New Mexico delegation re-introduces bill to protect Pecos watershed
Four Democratic members of New Mexico's congressional delegation on Tuesday announced they have reintroduced the Pecos Watershed Protect Act. A news release from U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, who represents the state's 3rd Congressional District, cited Source New Mexico's reporting on Monday that the Trump administration is reversing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service's decision to protect the Upper Pecos Watershed from new mining operations.
The move came several weeks after the agency canceled a Feb. 17 public hearing on the administrative process to remove that area from new mining for 20 years, which the Biden Administration had pursued in the final weeks in office. A temporary pause on mining had been in place since December.
A statement from Leger Fernández, U.S. Melanie Stansbury from the 1st Congressional District and U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján called the Trump administrations decision to reverse the withdrawal 'disturbing and insulting, especially after they canceled the only public meeting on the proposal. This is a rural community that overwhelmingly supports protecting the Pecos River. The Trump administration just blatantly disregarded that, and the value of the Pecos River with it.'
The Pecos Watershed Protection Act would permanently withdraw all federally managed minerals in the watershed from development. — preventing the leasing, patent, or sale of all publicly owned minerals. The bill has been introduced in every Congress since 2020.
The area is home to the Terrero Mining disaster from 1991, during which floodwaters breached a defunct mine and sent mining tailing sludge downriver. The spill killed tens of thousands of fish and cleanup continues to this day.
New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard in March signed an executive order banning mineral mining on approximately 2,500 acres of state trust land in the Upper Pecos Watershed that will remain in place through 2045.
The Village of Pecos, Santa Fe County and San Miguel County have passed resolutions in support of the federal legislation protecting the area.
'The Trump administration won't have the last word,' the federal delegations' statement continued. 'We will continue to push for permanent protection of the watershed through our Pecos Watershed Protection Act. New Mexicans deserve clean water free from harmful mining pollution. The Trump administration does not stand with the people of New Mexico, but we always will,'
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