The EPA Says Damage From Mine Spill Not Severe - Associated Press
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says fish and other aquatic life did not suffer severe or long-lasting damage from a mine waste spill three years ago that polluted rivers in three states. An EPA report released last week analyzed the 2015 spill at the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado, which an EPA-led contractor inadvertently triggered. Rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah were polluted with a bright yellow-orange plume carrying iron, aluminum and other metals.
In the report, the EPA said part of the Animas River in Colorado closest to the spill was already so polluted by decades of waste spilling from inactive mines that the most vulnerable fish, insects and other aquatic life were already gone.
Search Warrants Issued For Lobo Club Records - Associated Press
Agents with the state attorney general's office have seized documents from a nonprofit fundraising organization that helps student athletes as part of an ongoing investigation into questionable spending by the University of New Mexico's troubled athletics department.
A warrant made public Wednesday shows that the agents arrived the day before at the UNM Lobo Club offices in search of bank statements, spreadsheets, lists of donors, reimbursement records and other documents related to former Athletic Director Paul Krebs.
Krebs stepped down last year amid inquiries into the handling of public money within the athletics department.
The attorney general's office said in a statement Wednesday that it will continue the "highly active investigation into financial transactions at UNM and we will provide the public with updates as we are able."
A message left with Krebs' attorney was not immediately returned.
Lawmakers Aren’t Eager To Ditch Private Prisons In NM - Albuquerque Journal
The Albuquerque Journal reports at a meeting Tuesday of the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, lawmakers sounded interested in negotiating future contracts to hold corrections companies more accountable for their performance — a recommendation of legislative analysts. State lawmakers, however, didn’t offer much support for getting out of the private prison industry altogether.
Outgoing Rep. Bill McCamley, a Las Cruces Democrat whose term ends Dec. 31, pitched the idea of prohibiting the state and local governments in New Mexico from hiring contractors to run prisons and jails.
No other legislator took up the cause during Tuesday’s meeting. But some committee members expressed concerns about a lack of transparency and cooperation by corrections companies and suggested they’d like to adjust their future contracts to align with state goals.
New Mexico relies more heavily on private prisons than any other state in the nation.
