New Mexico monsoon outlook in August looks ‘bleak’ — Source NM, KUNM News
The respite from intense, deadly heat waves won’t last long. And it looks like the monsoon will suffer for it, according to New Mexico forecasters.
Danielle Prokop with Source New Mexico reports, globally, July has been the hottest month in recorded history, a preliminary analysis from international science organizations found. The data will be fully published in August, but the analysis shows it’s the hottest July on record – and that these heat waves in the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico would have been nearly impossible without the effects of burning fossil fuels.
A drop in pressure allowed for scattered storms and short bursts of rain across the state, however, August is predicted to be hotter and drier than normal, according to the National Climate Prediction Center outlook released Monday.
New Mexico State University climatologist Dave DuBois said he’s hearing from climate science colleagues around the world that are also struggling with record-breaking heat in India and China.
He said the current trends globally and in New Mexico are worrying, not just for crops, but for wild plants and animals.
“Even if we do get a really wet September, it’s unclear how much that is going to help, when most of the season has already passed for greening up forage for natural species,” DuBois said.
The loss of key moisture means much of the state is sliding back into drought. Dry plants and hotter, drier temperatures raise the risks of wildfires outside of their typical season.
“Usually we have the monsoon bringing in higher relative humidities,” he said. “It takes a lot more energy to make a fire when the humidity is higher.”
Monsoon missing in action
July was defined by a “non-soon” period, where the storms that build up in the late afternoons and evenings have been missing in action for much of the state.
While the dome of high pressure abated over the weekend, allowing storms to temporarily build up over mountains across the state, that pattern is predicted to end Thursday, as hot winds blowing back bring less chance for rain, forecasters with National Weather Service offices in Albuquerque and Santa Teresa said.
Instead of a monsoon season with any “strength or duration,” meteorologists said it looks like there may be long periods of hot dry weather, broken up with short periods of storms.
“It’s bleak because we’re not seeing the pattern setup that brings the moisture in and keeps it here,” said Tom Bird, a National Weather Service forecaster out of the Santa Teresa office.
July and August rains often account for about half of the state’s yearly rainfall for the southern portions of the state, and provide about a third of the rainfall totals for the rest of New Mexico.
Some long-range predictions show that September’s rain patterns could be closer to normal, but it isn’t easy to catch up.
“If we don’t get it now, during this period of time, it’s hard to catch up for the year,” Bird said. “We’re already well below normal on precipitation.”
Las Cruces has received just under an inch of rainfall since Jan. 1, instead of the more than 4 inches of rain it normally receives.
While rivers saw strong runoff from a wet winter, the lack of monsoon may soon hit them hard, said Andrew Mangham, a hydrologist in the National Weather Service Albuquerque office.
“I think that almost every river and every reservoir in the state is going to see some level of drying because we’re not getting consistent moisture almost anywhere,” Mangham said.
The only exception has been the Pecos River, he said. That’s in part due to the snowpack, but also the water flooding into the riverbed due to the burn scars of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon wildfires.
From rushing water to sandbed
Despite a good snowpack and high runoff, the Rio Grande is already slipping into sandbed. The San Acacia reach – which runs between Socorro and Elephant Butte Reservoir – dried more than 26 miles over eight days last week, said Carolyn Donnelly, who supervises water operations in Albuquerque for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Rio Grande has been running high in other places, such as Española, where it meets the Chama River, or below Elephant Butte Dam, since its release in early June. However, New Mexico’s largest river could dry again through the state’s largest city, for the second time in about forty years, if the monsoons continue to be weak.
“We could see drying in Albuquerque as early as mid-August,” she said.
Donnelly said the drying is partially due to the fact that El Vado reservoir remains under construction for repairs, noting that water would usually be captured and stored there, to release throughout the summer.
Other rivers which ran strong during the record runoff, are also dwindling. The Santa Fe River, an ephemeral stream which provides some of the city’s water and feeds two acequias, has dwindled recently, said Alan Hook, who coordinates water resources with the the city of Santa Fe.
Without the rains to help keep the channel wet, or offer boosts to the amount of water flowing out of the mountains, it means the city has to limit how much water it provides to acequias.
“We conserve water and deliver water every other week, and wait out until the monsoons can get the river channel wetted again,” Hook said.
DuBois, the state climatologist, said the drought outlook is challenging on many levels.
“Oh boy, no, things are not looking good this year,” he said.
2022 election PAC reaches settlement with New Mexico ethics commission - Albuquerque Journal
A New Mexico political action committee involved in the 2022 election cycle has agreed to pay out a $1000 civil penalty and disclose its financial activity for violating campaign finance laws.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, the State Ethics Commission settled with New Mexico Values PAC after the group mailed campaign ads opposing Democrat Susan Herrera.
According to the Journal, the PAC disclosed $2,500 in contributions and spending during the 2022 election cycle –– though, the ethics commission was doubtful the group fully disclosed its activity.
The commission said the disclosures didn't include the cost of preparing and printing campaign materials. They then suggested the timing of the PAC’s filings seemed to hide their activity until the June primary.
The group now has until Aug. 15 to disclose its spending and donations during the 2022 election cycle.
Nearly $1B available for broadband expansion on Tribal lands - Shondiin Silversmith, Arizona Mirror via Source New Mexico
To fill the gap in broadband service among Tribal Nations, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration launched the second round of grant funding to expand Internet access and adoption on Tribal Lands.
Approximately $980 million in funding is available through the Internet for All initiative’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities, to develop internet infrastructure on Tribal lands, affordability programs, telehealth and distance learning initiatives.
“These investments will provide new opportunities for Tribal communities to participate in telehealth, online education, remote work and countless other benefits that Internet access can bring,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.
The Connectivity Program comes at a cost of $3 billion through President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
“Through President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, we are providing the resources necessary to deploy high-quality, high-speed Internet service across Tribal Lands,” Raimondo said.
The program seeks to improve quality of life, spur economic development and create opportunities for remote employment, online entrepreneurship, remote learning and telehealth. The program is expected to achieve this by expanding broadband access and providing digital training and inclusion programs to Native American communities.
“The digital divide has disproportionately impacted people in Tribal communities for years,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Alan Davidson. “But thanks to our Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, that’s finally starting to change.”
During its first round of funding, the program awarded $1.78 billion to 191 Tribal entities since 2021, including 11 Tribal entities from Arizona and 12 in New Mexico.
The Gila River Indian Community was one of the applicants awarded funding in 2021, and it received $4.4 million to help improve access to and use of broadband internet service among Tribal citizens.
At the time, Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said the funding was vital because it would allow them to take the next steps toward digital equity.
The application process is now open to eligible entities, which includes Tribal governments, Tribal colleges or universities, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands on behalf of the Native Hawaiian community, including Native Hawaiian education programs, Tribal organizations or Alaska Native corporations.
Funding from the program must go toward broadband infrastructure deployment, for example, the development of affordable broadband programs, including providing free or reduced-cost broadband service and preventing disconnection of existing broadband service.
“This latest round of funding will provide Indian Country with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service,” Davidson said.
During this round of funding, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration expects the grant range to vary. Still, for broadband internet infrastructure deployment projects proposed by a single applicant, funding ranges from $1 million to $50 million, and for broadband internet adoption and use projects, funding ranges from $100,000 to $2.5 million.
The funding ranges are not required minimums and maximums, according to the administration, but if proposed projects are seeking funding outside of these ranges, they will be required to provide a reasonable explanation for the variance in their project size.
Eligible entities are welcome to apply for the program through January 2024, and the administration will conduct a three-stage review process to evaluate applications.
Details about the grant process can be found through the Internet for All website.
Judge won't dismiss charges against movie armorer in fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on film set - By Morgan Lee Associated Press
A New Mexico judge told attorneys to "stay the course" on charges including involuntary manslaughter against movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed in the shooting death of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin, rejecting Tuesday a request from defense counsel to dismiss charges.
The ruling from Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer during online proceedings sets the stage for lengthy evidentiary hearings, starting next week, on manslaughter and evidence-tampering charges. Gutierrez-Reed is the sole remaining defendant in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the rehearsal on Oct. 21, 2021.
In April, prosecutors dropped charges against Baldwin, who was pointing a gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza. This left Gutierrez-Reed as the sole remaining defendant in the case. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison.
An attorney for Gutierrez-Reed argued unsuccessfully Tuesday that the case had been compromised by changes in the prosecution team earlier this year, sloppiness with evidence and public statements by prosecutors that might interfere with the right to an impartial jury.
Sommer rejected the arguments and sided with prosecutors, who urged the court to move forward with a preliminary hearing that will decide whether evidence is sufficient to advance toward trial.
Prosecutors have said charges still could be refiled against Baldwin pending further investigation, including an ongoing independent examination by a firearms expert. The expert is examining the revolver fired in the fatal shooting, and other weapons and ammunition seized from the set.
Authorities have not yet determined how live ammunition found its way into the .45-caliber revolver, which was made by an Italian company that specializes in 19th century reproductions.
Baldwin has said the gun fired accidentally after he followed instructions to point it toward Hutchins, who was behind the camera. He said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun fired.
In April prosecutors commissioned additional weapons testing to investigate whether the hammer of the gun may have been intentionally modified.
"We don't have the firearms report yet, although they told me that it's forthcoming. I hope to have it by the end of the week," special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said Tuesday. "The causation issues as they relate to Mr. Baldwin and the functionality of the firearm do not create causation problems for Ms. Gutierrez. That is our legal opinion."
An August FBI report on the agency's analysis of the gun found that, as is common with firearms of that design, it could go off without pulling the trigger if force was applied to an uncocked hammer — such as by dropping the weapon.
The only way the testers could get it to fire was by striking the gun with a mallet while the hammer was down and resting on the cartridge, or by pulling the trigger while it was fully cocked. The gun eventually broke during the testing.
Separately, prosecutors withdrew a motion to shield the name of a witness from public disclosure as they pursue an evidence-tampering charge against Gutierrez-Reed.
Prosecutors say a witness is prepared to testify that Gutierrez-Reed handed off a small bag of narcotics to her after returning from an interview at a police station, despite concerns about being harassed or blacklisted in the entertainment industry.
"She has agreed not to pursue a protective order," Morrissey said of the witness.
Defense attorney Jason Bowles has called the evidence-tampering charge a vindictive attempt at "character assassination" by prosecutors.
In March of this year, "Rust" safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest to a charge of unsafe handling of a firearm and received a suspended sentence of six months' probation.
He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the fatal shooting and is listed as a possible witness in evidentiary hearings next week to decide whether the case can advance toward trial.
The filming of "Rust" resumed in April in Montana under an agreement with the cinematographer's widower, Matthew Hutchins, that made him an executive producer.
Democratic lawmakers slam the lack of attorney access for asylum seekers in Border Patrol custody - Associated Press
Dozens of Democratic members of Congress asked the Biden administration Tuesday to end expedited screening of asylum seekers in Border Patrol custody, calling it a "rushed practice" that has allowed little access to legal counsel.
As the administration prepared to launch speedy screenings at Border Patrol holding facilities this spring , authorities pledged access to counsel would be a key difference from a Trump-era version of the policy. So far, that promise appears unfulfilled.
A coterie of involved attorneys estimated that perhaps 100 migrants secured formal representation in the first three months of the policy, The Associated Press reported last month, and only hundreds more have received informal advice through one-time phone calls ahead of the expedited screenings. That represents a mere fraction of the thousands of expedited screenings since early April, though authorities have not provided a precise count.
The letter to the Homeland Security and Justice Departments, signed by 13 senators and 53 members of the House of Representatives, said conducting the "credible fear" interviews as little as 24 hours after arrival in a holding facility was "inherently problematic," especially without access to counsel.
"Affording people fair adjudication — including adequate time to obtain evidence, prepare one's case, and obtain and work with counsel — is particularly key for individuals fleeing life-threatening harm or torture," the letter states.
Those signing include Alex Padilla of California, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Rep. Nanette Barragán of California, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The Homeland Security Department said it has taken significant steps to ensure a "safe and efficient" process for asylum seekers that includes access to phone booths for consultations with legal counsel and others.
Also Tuesday, the National Immigrant Justice Center said it would no longer serve asylum seekers in Border Patrol custody "after more than two months attempting to overcome obstruction by the Biden administration that made it impossible to provide meaningful legal information and representation." The group says it has represented about 30 people under the new policy.
The administration ramped up the speedy screenings as it ended pandemic-related asylum restrictions, known as Title 42 authority, and introduced new rules that make it far more difficult for people to seek asylum without applying online outside the U.S. or first seeking protection in a country they pass through.
The percentage of people who passed asylum screenings fell to 60% during the first half of July, after the fast-track process picked up, down from 77% the second half of March, just before it began.
The administration has faced criticism from immigration advocates that the new rules ignore obligations under U.S. and international law to provide asylum and from those backing restrictions who say authorities are acting too generously through the online appointment system, which admits up to 1,450 people a day, and parole for up to 30,000 a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Environmentalists sue to stop Utah potash mine that produces sought-after crop fertilizer - By Sam Metz Associated Press
Environmentalists filed a lawsuit on Monday to prevent the construction of a new potash mine that they say would devastate a lake ecosystem in the drought-stricken western Utah desert.
The complaint against the Bureau of Land Management is the latest development in the battle over potash in Utah, which holds some of the United States' largest deposits of the mineral used by farmers to fertilize crops worldwide.
Potash, or potassium sulfate, is currently mined in regions including Carlsbad, New Mexico and at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, where the Bureau of Land Management also oversees a private company's potash mining operations.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance argues in Monday's complaint that, in approving a potash mining operation at Sevier Lake — a shallow saltwater lake about halfway between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas — the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider alternatives that would cause fewer environmental impacts. They say the project could imperil the regional groundwater aquifer already plagued by competing demands from surrounding cities, farms and a nearby wildlife refuge.
"Industrial development of this magnitude will eliminate the wild and remote nature of Sevier Lake and the surrounding lands, significantly impair important habitat for migratory birds, and drastically affect important resource values including air quality, water quality and quantity and visual resources," the group's attorneys write in the complaint.
The Bureau of Land Management's Utah office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The complaint comes months after Peak Minerals, the company developing the Sevier Lake mine, announced it had secured a $30 million loan from an unnamed investor. In a press release, leaders of the company and the private equity firm that owns it touted the project's ability "to support long-term domestic fertilizer availability and food security in North America in a product."
Demand for domestic sources of potash, which the United States considers a critical mineral, has spiked since the start of the war in Ukraine as sanctions and supply chain issues disrupted exports from Russia and Belarus — two of the world's primary potash producers. As a fertilizer, potash lacks of some of climate change concerns of nitrogen- and phosphorous-based fertilizers, which require greenhouse gases to produce or can leach into water sources. As global supply has contracted and prices have surged, potash project backers from Brazil to Canada renewed pushes to expand or develop new mines.
That was also the case in Utah. Before the March announcement of $30 million in new funds, the Sevier Playa Potash project had been on hold due to a lack of investors. In 2020, after the Bureau of Land Management approved the project, the mining company developing it pulled out after failing to raise necessary capital.
Peak Minerals did not immediately respond to request for comment on the lawsuit.
In a wet year, Sevier Lake spans 195 square miles (506 square kilometers) in an undeveloped part of rural Utah and is part of the same prehistoric lakebed as the Great Salt Lake. The lake remains dry the majority of the time but fills several feet in wet years and serves as a stop-over for migratory birds.
The project is among many fronts in which federal agencies are fighting environmentalists over public lands and how to balance conservation concerns with efforts to boost domestic production of minerals critical for goods ranging from agriculture to batteries to semiconductors. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance opposed the project throughout the environmental review process, during which it argued the Bureau of Land Management did not consider splitting the lake by approving mining operations on its southern half and protecting a wetland on its northern end.
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This story has been updated to correct the wording of the quote in the fourth paragraph to "impair," not "pair."