Week ending Friday, January 28, 2022

A Toxic World

A new study suggests chemical pollution has become so pervasive that it has pushed Earth outside the relatively stable environment of the past 10,000 years. Beyond the widespread use of plastics, researchers say they are also highly concerned about 350,000 synthetic chemicals, including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibiotics. “There has been a fifty-fold increase in the production of chemicals since 1950 and this is projected to triple again by 2050,” research team member Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez of Sweden’s Stockholm Resilience Center said. “Shifting to a circular economy is really important. That means changing...

SANTA FE — A Joint Resolution to amend the New Mexico Constitution in order to add environmental rights was pre-filed on Jan. 5 by Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque and Rep. Joanne Ferrary, D-Las Cruces, with more than twenty other legislators stating an intent to support the proposal.

Those supporters include Sen. Harold Pope, Jr., D-Albuquerque, Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe, Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, Sen. Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces, Sen. Shannon Pinto, D-Tohatchi, Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, Rep. Karen Bash, D-Albuquerque, Rep. Debbie Sariñana, D-Albuquerque, Rep...

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and members of the Congressional delegation announced Jan. 31 that the U.S. Department of the Interior made $43.7 million available to the state to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells in New Mexico through the federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act.

When an oil and gas operator goes bankrupt, wells may become “orphaned” and the responsibility to plug and reclaim those sites may fall to the state. Wells and associated facilities that are left abandoned can cause environmental damage by leaking methane or impacting groundwater.

There are approximately 1,700 orphaned and abandoned wells in New Mexico on state and private land. At current funding...

Staff Reports

Details are still emerging as Gallup police investigate the shooting death of Lane Ortiz, 32, of Fort Wingate.

According to a GPD news release, Metro Dispatch received the emergency call at about 9:14 pm Monday. The caller reported hearing shots fired, and seeing a man, later identified as Ortiz, lying on the ground in the vicinity of the 500 block area of Clark Street in Gallup.

Ortiz had been shot multiple times, and was transported to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries.

GPD Detectives are seeking information and witnesses, as no suspect(s) have been positively identified.

If you have any information on this incident, call Metro Dispatch at (505)...