Tribes In NM Centered Within Uranium Lease Ban on State Trust Lands
Tribes in New Mexico are at the heart of an executive order issued on Friday that bans new uranium mine leases on millions of acres of state trust land.
Stephanie Garcia Richard issued the decree from her elected post as the New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands, an office responsible in part for approving leases and other industrial work like energy development on more than 13 million acres of state controlled lands.
Instead of new uranium mines, Garcia Richard wants her office to focus on environmental clean up of abandoned mines that dot the state.
It's an order she can enforce in the role that she will hold until the end of the year, and a position she hopes to support as lieutenant governor if elected to that office in November. Garcia Richard is running on the Democratic party ticket under Deb Haaland who is seeking to be New Mexico's first Native American governor. According to Source New Mexico, Democrat Juan de Jesus Sanchez III said he would keep the uranium ban if he is elected land commissioner.
Friday's announcement does not restrict existing permits or business leases, "related to existing mineral leases with valid existing rights" the executive order states. Federal laws would also likely hold weight over the New Mexico ban in most instances.
The United States mined New Mexico for its largest domestic uranium deposits in the country. Garcia Richard said more than 1,000 uranium mining, drilling and exploratory sites are currently in the state. She said more than 250 are considered abandoned, and that 50 of those are under her review by existing on state land.
"I have not allowed any uranium mining on state lands and today's action solidifies this prohibition to protect our communities, and our land and water," Garcia Richard said. "Indigenous communities and New Mexico families have suffered the environmental and health effects inherent in living near a uranium pit or downwind from a nuclear testing site."
Downwinders in New Mexico include many tribal citizens that have started to receive some financial compensation for harms caused by the uranium mining era. In 1979, the Church Rock mill site released 94 million gallons of radioactive material in northwest New Mexico, one of the largest radioactive environmental disasters in history.
The order from Garcia Richard also cites opposition from the All Pueblo Council of Governors to any new uranium mines that could harm sacred sites, and references a 2011 agreement between the New Mexico Land Office and the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblos of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni that "reflects the significance of the Mt. Taylor landscape and the importance of consulting tribal nations in managing lands within this area."
Due to ongoing federal priorities by President Donald Trump to accelerate domestic uranium production, areas around Mt. Taylor quickly became sites for review of new potential mines.
"The Trump administration's push for aggressive uranium development is a low blow to these communities, and I will keep doing everything in my power to fight back," Garcia Richard said.
She said the executive order stands in opposition to President Trump's effort to revamp parts of the National Historic Preservation Act that harm tribal involvement on projects like uranium mining development.
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