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Hot harvest season begins in New Mexico chile country
HATCH, N.M. – Harvest season is starting for New Mexico’s signature crop, but hotter isn’t always better for chile. Higher temperatures increase the spread of certain diseases (such as curly top virus) and limits fruit production for all kinds of crops, chile included. The heat can also threaten the lives of workers that must pick […]
New Mexico monsoon outlook in August looks ‘bleak’
The respite from intense, deadly heat waves won’t last long. And it looks like the monsoon will suffer for it, according to New Mexico forecasters. Globally, July has been the hottest month in recorded history, a preliminary analysis from international science organizations found. The data will be fully published in August, but the analysis shows […]
El Paso Water lawsuit against New Mexico Environment Department will stay in Texas courts
A Texas judge ordered last week that a lawsuit against New Mexico environment authorities brought by El Paso Water will continue in Texas courts. The dispute stems from the water utility fighting a $1.2 million fine from the New Mexico Environment Department for violating state water quality laws. The fine came after a 2021 spill, […]
‘We’ve never been this close before,’ Downwinders cheer RECA amendment in defense bill
An amendment to extend a federal fund for victims of radiation exposure, and expand who it covers passed the Senate with 61 votes on Thursday afternoon. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Sen. Crapo (R-Idaho) added an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which earmarks more than $800 billion for […]
Spaceport lawsuit settled before trial start
The New Mexico Spaceport Authority settled a lawsuit by a former employee who alleged discrimination and retaliation, just before a trial was scheduled to begin July 31, according to court documents. The settlement agreement ends a three-year-long civil lawsuit against the agency. The terms of the settlement will be released on the state’s Sunshine Portal […]
‘People have been dying ever since’: Anger mixes with hope for NM Downwinders
Lit by the glow of hundreds of luminarias at dusk, a group gathers in Robinson Park, Las Cruces to hear the list of more than 800 names read aloud, punctuated by rumbles of distant thunder. This is the legacy of the atomic age, the list of people who’ve died of cancer around the Tularosa Basin […]
Lawsuit claims Holtec made “false” statements on proposed New Mexico nuclear storage site
The Florida company aiming to put an interim storage site for high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico is facing allegations of retaliating against a former executive, according to a New Jersey lawsuit. Kevin O’Rourke claims in a civil lawsuit filed in June that he was fired as a vice president and chief financial officer for […]
Sewage spill fine still tied up in Texas courts
A fight over a $1.2 million fine from New Mexico to a Texas water utility’s 2021 sewage spill is stalled in Texas federal district court, attorneys told Water Quality Control Commissioners on Tuesday. The 14-person regulatory board under the New Mexico Environment Department administers permits for pollution in the state and handles any appeals for […]
What’s a river? Supreme Court WOTUS ruling will be costly for New Mexico, experts warn
State environment officials said most of New Mexico’s rivers, streams and arroyos will need additional protections by the state from pollution after the United States Supreme Court reshaped water law overnight with a ruling in June. Potential fixes could cost the state millions of dollars and take more than a year to put in place, […]
It’s hot and the late 2023 monsoon season is drying up New Mexico
Triple-digit temperatures are part of a heatwave scorching the southern part of the state and turning up the heat across the rest of New Mexico. But there’s little relief so far from the monsoons – those patterns of afternoon and evening seasonal summer rains that douse the state and often provide crucial moisture. Across the […]
Judge OKs states’ plan to end Rio Grande dispute
Last week, a federal judge gave his stamp of approval on a proposed settlement to end a lawsuit between Texas and New Mexico over Rio Grande water. The move potentially ends a decade of litigation in the nation’s highest court with barely a splash. U.S. 8th Circuit Judge Michael Melloy – overseeing the case as […]
Feds shoot down mining company’s ask to loosen cleanup standards at toxic uranium mine site
In early June, federal regulators rejected a mining company’s proposal to loosen current cleanup standards at a former uranium mining operation in Western New Mexico. Beginning in 1958, The Homestake Mining Company operated a mine in Cibola County, just five miles outside the town of Milan. The consequences have carried 65 years into the future. […]