New Mexico Mercury

Hanging together—reluctantly

Edgewood is a tranquil rural village of pastures, mountains, cows and blue skies. This Edgewood is in northern California at the base of Mount Shasta, at 14,179 feet the tallest summit in the region and the second tallest anywhere in the Cascade Mountains.

Shasta’s year-round snowfield and five glaciers hang over Edgewood like a living presence, a white ghost exhaling pure, cold air over fields and homes. Rising some 11,000 feet above the village, the massive mountain doesn’t just dominate the skyline; it is the skyline. It is as if Sandia Peak rose 2 miles above Albuquerque instead of 1 mile and was sitting virtually on top of the city...

A Window into the Martinez Administration’s Environmental Policy Decisions

Yesterday, we released a new tool to shine a light onto Governor Susana Martinez and her administration’s decisions that affect our air, land and water.

Our new website, SunshineOnMartinez.org, serves as the public’s window into the decisions of Gov. Susana Martinez and her administration that impact the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land where we live and play. On the site, you can find responses to Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) requests, the original requests to the administration, related news, opinion and multimedia...

Provincial Matters, 10-14-2013

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

When pollution and poverty meet

Clear Lake, at 68 square miles the biggest fresh water lake in California, gleams serenely all the way east to the distant mountains.  It all seems so pretty, so peaceful, so healthy, and in some ways it is, but it is not at all what I had been lead to expect.

After all, this lake, at 480,000 years the oldest lake in the United States, is the world’s worst case of mercury poisoning...

The Taos Hum

The Taos hum has long been a mystery.  Ever since 1956 residents of Taos County have periodically noticed what some have described as a low-frequency vibration, a deep rumble from the earth most often felt through the soles of the feet.  They say it is most noticeable when barefoot, but there have been reports of some people sensing the rumble while wearing Birkenstocks.  High heels and Gucci loafers seem to have a dampening effect on the vibration...

Provincial Matters, 10-7-2013

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

With All Our Sun and Wind, Why Isn’t New Mexico Number One?

The extent to which the fossil fuel industry’s powerful lobbies have New Mexico’s vision of its future in their thrall can best be seen in a head-shaking omission. New Mexico is not competing to be the solar and wind power capital of the world. And we all can guess why.

It’s not about the price of technologies, not about batteries, not about the “intermittency” of wind and solar sources. These matters are handily dismissed by money, incentives, legislative will, and executive vision. It’s all about who will lose money from transitioning to renewable energy and who won’t...

Controversial Weed Killer Used by City, County and State

Officials downplay the use of the deadly pesticide 'Roundup' but questions about public safety and awareness remain.

The Event: Preparing for the end game on climate change

The case for merging disaster preparation with climate policy in the countdown to an ecological 'crescendo.'

Desalinization for Sprawl

I wonder what it would be like to have huge mounds of salt laced with arsenic sitting on the ground west of Albuquerque. Suppose a developer wanted to build a massive subdivision miles from the center of the city and worked a deal with Sandoval County to drill deep into the aquifer around the Rio Puerco and tap into the brackish water known to be there.

Suppose this developer started the project, used a process of desalinization, to clean the water, making promises to clean up the salt and arsenic waste, but then hit a snag in the housing market, abandoned the project, and left Albuquerque and Rio Rancho with its salt waste and poison blowing around in the wind and making its way into populated areas...