SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexico has hundreds of old uranium mine sites around the state, and the federal government has been working to understand the scope of contamination at some mine sites. Now New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said more needs to be done.
“A new federal, state, and tribal governance structure is needed to bring rapid and transformative changes to communities that have suffered for decades from abandoned uranium mining sites,” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a press release. “New Mexico is committed to nimble decision-making while ensuring safe cleanup and disposal of these legacy wastes.”
Gov. Lujan Grisham and Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs have sent a letter to the federal Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) asking them to step up their leadership when to remediation coordination. The letter asks the CEQ to “make strategic decisions” when it comes to federal agencies that have jurisdiction over remediation and legacy mines.
“The lack of a single point of contact at the federal level means states are coordinating with multiple agencies and agency regions, which impedes the decisive action needed to bring meaningful change to these communities,” the letter notes.
In New Mexico, state environmental agencies have worked to identify and clean some legacy mining sites, including creating a digital dashboard showing legacy mining sites. But the governor said there is no federal cleanup program for some New Mexico sites.
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