Environment

Gold King Mine meeting scheduled for Monday

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The New Mexico Gold King Mine Spill Citizens’ Advisory Committee will meet Monday evening in Farmington. According to the New Mexico Environment Department, the committee includes 11 citizen volunteers from northern New Mexico, including the Navajo Nation, and works with New Mexico’s Long-Term Impact Review Team to monitor and understand the long-term impacts of the 2015 Gold King Mine accident. While conducting exploratory cleanup work of an abandoned mine in southwestern Colorado, federal contractors hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency caused 3 million gallons of wastewater to spill from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River. That river, which flows into the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico, was contaminated with lead, arsenic and cadmium. The mine, like about 400 others in the area, was owned by a private company before being abandoned.

Environment

Zinke’s high-price flights, oil and gas news and upcoming public meetings

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US. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is under investigation for his travel arrangements—again. Earlier this week, the department’s Office of the Inspector General opened an investigation into privately chartered flights the secretary took, costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. This isn’t the first time Zinke has exercised (alleged) ethical lapses when it comes to air travel. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:100%;}
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Environment

Zinke says workers are ‘not loyal to the flag,’ more problems at LANL + upcoming meetings and public comment periods

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Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported what t U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s told the National Petroleum Council in a speech. The secretary said he was working to make the agency’s regulatory culture more business friendly, and admitted that he knew going into the agency that about one-third of its employees are “not loyal to the flag.”

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He also said he was planning to move leadership of some agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management, out of Washington, D.C. and into western states:
The moves follow military strategy, Zinke said: “Push your generals where the fight is.”
While details remain largely under wraps, Zinke said he was excited. “It’s going to be huge,” he said in a speech to the National Petroleum Council, an advisory committee that includes leaders of the oil and gas industry.

Environment

Federal moves on wildfires, shortening environmental studies + upcoming public meetings

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On Tuesday, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke directed his agency to “adopt more aggressive practices” to prevent and combat wildfires. We’ll keep you posted on what that actually means, and what it will mean for New Mexico. E&E news reported this week that Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt signed an order restricting the length of environmental studies to 150 pages or less, or less than 300 pages for “unusually complex projects.” According to the story, “More broadly, the memo gives Bernhardt the potentially far-reaching responsibility for overseeing the department’s efforts to clear away ‘potential impediments’ and ‘streamline’ the environmental review process.” Before claiming the Number Two position at Interior, Bernhardt was a lobbyist whose clients included mining and energy companies and the nation’s largest irrigation district, California’s Westlands Water District. He represented Westlands in four different lawsuits against the department where he now works. The Associated Press reports that the New Mexico Department of Transportation is putting up warning signs along the stretch of Interstate-10 near the border with New Mexico that’s become increasingly prone to dust storms, putting drivers at risk.