State green lights $90M for Fairgrounds redevelopment
—Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
The state has formally approved more than $90 million to redevelop the State Fairgrounds into housing and other amenities.
According to the Albuquerque Journal’s Gillian Barkhurst, The State Board of Finance gave the final green light Tuesday, several months after the State Fair District Board voted to allocate state funds.
Despite this eight-figure commitment, the decision on whether the annual State Fair will move is still up in the air.
Last week, the state’s design contractor, Stantec Consulting Services Inc., announced three preliminary designs, two of which kept the fair in its historic home. The third design, however, was the most ambitious, implementing larger-scale amenities and relocating the fair.
But Many local residents have expressed concerns about the redevelopment in public meetings.
Some feared gentrification in the surrounding neighborhood, while others lamented the high price tag or expressed childhood nostalgia surrounding the fair.
NM announces $26M in grants for brackish water projects
—Joshua Bowling, Source NM
The New Mexico Environment Department and Office of the State Engineer on Wednesday announced nearly $26 million in grant funding for seven projects across the state to research and implement treatment of brackish water.
Joshua Bowling with Source NM reports that Brackish water is often found deep underground and is too salty to drink or to water many crops. New Mexico is estimated to have more than 1 trillion gallons of water underground, according to the state environment department.
The grants will fund projects in New Mexico’s largest cities and some of its smallest communities and will focus on developing the technology to introduce new water supplies into the state’s portfolio as well as growing local economies.
Jonas Armstrong, director of NMED’s Water Protection Division, told Source NM that the grants mark an exciting step forward for New Mexico’s small and rural communities. Not only will they hopefully find innovative ways to bolster their local water supplies, he said, but they’ll explore how to bring in revenue by extracting valuable materials, like lithium, from brine that would otherwise go to waste.
Advocates demand NM officials extend public comment period for data center Project Jupiter
—Joshua Bowling, Source NM
Joshua Bowling of Source NM reports that Attorneys with the nonprofit New Mexico Environmental Law Center recently called upon state officials to give the public more time to weigh in on Project Jupiter, the massive data center campus slated for Doña Ana County.
Developers behind the project previously filed two applications for air quality permits with the New Mexico Environment Department which, if approved, would let them emit more greenhouse gases than Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined. The applications requested the ability to build natural gas generating stations with a combined 41 turbines to annually generate about as much electricity as PNM’s entire system.
Attorneys with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, demanded that the state environment department extend the 30 day clock for public comment and broadly distribute analysis materials on the project in both English and Spanish.