At Least One County Commissioner Gets It!

From: altocep.org

February 16, 2022

Tom Stewart’s Comments to the Commissioners at the 02/15/22 LCCC Meeting

“I listened to the entire NMED 9 hour Roper plant permit hearing on February 9th and that hearing formulated my strong opinion against the plant. I did formally submit written testimony and spoke in the WebEx hearing…..In my strong request not to ap- prove the permit, I spoke as a concerned local resident and not as a commissioner because this commission has failed to establish a firm position on the subject of the NMED permit and the ultimate construction of the plant.

If this plant is constructed, each of us can share the credit for destroying a significant portion of my district .. as well as our tax base since some of the public comment indicated that realtors have reported that home values could plummet by as much as 50% and some of our residents have said they will have to leave because of compromised immune systems. I am not on the prevailing side of this issue with this commission …so I can’t bring any agenda item to kill the project. But I am going to do everything I can to prevent this from going forward. And there is one major reason for my renewed vigor…..and that is ….a requirement for an estimated 15 million gallons of water a year to effectively control the dust…. on a property with no sufficient water rights. That is the amount of water I learned in the hearing from a former New Mexico State Engineer who spoke about his estimates of water to adequately suppress the dust.

Think about it….in an area of drought….where wells are losing their effectiveness all the time…..where does that amount of water come from if the project is not on a municipal water system. Mr. Roper has reportedly said he is going to do it with about 8,000 gallons a day trucked in from Capitan…….there is too much of a disparity for my blood in those two estimates of required dust control. If the NMED permit denial does not kill the project….or the court case does not kill the project….in my estimation, the lack of adequate water will cause more dust than is allowable. At that point, nearby residents will suffer. Because this commission does not appear interested in flat out killing the project, I am going to be cooperative with any effort that brings about that goal.”