Environment

Cannon AFB water contamination on tap in Friday night meeting

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Friday evening in Clovis, the U.S. Air Force is scheduled to host a meeting about groundwater contamination below and near Cannon Air Force Base in eastern New Mexico. Details about the meeting were publicly released Tuesday, Nov. 6, on Election Day. This summer, the Air Force announced it was sampling groundwater wells for traces of harmful chemicals found within firefighting foam used at the base from the 1970s until last year. The testing was part of a nationwide effort by the military: Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that activities at 126 military bases had contaminated groundwater with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of human-made chemicals, often referred to as PFAS’s, that includes perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).

Environment

Running Dry: Groundwater levels are dropping across the West, including in the East Mountains

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Garrett Petrie and Teri Farley moved to New Mexico about ten years ago. They found a house on five acres in the East Mountains because they liked being “off the grid.” Moving from Tucson, they were both well-aware of the water issues in the region. “We asked a lot of questions,” Petrie said. “We kept hearing things like, the wells really vary out here and you can get a good one, you can get a bad one.”

They thought they had a good well when they bought the house.

Congress & Federal Issues

A look at Women’s Marches from across NM

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Thousands of New Mexicans took part in the Women’s March this Saturday. Some traveled to the massive march Washington D.C., while others stayed closer to home and participated in marches and rallies in cities throughout the state. According to Vox, the rallies may have added up to be the largest demonstration in U.S. history. Democratic members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation marched in Washington D.C., the day after they each attended the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. https://twitter.com/Michelle4NM/status/822824672488288258

According to one calculation, New Mexico had the 10th-most people per 1,000 residents attend the rallies.

A Changing Roswell

New Roswell businesses reflect increased Latino population

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ROSWELL — Count Saul and Claudia Rubalcaba among a growing demographic that’s changing Southeastern New Mexico. Both came to the state 15 years ago from a town just outside of Chihuahua City, Mexico. As they settled into a new city, Claudia started working at a restaurant called Taqueria Jalisco while Saul worked as a plumber fixing sprinklers. Last year, the married couple got an offer from Taqueria Jalisco’s owners—move to Roswell and manage a new franchise on the south side of the city. “In the beginning we said no,” Saul explained in an interview on a recent weekday sitting with Claudia in a booth in their restaurant.