Latest news with #DanielleProkop
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
New Mexico faces increased fire danger in June, after moist end to May
Thunderheads build over the Organ Mountains in the afternoon of Tuesday August, 1, 2023. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) New Mexico's relatively cool and moist weather so far this spring will dry and warm up in coming weeks, putting fire managers and forecasters on high alert for wildfires before the start of the seasonal monsoon rains this summer. This year's low snowpack has already put much of the state in drought conditions, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently declared a state of emergency and additional actions to prevent fires over the coming weeks. Recent rains around the state offer some relief, as May and June typically emerge as some of the driest months, said George Ducker, a wildfire prevention and spokesperson at the New Mexico Forestry Division. But the projected warm temperatures through the next several weeks could mean the recent spouting of new plants could aggravate the problem, he said. 'We could see a substantial dry up of these flashy fuels, the grasses and even shrubs,' Ducker said. 'Then, if you get a start, get a little bit of wind — there would be more fuel to burn.' The recent rains did not herald the start of the monsoon, the seasonal tropical patterns that provide Arizona and New Mexico with critical moisture, said Andrea Bair, a forecaster with the National Weather Service Western Region based in Salt Lake City, at a National Integrated Drought Information System presentation Tuesday. Rather, she said monsoons are expected to start in mid-June and could be stronger than past years, but hot temperatures will continue to dry out the soils and stress plants across much of the Southwestern U.S. 'The drought looks to continue throughout the season and the monthly outlook forecasts,' she said. 'So not a lot of relief is expected.' The rains lessened the acute risks of fire in the Southwest, said Jim Wallmann, a senior forecaster for the National Interagency Coordination Center Predictive Services. But other parts of the county are seeing wildfires 'extremely early' in the fire season, he said, noting the 1,000-acre Banana Lake fire in Montana. 'We're having to spread our resources over a much greater footprint of the country,' Wallmann said. 'That could affect how big a fire gets in California, if we're stretched and can't send everything to California while it's burning; we'll be on fires burning everywhere else.' Ducker said the concerns about availability for resources to fight wildfires is 'a bridge we'll cross when we come to it,' and said the state is working to be prepared. 'We have the resources to be able to jump on fires as they start,' Ducker said. Our federal partners seem to be in the same place where they're ready to respond, so right now we're just waiting for June to see what it shows us.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
As temperatures rise, New Mexico heat-rule champions push back against delay
Conservation Voters New Mexico Climate and Energy Advocate Justin Garoutte urged the New Mexico Environment Department to 'hold strong' on worker protections against heat, both indoors and outside, as the the department annouced a delay and revision of its proposed heat rule later this year. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Environmental and labor advocates expressed concerns during a news conference Monday about the New Mexico environment department's decision to extend the timeline for a proposed rule to protect workers from heat-related illness and injury. The delay comes as forecasts predict another warmer-than-average summer. NMED cited rising temperatures and increased heat-related injuries and deaths when it announced the proposed rule earlier this year. Under the original timeline, the rule could have taken effect as early as July. Its provisions include: required rest periods during hot temperatures; access to adequate shade, air-conditioning and water; and employer tracking of heat-related injuries. Amid rising temperatures, NM officials propose workplace protections NMED's revised schedule pushes hearings into the fall and 'leaves another summer where our workers are vulnerable to extreme heat in New Mexico,' Conservation Voters New Mexico Climate and Energy Advocate Justin Garoutte said. A Friday state news release said the delay 'will allow for continued outreach and stakeholder engagement throughout the summer and fall, ensuring broader participation and input in the rulemaking process.' More than 600 public comments have already been submitted on the proposed rule, according to Source NM's review. These include opposition from industry groups representing livestock, landscapers, oil and gas, restaurants, county governments and utilities. The New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, for instance, asked for clarifications on how the rule would be applied across several industries and wrote: 'We urge regulators to reject this rule as there is not sufficient data to justify any of these rules. Good employers protect their employees, but mandating all industries to follow one blanket rule will not work.' Eleven New Mexico Democratic senators, however, issued a letter supporting the new standards and noted that 'public comment opposed to the rule include a great deal of unscientific claims, compounded with echoes of the federal administration's ideological bent to oppose all government action.' During Monday's news conference, Garoutte said advocates for the rule are 'committed to getting through a rule that's as strong as possible' and 'we are here today to push back on industry groups who are claiming it's too hard, too fast and too burdensome.' In the meantime, 'we hope that our employers will use this time to put in place the commonsense protections detailed so well in the proposed rule,' he said. 'Every day that passes without this rule is another day that people across our state are exposed to dangerous and sometimes deadly working conditions.' Six other states — Maryland, California, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington — have adopted statewide regulations to reduce heat stress in the workplace. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NM environment department sues CRRUA water system
NMED filed suit against CRRUA on May 28, 2025 after what it characterized as a decade of mismanagement. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM) New Mexico's environment department on Wednesday announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority and has asked the Third Judicial District Court to appoint an independent manager to oversee its operations. The suit follows more than a decade of 'mismanagement at the utility,' NMED states in a news release, including recent and repeated failed arsenic tests. As Source reported last week, tests the agency itself took at CCRUA on May 7 recorded arsenic levels at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park plant that violated the federal limit, marking the third overage recorded at the plant in recent weeks, although the other tests were from voluntary tests. New CRRUA arsenic violation prompts NMED to evaluate taking emergency action CRRUA serves approximately 19,000 people in the border city of Sunland Park, Santa Theresa and the southernmost portion of Doña Ana County, an area with naturally occurring high levels of arsenic in the groundwater. Sunland Park and Doña Ana County jointly operate the utility, which is governed by a seven-member board. At its May 13 meeting, the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted to send immediate notice to Sunland Park to start the termination process of the Joint Powers Agreement. Environment Department Secretary James Kenney subsequently urged Sunland Park to also sever its ties with CRRUA, and acknowledged in an interview with Source NM it was an unusual step for him to take. 'We're weighing in at this point because we've had it,' he said. 'While we're exhausting our enforcement, our legal approaches, we have another approach: We have to speak about it.' Now, with its lawsuit, NMED is asking the courts to order CRRUA to: • implement real-time arsenic monitoring • distribute free arsenic test strips for all CRRUA customers • provide an alternative drinking water source if arsenic levels exceed state limits • conduct monthly public meetings • and pay civil penalties which, per state law, fund drinking water and wastewater utility operators for communities across New Mexico 'While the Environment Department has invested significant technical resources to assist CRRUA in fulfilling its duty to deliver safe and reliable drinking water, its failures continue to threaten public health,' Kenney said in a statement on Wednesday. 'Today's lawsuit and request to appoint an independent manager to oversee CRRUA signals a new approach in Environment Department efforts to protect the health of communities when they turn on their tap.' NMED's news release also notes that last July it placed 138 drinking systems across the state on notice, and that the City of Las Vegas and Cassandra Water System in Moriarity remain out of compliance.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NMED seeks approval to enact clean fuels rule by end of the year
Traffic along Tramway road captured May 21, 2025. New Mexico put forward draft rules for its clean fuels program, and officials hope hearings will begin later this year. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) As the Trump administration attacks states' efforts to combat climate change, New Mexico pushes ahead with its plans to create a market place for clean fuels. Last week, the New Mexico Environment Department proposed the Clean Transportation Fuel Program to the state's Environmental Improvement Board, which, if approved, would be the fourth one in the country. A public comment period on the 112-page draft rule is expected to start in mid-June, according to an NMED news release, with a request to schedule the required hearings this fall. The draft rule follows the New Mexico Legislature's 2024 passage of House Bill 41, which mandated the environment department create a market to incentivize less vehicular pollution and the state reduce emissions by 20% by 2030 and 30% by 2040. The law sets a deadline of July 1, 2026 for the adoption of rules creating the marketplace. Officials and proponents say the program is meant to reduce pollution over time by allowing cleaner fuel companies — using electricity or diesel made from refined plants like corn or soybeans — to sell credits to sellers of more polluting fuels. In its proposed rule, NMED created an objective measure, called the clean fuel standard, to determine the total greenhouse emissions of a fuel. The standard measures the 'well-to-wheel' intensity, said Michelle Miano, who leads NMED's Environmental Protection Division. 'It includes the drilling of the well, taking up petroleum or fossil products from the well, what it takes to refine, take to market and go to sale,' she said. 'We are calculating the carbon intensity of that entire lifecycle and we're doing that for all the different kinds of fuels.' Miano said the marketplace meets the goals of diversifying the economy; working to curb pollution; and incentivizing fuel producers to reduce their carbon footprints. New Mexico would be the fourth state to adopt this kind of program, behind California, Washington and Oregon. Miano said the program will be entirely state-run, and doesn't require federal input. 'This is a state program and state law, so no matter what happens at the federal level, this program will remain in place so that the economic benefits are received by New Mexico, regardless of federal movements,' Miano said. Transportation ranks as New Mexico's second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions behind oil and gas production, according to Travis Madsen, the transportation program director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, a nonprofit that advocates for electrification across the intermountain West. 'Most of that is burning petroleum in cars and trucks,' he told Source NM. 'And in order to reduce those emissions, we need to move our transportation and energy supplies towards less emitting, or zero-emitting energy sources — that's what the clean fuel standard aims to do.' Madsen said the efforts to use renewables on the electrical grid and the further adoption of electric cars at home could translate to cost-savings. 'Using electricity instead of gasoline can provide some major savings on fuel costs for residents or businesses, and I'm expecting that the net effect of this policy is going to be that New Mexicans save money,' he said. Madsen referenced recent proposals from House Republicans to gut clean energy tax credits and pollution rules as a driving reason for New Mexico to create the program. 'I think the federal government is definitely not moving toward emission reductions and is probably moving away. That would push things in the wrong direction and make it harder for New Mexico to achieve those pollution reduction goals that it set out,' he said. 'I think it's even more important now that New Mexico pursues actions that it can take on its own without the help of the federal government — the clean fuel standard is a prime example of that.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State water quality board backs off controversial oil and gas project discharges
About 30 people held protest signs during the Water Quality Control Commission meeting Tuesday afternoon, as deliberations continue over a proposed produced water rule. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Several environmental groups declared victory in an ongoing rulemaking process to expand the uses of oil and gas wastewater beyond the oilfields, after the Water Quality Control Commission during a Tuesday hearing reversed its position to allow releases into the environment. 'We're so delighted that the commission took their responsibility so seriously and applied science and applied the law,' New Energy Economy Executive Director Mariel Nanasi told Source NM after the meeting. 'There's no evidence that produced water can be treated and reused safely; without knowing what needs to be removed from produced water, it is impossible to develop treatment standards or assure the public that discharges will be safe.' The substantial shift comes just 10 days before the WQCC has to issue a final decision in the yearslong and controversial effort to treat and potentially reuse oil and gas wastewater. The process began in December 2023 when the New Mexico Environment Department petitioned the commission to adopt rules to expand reuse beyond oilfields. That process included weeks of testimony in 2024 from scientists, water experts, environmental officials and industry representatives. Scientists project that drought and warming temperatures from human-caused climate change will reduce New Mexico's water supplies by 25% in the next three decades, and place more strain on rivers and aquifers. For the past several years, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has proposed a so-called Strategic Water Supply that would treat and use oil and gas wastewater to compensate for those losses. However, lawmakers in the most recent legislative session stripped produced water from the final bill. Opposing water and conservation groups said treatment technology for the water remains unproven and the waste poses harm to human and environmental health. The New Mexico oil and gas industry generates billions of gallons of wastewater. The mixture is extremely salty and can contain radioactive materials, heavy metals, toxic chemicals and cancer-causing compounds from the oil and gas, such as benzene. In April, the commission adopted a draft version of the rule that would allow pilot projects using oil and gas wastewater to discharge up to 84,000 gallons per day into groundwater. Environmental groups New Energy Economy, WildEarth Guardians, Amigos Bravos and the Sierra Club submitted several arguments that the decision violated existing laws; was not based on previous testimony; and potentially threatened human and ecological health. More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers also weighed in last week, urging the Water Quality Control Commission to reconsider. Lawmakers urge water board to reconsider produced water rule On Tuesday, WQCC members acceded to those arguments. 'At this point, I believe it's premature for us to authorize discharge permits, even for pilot projects,' said Commissioner Bill Brancard during deliberations. Commissioners did not allow attorneys for the environmental groups, nor ones for the oil and gas industry, to make oral arguments on Tuesday, but instead deliberated for several hours. The vote was unanimous, although two commissioners abstained, saying they had not been present for testimony in 2024, did not feel informed enough to cast a vote. About 30 people attended the Roundhouse hearing, displaying signs stating 'No discharge of fracking waste' and 'Water is life,' prompting warnings from two Sergeants at Arms to keep signs outside the meeting room. When commissioners voted to strike discharges from the rules, attendees applauded. 'Fracking waste is by no matter a light concern,' Ennedith López, a policy campaign manager at Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), told Source before the vote. 'It's radioactive wastewater that they want to use potentially for agriculture projects for construction and development, and that comes at the harm of people's health.' Commissioners also determined that state law mandates that using produced water would most likely require a permit, which would be more stringent than the process in the draft rule. At one point, commissioners floated scrapping the entire process, which would send the New Mexico Environment Department back to the drawing board, but decided instead to add language requiring pilot projects to seek permits. Deliberations Wednesday will include more information about what information pilot projects would need to require for permitting, and if the rule needs to be revisited in the future. Attorneys for New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, which is also party to the rulemaking, declined to comment Tuesday. Produced water proponents said they were disappointed with the commission's decision Tuesday. Restrictions on discharges will push produced water treatment to Texas, said Mike Hightower, the program director at the Produced Water Consortium, a private-public research group. 'With no discharge, all the companies that want to discharge the water for beneficial use: agriculture, surface water, putting water in Pecos for ecological flows, can't do that here, so they'll go to Texas' Hightower said. He also said a permitting process would increase the time needed for approval on pilot projects. 'Nobody's going to do a small pilot project that takes a year and a half to get permitted when they can go to Texas and get it with no permit or a permit that takes a couple of weeks,' Hightower said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
