New Mexico Mercury

Leaving the world to find it

For a vast, remote and harsh expanse of southwestern desert, the Kaiparowits Plateau has seen a lot of life, from prehistoric Indians to migrating Mormons to adventurers that, during the Memorial Day weekend, included my son and I. Just as this seemingly inhospitable area helped save earlier travelers, so it redeemed our own trip that otherwise could have gone off the tracks. Sometimes, it would seem, you have to leave the world behind in order to find it...

New Exhibit on Acequias at the Maxwell Museum

El Agua Es Vida, takes the visitor on an historical ride through Nuevomexicano rural communities from the arrival of the Spanish to the current crises caused by the pull of outside wage labor, demands for their water rights, and climate change.

Provincial Matters, 6-30-2014

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

Insight New Mexico - Alan Webber post primary

V.B. Price talks with Alan Webber about his recent gubernatorial campaign, economic growth potential in New Mexico, Susana Martinez' abysmal record of job losses and more. 

Ten Reasons Why People Are Not Concerned About the Kirtland Jet Fuel Spill

In August 2013 the NM Mercury published an article of mine entitled “Why Aren’t More People in Albuquerque Concerned about the Kirtland Jet Fuel Spill?” After working on issues related to the spill for the past 10 months, I now know much more about the spill itself and have a much better idea about why most people in Albuquerque are not particularly concerned about this major threat to our drinking water.

Here are the top ten reasons...

Drought: time to pay the piper

The long 21st century drought seems finally to be catching up to the East Mountains. For years we’ve managed to avoid its worst consequences. Life has gone along, year after year, pretty much normally. But now it may be time to pay the piper.

The wells of my local water co-op are running dry. A large, well established and ably managed utility with several hundred members, it has long had four deep wells. One, however, has just run dry and another is imperiled. A letter to co-op members last week pleaded for major voluntary conservation efforts, including a total ban on outdoor watering; if these efforts are insufficient, mandatory conservation is in the offing. This is the direst situation in my 24 years with the co-op...

Insight New Mexico: Don Hancock’s update on recent WIPP leak

V.B. Price gets an update on the WIPP leak from Don Hancock, Director of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program for the SW Research and Information Center.

Juarez Valley Strives for Recovery

Travelers headed south of Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico might have noticed a full, flowing Rio Grande in recent days. The coveted water was on its way to Mexico where, under a binational 1906 treaty, the U.S. is annually obligated to deliver 74 million cubic meters of the liquid. Once past the border, the water is used for irrigating farmland in the Juarez Valley of Chihuahua state, which encompasses the municipalities of Praxedis C. Guerrero, Guadalupe Distrito Bravos and Juarez.

Long known for its fertile farmland as well as contraband corridors, the Juarez Valley was one of the hardest hit areas in the so-called Narco-War, especially between 2008 and 2010 when thousands of residents fled their homes and abandoned farm land...

Silencing Kachina

A meditation on the impact of construction on another sacred mountain in Taos.

What Happened to Transparency and Openness?

Less than four weeks into her term, Governor Susana Martinez had to be reminded by the New Mexico Supreme Court that, “Nobody is above the law.”  The reason: the Governor had tried to prevent recently approved dairy rules, among other new environmentally protective rules, from going into effect.

The Governor’s Administration is still dodging the rules in order to help her industry friends.  This time, the Administration is helping the dairy industry avoid taking common sense steps that would prevent their cows’ waste from continuing to contaminate New Mexico’s precious groundwater...