Leaders must face environmental truths
The New Mexican and The Hobbs News-Sun have reported that “produced water” in the Permian Basin of southeastern New Mexico could reach 1 billion barrels per day within the next decade as a result of oil and gas exploration and production. Because of the nature of the drilling and completion process, including hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), this produced water will contain toxic heavy metals including zinc, lead, manganese, iron and barium.
As reported, at 1 billion barrels per day this is enough to fill Elephant Butte Reservoir with toxic water within 21 days. Thus the obvious question: Where will the oil and gas oligarchs and their companies dispose of this reservoir of toxic water?
Have we as a species lost our minds? This is an indisputable environmental nightmare — all just to add to the billions of dollars these oil and gas oligarchs have already made at our collective expense. Now that the Environmental Protection Agency and its four-plus decades of essential protections have been destroyed by this president, who or what will keep this and future catastrophes from occurring? When will Democratic and Republican elected officials start facing environmental reality? Frank E. (Dirk) Murchison Taos
Protecting species?
On June 23, 2017, the Western Governors’ Association approved Policy Resolution 2017-11. From The Center for Biological Diversity: “Policy resolution 2017-11 recommends delaying lifesaving protections for at-risk wildlife and curtailing the ability of ordinary citizens to challenge agency decisions in court. The resolution would weaken critical habitat protections in areas needed for species recovery and tamper with the Act’s ‘best available science’ mandate.” Since the association does not release tallies, we do not know how Gov. Susana Martinez voted. Please call the Governor’s Office and ask how she voted on Western Governors’ Association Policy Resolution 2017-11. Leave a comment for her on the answer you get. I am sure she will have no problem revealing her vote and that she will be proud of her stance on saving endangered species from extinction. Adele E. Zimmermann Embudo
Flight risk
The city scammed. In the old days, I was a frequent flier on the American Airlines flight from the Santa Fe airport to Los Angeles International Airport. It wasn’t subsidized then, but this direct flight was always full on my watch.
In the discussions for federal subsidies for the new American Airlines Santa Fe route to LAX through Phoenix, you can bet that the impact of global warming on this flight option was never discussed. I bet that the possibility that the Phoenix airport would be closed to the small planes was never acknowledged, never mind its impact.
I was one of the passengers to find my flight canceled on this recently touted new flight option from Santa Fe to Phoenix and then LAX. The Phoenix airport was closed because of excessive outdoor temperatures. I was rerouted through Albuquerque. Never again will I book this Santa Fe flight option from June to October. Risky business.
Of course, American Airlines will continue to receive this federal government subsidy courtesy of our City Different, whether the Phoenix airport is closed or not. So much for the impact of unacknowledged global warming, and this is only the beginning. Mary Costello Tesuque
Freeing the animals
I completely agree with Gil Piñon’s comments about circuses (“No more circuses,” Letters to the Editor, July 7). Everything he says is true. I have had the ultimate pleasure of researching elephants in South Africa. If people could just see how some of these magnificent animals have been treated, they would clearly understand the tragedy that goes on with training a wild animal to “perform” for our pleasure. One needs only to look in the eyes of an elephant to see their humanness. We should be learning their gentle ways and recognize that they have a complex, loving society of their own. Don’t boycott — ban the Garden Brothers Circus and all other circuses that want to come to our city and the entire Land of Enchantment. Irene Kraas Santa Fe
Pearce doublespeak
U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce makes a case for the reduction in size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument that is the definition of doublespeak (“Protecting New Mexico’s natural treasures,” Commentary, July 8). Come on. He proposes reducing it in size from 600,000 acres to 60,000 acres? How does this protect it? He states that monument status is not the “most effective way to get the maximum economic value out of the land.” Precisely! We could graze it, drill it and put condos on it if we wanted to do that. We create national monuments to hand down a piece of our beloved, wild natural heritage to our grandchildren and their grandchildren. New Mexicans love the place, and local communities do benefit economically from tourism and will even more as the monument becomes better known. Doublespeak, Rep. Pearce. Melissa Savage Santa Fe