Public Service Company of New Mexico has negotiated a settlement proposal that would allow it to meet certain pollution standards with the partial closure of an aging coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico. PNM says the proposal, if approved by state regulators, would allow the company to reduce its use of coal at the San Juan Generating Station. The utility says it would also have an opportunity to add more renewable energy to its portfolio. PNM estimates the proposal would result in an increase of about seven-percent to the average customer's bill.
The settlement proposal was signed Wednesday by staff of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, the attorney general's office and others. However, the Santa Fe-based group New Energy Economy says the proposed settlement depends too much on coal- and nuclear-generated power. MarielNanasi is the non-profit’s Executive Director. She says New Mexico should follow the example of other western states that are replacing the coal produced power with renewables: *****100214-Nanasi-1 :33*****Nanasi says New Energy Economy will contest the decision.
Los Alamos National Laboratory—long considered one of the nation's premier nuclear weapons laboratories—is being called out for "major weaknesses" in the way it packaged contaminated waste before shipping it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The Department of Energy’s inspector general citing "major weaknesses" in the way LANL packaged the contaminated waste. A report made public Wednesday states that not all of the lab’s procedures were properly vetted and some procedures didn't conform with environmental requirements. The report reinforces the findings of internal reviews done by the lab and the Energy Department following last February’s release of radiation at WIPP. The plant is closed indefinitely as a result. The release came from a barrel of waste packed at the lab. The inspector general has outlined several recommendations aimed at addressing the lab's failures.
Rio Arriba County commissioners are meeting later this morning to vote on naming a replacement for Sheriff Tommy Rodella, who was convicted last week in what prosecutors called a road rage traffic stop. Authorities say Rodella in plain clothes pulled a gun on a motorist and violated the man's civil rights. Rodella's attorney has said the lawman won't resign. The Commissioners are expected to appoint former deputy James Lujan to fill out the remainder of Rodella's term. Lujan defeated Rodella in the June Democratic primary for sheriff by 200 votes. Lujan was a deputy Rodella once fired.
Early October is cannabis harvest time, and law enforcement spoiled one large harvest in the Jemez Mountains. Authorities on Wednesday seized more than one-million dollars’ worth of marijuana plants during a raid of a grow operation in the Jemez Valley near the Gilman Tunnels. The Albuquerque Journal reports the farming operation was composed of two large areas where hundreds of plants had grown to nearly 5 feet tall. Some of the plants already had been harvested. Sheriff's deputies say more than one-thousand marijuana plants were found growing on public land in the national forest Wednesday. Sandoval County undersheriff Karl Wiese said 350 plants were drying when law enforcement arrived and three fields had already been harvested. Authorities believe up to a dozen people were involved in the operation but no arrests were immediately made. Sheriff's officials say it was the largest seizure they've responded to in at least the last decade.
New Mexico's Behavioral Health Services Division has been awarded a suicide prevention grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant totals nearly one-and-a-half million dollars over three years. It's aimed at helping prevent suicide and suicide attempts among working-age adults from ages 25 to 64 and to reduce the overall suicide rate and number of suicides in New Mexico. The grant will assist the New Mexico Suicide Prevention Program in doing its work. For fiscal year 2014, more than 114-thousand New Mexicans received behavioral health services. That's an increase of 31-percent over the previous fiscal year.
This year's Southwest monsoon season will be remembered for unusually intense storms that brought months' worth of rain in just one day. The National Weather Service says some areas in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico received more rain in a day than in a typical season. The traditional monsoon season runs from mid-June to the end of September and is characterized by thunderstorms that stir up rain or dust storms. In New Mexico, metropolitan Albuquerque received more than five-inches. Some homes and roads in the region are still awaiting repairs from flood damage. Regionally, meteorologists say Phoenix received more than six-inches of rain, making it the seventh wettest season on record.
Santa Fe Weather: Sunny today, with a high only in the mid-60s. Tonight, clear skies with a low down to 37. Tomorrow: Sunny with a high of 69.