I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Between 50 and 150 New Mexicans’ deaths each year in San Juan County are caused by air pollution from coal-fired power plant emissions, according to estimates in a study released Thursday by the Clean Air Task Force…
New Mexico has become the 13th state to side with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s new rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries, cement facilities and coal power plants, Attorney General Gary King announced Thursday.…
Many American children are born ‘pre-polluted’ with carcinogens, panel reports.
The Green Ridge Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association in Tijeras plans to install a controversial aluminum-based treatment system designed by Bernalillo-based ARS-USA to treat high fluoride and arsenic levels, Association members and project engineer Andrew Robertson have told The Independent. Green Ridge will be the second water system in the U.S. to use the system, and hopes to avoid the expensive problems the first user, the Town of Bernalillo, has encountered.
A dairy industry group is claiming up to half of New Mexico’s dairies could be driven out of business by new regulations proposed by the state Environment Department, the Associated Press and KOB reported Sunday. The claims come…
Helena Chemical Company won a defamation lawsuit against Arturo Uribe, a 40-year old social worker who lives near a warehouse owned by the Tennessee-based Helena Chemical Company, and had spoken out repeatedly about the company. Two months prior to Helena’s suit against him, Uribe and 22 community members sued the company–which had been repeatedly cited for air quality violations–saying its emissions were making local children sick.
Contract water system engineer Ramesh Narasimhan’s firm, NCS, was fired Tuesday and the Town will seek undisclosed damages, Mayor Patricia Chavez announced. The move followed news that the state Environment Department would issue a second drinking water violation for high arsenic levels.
Arsenic levels at both of Bernalillo’s active wells have jumped over the past three years, and the New Mexico Environment Department announced Tuesday it will issue the Town a second arsenic violation notice by next week. The town’s project engineer, Ramesh Narasimhan, is now considering supplementation of the Town’s aluminum-based arsenic removal system with iron treatments — an approach recommended in a 2006 engineering report scuttled by former town manager Stephen Jerge. At Narasimhan’s recommendation, Jerge opted instead for the Town’s no-bid purchase of the aluminum-based system, which is produced by a Bernalillo firm.
Two years after Bernalillo spent at least $4.9 million installing new water treatment equipment, the state Environment Department will now step in to help the town address problems with the system and drinking water quality, a Department spokeswoman told The Independent.
Instead of consistently bringing the town drinking water’s arsenic levels into compliance with federal drinking water standards, Bernalillo’s new water treatment system has repeatedly pushed aluminum to levels exceeding federal standards. Residents’ complaints started in summer 2009 and occurred as recently as last month–but the town’s contract engineer Ramesh Narasimhan knew about the problem nearly a year earlier, as did former Town manager Stephen Jerge, Narasimhan claims.
