Dahr Jamail | New Mexico: Where Polluting Groundwater Is Legal

[xchrom]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22282-new-mexico-where-polluting-groundwater-is-legal



New Mexicans get 90 percent of their drinking water from groundwater. Yet the governor of this drought-plagued Southwestern state has given the copper industry carte blanche to pollute what is left of that essential resource.

New Mexico's Republican governor is the industry-friendly Susanna Martinez, whose administration has been the bane of those concerned about the state's environment and increasingly precious water resources from the moment she took power in January 2011.

"The Martinez administration behaves like a corporation focused on quarterly numbers," northern New Mexico resident William deBuys, author of seven books, including A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest, told Truthout. "Given the state's long-term prospects under the warming and drying influence of climate change, New Mexico should be placing high priority on building its water resilience, including protection of its groundwater. Unfortunately, the Martinez gang doesn't understand this, or doesn't care. Susanna's national aspirations and the hunger of her cronies for immediate profits trump everything."

These are strong words, but deBuys is far from alone in his analysis.

[Bigmack]

1. Thanks for the post, GG

Just ordered the Great Aridness from our library…. Ms Bigmack

[Bigmack]

2. Hmmmm Don't know where the GG came from

Sorry 'bout that!