Federal agency provides $120 million for Navajo-Gallup Water supply project — Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A project to bring drinking water to Gallup, the Navajo Nation and the Jicarilla Apache Nation received a lifeline of $120 million in federal funding for the next year, but more approvals are needed from U.S. Congress to continue construction in future years.
The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project will divert water from the San Juan River to bolster water supplies for about 250,000 in three communities who rely on a rapidly depleting and poor-quality aquifer.
The project has been under construction for more than a decade. It was anticipated to be completed in 2024, but the deadline was extended to 2029 after the parties decided to look at further storage and energy generation.
The U.S. Department of the Interior confirmed it allocated $120 million for the next year for the project, in a letter Sunday.
The water project upholds the federal government’s responsibility to financially assist tribal nations and protect treaty obligations, said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) in a written statement. She sponsored five settlements to end litigation and support water projects with tribal nations last year.
Federal officials had spent up to the maximum amount allocated by Congress earlier last year and faced a shortfall on the Navajo-Gallup water supply project, without further required approval.
In December, U.S. lawmakers passed the continuing resolution, which allows the government to operate until mid-March. The temporary spending bill included a line allowing the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to spend up to $1.6 billion on Northwestern New Mexico water projects, nearly double from the previous $870 million cap.
“We worked hard to raise the funding ceiling for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project in the contentious end of year funding fight because we knew this $120 million would get us a step closer to delivering clean, reliable water to communities on the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, and across northwestern New Mexico,” Ledger Fernández said, adding that she would fight for continued funding for infrastructure projects.
A proposed settlement sponsored by Leger Fernández last year requested $725 million to finish the project, putting the total bill to $2.1 billion.
The six settlements with tribal communities over New Mexico water rights proceeded through a crucial committee hearing, but were not passed this congressional session.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren’s office did not respond to an email requesting comment before deadline.
Nygren has appeared before U.S. lawmakers multiple times emphasizing the importance of the project, and celebrated the additional funding in stopgap spending bill in a December social media post.
“Securing funding for the Navajo-Gallup project has been a top priority for us,” Nygren wrote. “We needed to extend its timeline to ensure this water project serves our communities without interruption.”
Rio Rancho mayor ‘weighing options’ on running for governor - By Kevin Hendricks, New Mexico Political Report
The mayor of Rio Rancho is considering running for the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico.
While Gregg Hull is in the middle of his third term as mayor and has yet to confirm or deny that he will run for reelection in 2026, rumors are swirling that he has bigger plans.
Hull told the Sandoval Signpost that he has been contacted about running for governor but has yet to decide.
“I’ve been approached by a lot of individuals to look at the possibility and I’m currently weighing all of my options,” Hull said.
Hull was elected as Rio Rancho mayor in 2014, his first foray into politics after a lengthy career in business. Rio Rancho is the second most populous city in the state.
Republican sources, who are not authorized to speak publicly, told the Signpost that Hull is gauging support among Republicans for a run to replace Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who is term-limited and cannot run again in 2026.
Republicans have not won a statewide election in New Mexico since 2016, when Judith Nakamura won reelection to the state Supreme Court.
Republican Susana Martinez won two terms as governor before Lujan Grisham’s time in office. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich are each reportedly exploring a run for the Democratic nomination for governor.
NM Health Department: Suicide rates dropped for women, Indigenous People - By Source New Mexico
New Mexico’s suicide rates for women and Indigenous people dropped steeply in 2023, the state health department reported today. Specifically, data for that year — the most recent available — shows a 42% decline for New Mexico women who died by suicide, from 116 in 2022 to 67 in 2023. In the Indigenous People demographic, rates declined for both males and females who died by suicide: by 43% during the same time period: from 77 deaths in 2022 to 44 deaths in 2023.
According to a news release, the male suicide rate had no significant change.
“Suicide is a serious public health problem that can have lasting effects on communities,” Dr. Miranda Durham, NMDOH chief medical officer, said in a statement. “Preventing suicide requires many strategies, but everyone can help by learning the warning signs, promoting prevention and working to foster healthy connections and safe environments.”
The state’s overall suicide rate decreased by 9% in 2023, the department said, noting that while the decline, “is a positive sign, it does not yet indicate a sustained trend. The state’s suicide death rate is still 9% higher than it was a decade ago.”
Find helpFor anyone struggling or in need of help, call or text New Mexico’s 988 Lifeline for 24/7 free and confidential emotional, mental health and substance use support.
Find more resources online from the New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition and from the state health department.
FEMA to close Roswell offices Saturday; at least one spokesperson headed to California fires - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Federal officials will wrap up their offices in Roswell as at least one employee heads to California to respond to ongoing fires.
In a press release, FEMA said it would continue working with the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The application period for federal disaster assistance from the Roswell floods closed on Thursday, Jan. 2. However, residents have an additional 60 days to provide a late application, but an explanation for the delay must be provided “by phone, in writing or in-person,” according to the website. Those applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
DETAILS ON ROSWELL OFFICE CLOSURE The Disaster Recovery office in the Roswell Mall will close permanently after 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18.
For assistance visit the FEMA page for Roswell resources (or DisasterAssistance.gov/es para español) or call the FEMA live helpline at 800-621-3362 (TTY 800-462-7585) seven days a week between 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
TALKING DISASTER
Maria Padron, who’s worked for FEMA for 25 years, managed public affairs for the South Fork and Salt fires and the destructive Roswell floods.
Padron announced her reassignment to the California fires, in an email Tuesday, writing. “My city needs me. I had been redeployed to Los Angeles.”
In a call with Source NM, she said hers is the only reassignment she knows of.
SOURCE NM: The U.S. experienced a near-record number of destructive storms, and that’s poised to escalate, considering the effects climate change is having. Do you have anything to say to the people experiencing disasters, many for the first time?
PADRON: Always be prepared, have a prepared kit in your car, because you never know when a disaster is going to strike. People need to be aware of what’s going on with the climate, and their surroundings at all times.
SOURCE NM: In your departure letter, you said ‘your city needs you,’ and you went to school in Carson, California. How do these fires personally affect you?
PADRON: I live in – not quite the Valley. I live in a safe place, away from the hills. I have two friends, they’ve lost their homes, one in Pasadena the other in Pacific Palisades. So even though I wasn’t affected, I’m affected indirectly.
SOURCE NM: Is there anything you learned from Roswell or Ruidoso that you think is going to inform your work in LA?
PADRON: You know, it’s a different ball game. This one is a catastrophic event. There were 1,000, maybe – I forgot how many houses were destroyed in Ruidoso – but this one is miles and miles of destruction. Every disaster is a different ball game, but lessons learned: If you live close to the mountains, in the woods, you need to be prepared all the time for emergencies.
Source NM note: more than 1,400 structures including more than 856 homes were destroyed in the South Fork and Salt Fires.
Book Review: Kyle Paoletta's 'American Oasis' offers lessons for a hotter, drier world - By Anita Snow Associated Press
Albuquerque-born author Kyle Paoletta takes readers on a virtual road trip around his native region, transporting us across hundreds of years and thousands of miles in his new book "American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest."
As cities worldwide grapple with drought and rising temperatures from climate change, Paoletta describes how the Southwest developed a resilience that he says other regions will need as the globe grows hotter and drier.
He introduces us to what he calls the great cities of the arid Southwest, places that already know much about survival: Las Vegas; Phoenix; Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas. Las Vegas built a destination for international visitors in the middle of a scorching desert. Phoenix has embraced widespread air conditioning to keep people alive in triple-degree heat that would otherwise kill them.
"For so many Americans," he writes, "it is only in recent years that the climate has begun to be understood as a hostile force. To them, I say: Welcome. We Southwesterners have never known anything different."
Paoletta then recounts the region's history and diverse culture, stretching back millennia to when Indigenous peoples adapted to the hot, arid land, building structures with the ribs of Saguaro cactus plants and digging canals to transport water for crops in the Phoenix valley.
Later, the tribes had to contend with Spanish conquistadores as much of the land in the Southwest came under the control of Spain dating back to years before the pilgrims set sail for Plymouth.
Most of the region eventually came under Mexican rule, until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 gave the United States an area that today includes California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.
The promise of overnight wealth later drew Anglo boosters to the region, especially Las Vegas, where East Coast crime boss Bugsy Siegel set up legal casinos and put the city on the road to becoming a premier gambling destination.
But such success didn't touch many groups that continued to suffer extreme inequities into the 20th century.
Blacks in Phoenix were forced as late as the 1960s to live south of the railroad tracks by racist real estate covenants that barred them from owning property in white neighborhoods. Latinos in Tucson suffered into the 1970s under municipal neglect that razed their barrios for highways or turned them into environmental disaster areas.
And along the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants continued to arrive in the sweltering heat in hopes of getting their own shot at the American Dream, many dying along the way.
People who live in and outside of the Southwest must learn how to care for themselves and others amid the drought and extreme heat if the region and beyond are to survive, Paoletta says.
"We can focus on sustaining ourselves, housing each other, and making room for new migrants willing to live by the same ethos of community and environmental care," he writes. "Or we can continue to emphasize economic growth at all cost."
New Mexico congressional delegation announces more than $172M for transportation projects — Source New Mexico
The U.S. Department of Transportation will provide more than $172 million for a swath of New Mexico transportation projects, the state’s congressional delegation announced Monday.
The federal funding comes via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and “reflects” the law’s intention, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) said in a statement: to “improve safety for everyone using our roads, grow local economies, lower transportation costs, and create high-quality jobs New Mexicans can build their families around.”
The funded projects include:
• $61.8 million to the City of Las Cruces for the Mesa Grande Drive Extension Project
• $44.8 million for the state Department of Transportation for the Allison Road Grade Separated Crossing Project, which will support improvements to BNSF Railway infrastructure and Amtrak’s Southwest Chief route in Gallup, New Mexico
• $36.1 million to the state transportation project for reconstruction of two segments on the NM 128 mainline and three major intersections at WIPP Road, Buck Jackson and Orla roads in Carlsbad
• $22.4 million to the Rio Metro Regional Transit District to construct a new Rail Runner Express operations and maintenance facility
• $3.3 million for McKinley County/BNSF’s rail crossing elimination project
• $2 million for the City of Gallup for its 2nd and 3rd street crossings community planning project
• $1 million for the City of Clovis for its New Mexico Corridor Improvement Project
• $480,913 to the Mescalero Apache Tribe for a snowplow and salt spreader
• $158,448 to the Pueblo of Taos for capital improvements for two of the pueblo’s bus stops to upgrade them to American with Disabilities Act standards
“These projects will ensure safer roads for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists, while making our rail systems safer and strengthening the links between our communities,” U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said in a statement
More casitas and food trucks could be coming to BernCo — Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
Bernalillo County residents may soon be able to build casitas on their property and see food trucks in new areas.
County Commissioners Tuesday will consider those items as well as a deal that could spur improvements to a Near North Valley apartment complex.
One proposed item includes amendments to the county’s comprehensive zoning ordinance that would allow casitas on lots of a certain size that also meet certain other criteria.
Owners of properties that don’t meet size or other criteria would be able to apply for conditional use permits.
County staff say the new rules would make the permitting process move more quickly.
Also on the agenda is a proposed update to the zoning ordinance that would allow food trucks to operate in areas zoned for commercial and light industrial uses.
The agenda says the commercial and light industrial zones were inadvertently left out of a recent zoning code amendment. The change would allow multiple mobile food operations on a lot and would require a site plan to verify that access and parking are sufficient. The number of units would be limited by the capacity of the site.
The proposed regulations also require on-site restrooms and sanitation so the businesses are not burdensome to surrounding properties.
Staff say the amendment may provide food options for people working in more industrial areas and may provide additional economic opportunities for food truck operators.
Commissioners will also consider issuing $33.5 million in project revenue bonds, to go toward the planned acquisition and rehabilitation of St. Anthony’s Plaza, a 160-unit complex at 1750 Indian School Road NW. If the bonds are approved, the county will hold the deed to the property, but won’t be giving the developer, St. Anthony’s Plaza Community Partners LP, any cash.
The county will be listed as the owner strictly for tax purposes, according to the agenda, and lease it back to the developer, who maintains full responsibility for the property and for any and all activities that occur on the project site.
Staff say the project will benefit the community by increasing the supply of affordable housing.
Current market conditions, including supply chain challenges and the costs of construction and labor, mean affordable housing projects will need some type of financial incentives to keep rent below market rates, according to the agenda. Such projects typically include federal, state and local government incentives to reduce the development costs.
St. Anthony’s Plaza is applying for low-income housing tax credits and renewed federal Section 8 status.
The board will also elect a chair and vice-chair for 2025.
New Mexico neurosurgeon loses license in the wake of multiple lawsuits – Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Albuquerque neurosurgeon Mark Erasmus has lost his license to practice medicine in New Mexico following $19 million in malpractice payouts.
The Albuquerque Journal reports a district judge in December upheld an earlier conclusion by the New Mexico Medical Board that Erasmus exhibited “manifest incapacity or incompetence” that would make him unfit to continue practicing medicine.
The board said there was credible evidence that since 2001, insurance companies have settled 26 malpractice claims involving Erasmus. Several lawsuits fault Lovelace Medical Center for permitting Erasmus to work as a neurosurgeon considering his history of such payouts.
Currently, Erasmus is fighting four lawsuits where former patients accuse him of medical negligence. Three of the four are now wheelchair users or are quadriplegic.
Erasmus’ attorney said these payouts were “unsubstantiated” and that the board’s decision found his client unfit to practice as a neurosurgeon, but not unfit to practice medicine generally. The Journal reports it’s rare for the board to revoke a license and even more unusual to cite malpractice settlements as the reason.
According to his attorney Erasmus would like to teach, do insurance reviews, and independent medical exams. Erasmus intends to appeal the decision.
Alcon dies of liver cancer - By Nicole Maxwell, New Mexico Political Report
Recently retired state Rep. Eliseo “Lee” Alcon, D-Milan, died Monday following a battle with liver cancer, he was 74 and had been on hospice care.
“We are tremendously saddened by the loss of our esteemed colleague and dear friend Eliseo,” the House Democrats said in a press release. “During his 16 years in the House, Rep. Alcon was a tireless champion for his western New Mexico community and our service men and women. We deeply appreciated the warmth, kindness, good humor, and dedication he brought to the Roundhouse.”
Alcon was a Vietnam Veteran who received a Bronze Star for his service as a combat medic. He was elected to the House in 2009.
“Rep. Alcon’s legacy will live on through the historic victories he achieved for veterans and their families, New Mexico workers, and our environment,” House Democrats’ statement continued. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, especially his beloved wife Darlene and their children, grandchildren, and great grandson.”
After Alcon stepped down from his seat, Cibola and McKinley counties both nominated outgoing Democratic Rep. Harry Garcia as his replacement. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has since questioned Garcia’s residency and eligibility to take over from Alcon and subsequently held off on appointing Garcia. The seat is still vacant with about a week until the legislative session starts.
LANL talks expansion with new environmental impact statement– Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking to update the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and Los Alamos National Laboratory will play a big part.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the agency released its draft sitewide environmental impact statement on Friday. It’s the first since 2008 and it notes that since then, the lab’s budget has doubled and hundreds of new employees have been added.
The report offers three visions for the lab’s future: No action, modernization, or expansion, and lists the environmental impacts of each.
The plan addresses major projects like the controversial 14-mile power line through the Caja del Rio, cleanup of a hexavalent chromium plume, beefing up plutonium pit production, and expanding operations for wildfire mitigation.
Whichever route LANL takes, there will be growth and that includes increased demands for water and energy.
Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico says the process is “rigged” given that the plan to restart pit production was approved before a site-wide environmental impact statement was drafted that would weigh possible impacts.
Both modernizing and expanding would increase LANL’s physical footprint. LANL officials say that about half of their buildings are in “poor or very poor condition” leaving them inefficient and in need of upkeep and reinvestment.