses Uranium Mining Plan
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission judge has endorsed a mining company’s plan to extract uranium near two Navajo Nation communities in northwestern New Mexico.
Eastern Navajo Dine Against Uranium Mining has raised concerns about possible ground-water pollution at four proposed mining sites near Church Rock and Crownpoint.
New Mexico-based Hydro Resources Inc. has asked the NRC for permits to inject chemicals into the ground to release uranium and pump the solution to the surface.
The anti-mining group is concerned about how the mining, called in-situ leaching, would affect an aquifer that supplies drinking water to surrounding communities.
The aquifer “is the sole source of drinking water for about 15,000 people, almost all of them Navajo,” said Doug Meiklejohn, an attorney for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center in Santa Fe, which represents the group.
Craig Bartels of Corrales, president of Hydro Resources, said his company would not pollute the ground water.
He accused the law center of milking the issue for fund-raising purposes.
The NRC staff and NRC Judge E. Roy Hawkens have ruled against the challenges to Hydro Resources’ plan, Bartels said.
“Any reasonable technical person who looks at this finds in our favor,” Bartels said. “So any reasonable person who looks at this has to say that what they’re presenting is not correct.”
ABQjournal: Otero Mesa Drilling Less Ominous Than Enviros Claim By Mark Mathis, executive director
Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy
When pondering complex, controversial issues, slippery rhetoric and hyperbole abound. Your best defense in such situations is logic.
On the issue of energy development on Otero Mesa using logic is a must, or you might be frightened into believing statements that defy reason. …
As commissioner of public lands, Lyons knows that today’s drilling technologies are far superior to the techniques used decades ago that resulted in a level of environmental impact that was unacceptable. …
Oil companies have the technology to do the job cleanly and safely (they do it every day across the state and nation)….
In the oil and natural gas business spills and leaks are a fact of life. While most operations run cleanly and smoothly, accidents do happen. No industry is perfect. The good news is, spilled oil is not a biohazard. When oil hits the ground it will biodegrade. Oil companies take the contaminated soil and farm in rows like a crop. Microbes and sometimes plant material are added to turn the soil into rich, productive ground that you could use in your garden. …
Who are you going to believe in this highly-charged debate over Otero Mesa? Trust your own reasoning skills. Better yet, don’t rely on my words or those of Capra. Do a little research on your own.
Amen to thinking for yourself. I notice Mr Mathis says drilling for oil is so much cleaner than it used to be. But, if you can fertilize your garden with oil, how was it a problem before — and a problem, no more. mjh
ABQjournal: Wolf Is At Rancher’s Door
FOR THE cultures, economic systems, communities and children in the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA) there are, unfortunately, powerful media and outreach campaigns shaping “public opinion,” and passing for it.
To these extremely populous but misinformed segments of society, the BRWRA consists of … an empty slate of pristine wilderness, and a few disgruntled ranchers. In actuality this is an ancient agricultural area inhabited for more than 1,000 years. …
The beauty and bounty of nature is a tribute to the historical local communities here which ought to be recognized, honored and preserved for the great value of the effect their culture has on the preservation of biodiversity, even if it takes an amendment to the EPA to achieve this. …
The loss of biodiversity that will result from the ongoing process of cultural genocide befalling these communities is not properly understood by the masses. Although this type of degradation is documented by scientists (Ed Medina and Dr. John Rinne of the USDA Rocky Mountain Research Station), this important information is ignored by the wolf program. …
Buyouts and compensation are not compatible with the preservation of the human cultures or the biodiversity.
Another major impact? so far unaddressed by the program? is the enormous amount of fear, terror and stress it engenders. The existing levels of government agency created fear, terror and stress should be unacceptable anywhere in the world, and certainly reaches totalitarian levels of callous and aggressive government heavy-handedness toward a local population. …
Is this what cultural genocide feels like?
MARY MACNAB
Blue, Arizona
Notice the repeated use of “biodiversity” here to mean preserving ranching as a lifestyle. Isn’t it ironic to be pro-biodiversity but anti-wolf?
I hear one message in all three of these: trust the people who have the most to gain by lying to themselves. Logic can be used to deceive. mjh