watersheds threatened by mining in pecos, letters needed
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Water Singing-on-the-Rocks
Sep 12, 2019, 7:28:37 AM9/12/19
to Rahmaneh Meyers, sen...@heinrich.senate.gov, 350org
sending this to Tom Udall, Martin Heinrich, Ben Ray Lujan, Michelle Lujan-Grisham
To: Sarai Torres, Special Assistant | Office of U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico
400 Gold Ave. SW, Suite 1080, Albuquerque, N.M. 87102
Subject: URGENT: Need your intervention to halt Torerro Mine operations on Santa Fe Forest land in Santa Fe County from endangering our watersheds and aquifers
Dear Senator Heinrich:
The Tererro Mine Project in the Santa Fe National Forest, above Pecos, proposed by New World Cobalt operating as Comexico must be stopped dead in its tracks and I am counting on your office to help us protect the Pecos watershed, the City of Santa Fe Reservoir and multiple headwaters. The proposal in fact, includes mining that would take place only 8 miles from the Santa Fe Reservoir! In fact, the mines are planned on a mountain which is at the headwater for four distinct watersheds!
The proposal includes up to 30 exploratory holes in 400 designated acres, drilling between 500 and 4,000 feet deep and making 5 inch wide holes through aquifiers, some of which drain into the Santa Fe and Pecos watersheds. Such a hole could, according to geologists, potentially drain the aquifiers and pollute the water with various toxic ores and minerals that would pass through the aquifiers... This would be a catastrophe wherever it might take place, but this is a true tragedy in our area, where water is such a scarce commodity.
The Pecos Wilderness is a protected wilderness area within the Santa Fe and the Carson National Forests that covers a total of 223,667 acres a short distance northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo Range, the southernmost major range of the Rocky Mountains.
Not only would camping, hunting, and other recreational uses of the Pecos Wilderness be affected negatively but below the proposed mining area is a canyon whose 8,000 residents would be devastated were the water to be polluted. Plus Native American cultural sites would be compromised possibly including the ruins of Pecos (Ciquique) Pueblo which was the first Pecos pueblo - one of two dozen rock-and-mud villages built in the valley around AD 1100 in the prehistoric Pueblo II Era and the remains of a Spanish mission that was built in the early 17th century near the pueblo. And lands belonging to the Pecos, Tesuque, and Jemez pueblos could be affected by the mine.
The one incorporated municipality is the village of Pecos, but the watershed also includes the unincorporated rural communities of Tererro, Glorieta, Upper and Lower Colonias, North and South San Isidro, Rowe, and San Juan, along with dispersed ranches, summer home and recreational cabin owners, and other rural residents as well. While the full-time population in the Pecos River valley is about 8,000 people a recreational use assessment has observed that over 1,000 people at any given time may be camping within the Pecos Canyon on busy summer weekends, to say nothing of summer cabin owners or day-use visitors – confirming that recreational visitation to the Upper Pecos far exceeds the resident population.
In addition, the letter of June 27, 2019 from the County Commissioners of San Miguel County NM points out that the Pecos River Watershed would also be threatened; this Watershed provides essential clean water for the health and well-being of San Miguel County residents as it provides critical water resources to the communities of this county including municipal, domestic and agricultural users. https://pecoswatershed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/san-migurl-mine-resolution-06-27-2019-01.pdf
Plus there are threatened and endangered species including the spotted owl, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Lilljeborg’s peaclam, Bigscale logperch, Greenthroat darter, the Pecos pupfish, Mexican tetra and the flowering Holy Ghost ipomopsis, a plant only found wild in the Holy Ghost Canyon of the Santa Fe National Forest, which could also be affected detrimentally by these plans for this Australian mining company to dig for gold, copper and zinc on our public lands.
In the 1920s some 2 million tons of ore were excavated, leading to the contamination of nearby wetlands that cost some $28 million in remediation and environmental clean-up costs, partially paid by taxpayers. In 1991 the Pecos River ran yellow with acidic mineral runoff after heavy spring rainstorms, killing the trout in the river and 90,000 fish at the Lisboa Springs Fish Hatchery downstream. Even today, though reclamation efforts have helped camouflage the damage, it is still a Superfund site leaching poisons into the surrounding watershed.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service is prohibited by the 1872 Mining Act from stopping any mining activity on federal land. Therefore the Federal Agency that manages our publicly owned land is in the process of deciding "what level of assessment will be required for the new Tererro mine site" rather than whether or not it should be allowed in the first place. On top of that, the Forest Service has no plans to conduct its own surveys and plans instead to rely on "experts" who will be paid by the Australian mining company which plans to make millions if not billions of dollars at our expense. The agency often relies on biological and archaeological surveys done by third-party contractors when they "don't have the available staff to conduct surveys internally."
A coalition of Pecos and Santa Fe residents, business owners, environmental advocacy groups and traditional land users are demanding the most rigorous environmental and cultural review assessments called for by law under the National Environmental Policy. And while the Federal Government controls zoning and the ability to determine issues of land use, the state and counties have jurisdiction over environmental regulation of mining activities that could have countywide impacts... This means that counties cannot ban mining in general from an area, but a specific mine proposed on federal land within county boundaries must meet the regulations set by the county in order to "get approved".
In August of this year the Santa Fe County Board of Comissioners adopted an ordinance on a unanimous vote that completely overhauled antiquated mining laws, creating the first standardized regulatory procedure for evaluating new mining activities - exploration, extraction and processing - within the county's jurisdiction INCLUDING on federal lands. The ordinance also strengthens public participation requirements and, as far back as last January, the state issued a "moratorium in perpetuity" regarding the Terrero site unless water quality levels improve.
You can see the Tererro Drilling Project page at UPWA's website for all documents, articles and permit application information: https://pecoswatershed.org/tererro-drilling-project.
We appreciate your many productive efforts to protect the environment and hope you can bring your authority to bear to halt this potentially devastating project.
Email: Sarai_...@Heinrich.Senate.Gov
(505) 346-6601
Heinrich.Senate.Gov
Para la vida, como te parece? (as to life, what do you think of it) Te dire, amigos, hay aquellos que saben mucho, pero entienden menos. (I'll tell you, friends, there are those who know a lot but understand less. - paraphrasing a saying among the Penitentes of New Mexico
To: Sarai Torres, Special Assistant | Office of U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico
400 Gold Ave. SW, Suite 1080, Albuquerque, N.M. 87102
Subject: URGENT: Need your intervention to halt Torerro Mine operations on Santa Fe Forest land in Santa Fe County from endangering our watersheds and aquifers
Dear Senator Heinrich:
The Tererro Mine Project in the Santa Fe National Forest, above Pecos, proposed by New World Cobalt operating as Comexico must be stopped dead in its tracks and I am counting on your office to help us protect the Pecos watershed, the City of Santa Fe Reservoir and multiple headwaters. The proposal in fact, includes mining that would take place only 8 miles from the Santa Fe Reservoir! In fact, the mines are planned on a mountain which is at the headwater for four distinct watersheds!
The proposal includes up to 30 exploratory holes in 400 designated acres, drilling between 500 and 4,000 feet deep and making 5 inch wide holes through aquifiers, some of which drain into the Santa Fe and Pecos watersheds. Such a hole could, according to geologists, potentially drain the aquifiers and pollute the water with various toxic ores and minerals that would pass through the aquifiers... This would be a catastrophe wherever it might take place, but this is a true tragedy in our area, where water is such a scarce commodity.
The Pecos Wilderness is a protected wilderness area within the Santa Fe and the Carson National Forests that covers a total of 223,667 acres a short distance northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo Range, the southernmost major range of the Rocky Mountains.
Not only would camping, hunting, and other recreational uses of the Pecos Wilderness be affected negatively but below the proposed mining area is a canyon whose 8,000 residents would be devastated were the water to be polluted. Plus Native American cultural sites would be compromised possibly including the ruins of Pecos (Ciquique) Pueblo which was the first Pecos pueblo - one of two dozen rock-and-mud villages built in the valley around AD 1100 in the prehistoric Pueblo II Era and the remains of a Spanish mission that was built in the early 17th century near the pueblo. And lands belonging to the Pecos, Tesuque, and Jemez pueblos could be affected by the mine.
The one incorporated municipality is the village of Pecos, but the watershed also includes the unincorporated rural communities of Tererro, Glorieta, Upper and Lower Colonias, North and South San Isidro, Rowe, and San Juan, along with dispersed ranches, summer home and recreational cabin owners, and other rural residents as well. While the full-time population in the Pecos River valley is about 8,000 people a recreational use assessment has observed that over 1,000 people at any given time may be camping within the Pecos Canyon on busy summer weekends, to say nothing of summer cabin owners or day-use visitors – confirming that recreational visitation to the Upper Pecos far exceeds the resident population.
In addition, the letter of June 27, 2019 from the County Commissioners of San Miguel County NM points out that the Pecos River Watershed would also be threatened; this Watershed provides essential clean water for the health and well-being of San Miguel County residents as it provides critical water resources to the communities of this county including municipal, domestic and agricultural users. https://pecoswatershed.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/san-migurl-mine-resolution-06-27-2019-01.pdf
Plus there are threatened and endangered species including the spotted owl, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Lilljeborg’s peaclam, Bigscale logperch, Greenthroat darter, the Pecos pupfish, Mexican tetra and the flowering Holy Ghost ipomopsis, a plant only found wild in the Holy Ghost Canyon of the Santa Fe National Forest, which could also be affected detrimentally by these plans for this Australian mining company to dig for gold, copper and zinc on our public lands.
In the 1920s some 2 million tons of ore were excavated, leading to the contamination of nearby wetlands that cost some $28 million in remediation and environmental clean-up costs, partially paid by taxpayers. In 1991 the Pecos River ran yellow with acidic mineral runoff after heavy spring rainstorms, killing the trout in the river and 90,000 fish at the Lisboa Springs Fish Hatchery downstream. Even today, though reclamation efforts have helped camouflage the damage, it is still a Superfund site leaching poisons into the surrounding watershed.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service is prohibited by the 1872 Mining Act from stopping any mining activity on federal land. Therefore the Federal Agency that manages our publicly owned land is in the process of deciding "what level of assessment will be required for the new Tererro mine site" rather than whether or not it should be allowed in the first place. On top of that, the Forest Service has no plans to conduct its own surveys and plans instead to rely on "experts" who will be paid by the Australian mining company which plans to make millions if not billions of dollars at our expense. The agency often relies on biological and archaeological surveys done by third-party contractors when they "don't have the available staff to conduct surveys internally."
A coalition of Pecos and Santa Fe residents, business owners, environmental advocacy groups and traditional land users are demanding the most rigorous environmental and cultural review assessments called for by law under the National Environmental Policy. And while the Federal Government controls zoning and the ability to determine issues of land use, the state and counties have jurisdiction over environmental regulation of mining activities that could have countywide impacts... This means that counties cannot ban mining in general from an area, but a specific mine proposed on federal land within county boundaries must meet the regulations set by the county in order to "get approved".
In August of this year the Santa Fe County Board of Comissioners adopted an ordinance on a unanimous vote that completely overhauled antiquated mining laws, creating the first standardized regulatory procedure for evaluating new mining activities - exploration, extraction and processing - within the county's jurisdiction INCLUDING on federal lands. The ordinance also strengthens public participation requirements and, as far back as last January, the state issued a "moratorium in perpetuity" regarding the Terrero site unless water quality levels improve.
You can see the Tererro Drilling Project page at UPWA's website for all documents, articles and permit application information: https://pecoswatershed.org/tererro-drilling-project.
We appreciate your many productive efforts to protect the environment and hope you can bring your authority to bear to halt this potentially devastating project.
Email: Sarai_...@Heinrich.Senate.Gov
(505) 346-6601
Heinrich.Senate.Gov
Para la vida, como te parece? (as to life, what do you think of it) Te dire, amigos, hay aquellos que saben mucho, pero entienden menos. (I'll tell you, friends, there are those who know a lot but understand less. - paraphrasing a saying among the Penitentes of New Mexico
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