Cesar Chávez Cultural Tourism Conference
August 1–2 at the Old Taos County Courthouse and Kit Carson Park
The Town of Taos will commemorate the work of farm worker/organizer Cesar Chávez—while looking forward to a future of agriculture and cultural preservation—with a first-of-its-kind, cultural tourism conference. Panelists at the free event will provide historical perspectives on current issues related to reestablishing self-sufficiency.
“This event will be a powerful commentary on how the history of our area shapes the present landscape and economic possibilities, uses of the land and social issues,” said Judi Cantú, Taos councilwoman and cocreator of the event. “It’s a must-attend for all involved with the farming industry and preservation of the unique cultures that have made Taos and northern New Mexico so great.”
Councilor Cantú credits Community Cultural Committee president Arsenio Córdova for the academic design of the event. A sampling of the “Cultural Educational Tourism Incentive and Revitalization Intervention” themes to be discussed:
La Cultura – Preserving a Way of Life (Money is not God)
Acequia Struggles Past & Present (Water is the new gold!)
Jardines – Returning to Agriculture to Revive a Way of Life
Economic Development in Agriculture
Health & Safety Issues of Farming
Land Grant Struggles & Issues
The Movement Transformed: Community Organizing Across Generations
There will also be a teatro (theatrical play), film screenings, musical performances, dancers and poetry, along with food and craft booths.
A partial list of presenters and panelists: author/musician Arsenio Córdova; author/historian Dr. Kathryn Córdova; UNM professor Dr. Tess Córdova; author/composer Juanita Domínguez; Diana Sandoval of the Guadalupe Credit Union; Michelle Roberts of the Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform; author/publisher Enriquetia Vásquez; author/journalist Bill Whaley; president of Los Alamos National Laboratory Major Subcontractor’s Consortium Liddie Martínez; Paul Anthony Martínez, Dr. Cesar Gómez, Dr. Marisol Ruíz, Dr. Sophia Martínez, Richard Moore, Jaelyn de María and Rudy Gonzales.
For more information: 575.779.9804, jcantu@taosgov.com or visit www.taoscesarchavezday.com
Innovation and Discovery in Energy and Water
High Desert Discovery District and SFCC — Aug. 11-12
New Mexico’s first privately led high-technology start-up accelerator, the High Desert Discovery District (HD3), and Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) will co-host Innovation and Discovery in Energy and Water: HD3 Discovery Day™ on Aug. 11 and 12 at the SFCC campus.
“Energy and water are core to the New Mexico economy and to the entrepreneurial economy,” said Michelle D. Miller, founder and CEO of HD3. “HD3 hopes to identify the most promising innovations that can be commercialized into growth companies.”
“Innovations in energy and water are some of the more intriguing and forward-facing developments taking place in New Mexico today,” said Randy Grissom, president of SFCC. “We are very excited to host Discovery Day, as SFCC has become an innovation station for water management, aquaponics, solar, biofuels and other renewables—advancements that are critical to the future.”
Discovery Day will provide a forum to energy and water innovators with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories and Air Force laboratories located in New Mexico, as well as faculty, graduate-level and undergraduate students in New Mexico universities and trade and community colleges, and any other New Mexico entrepreneur with a strong market-based discovery. Innovators from all over New Mexico are invited to apply to present their innovation, discovery or start-up opportunity to a highly experienced group of business achievers, entrepreneurs, management experts and investors. Each presentation and discussion is limited to 30 minutes, and all presentations are conducted in a private setting to allow for the maximum of sensitive and proprietary business and technological information to be shared. All discussions remain confidential.
The application deadline to participate is July 24. For application criteria, see www.hddd.org. For more information, contact Michelle Miller at 505.310.5711 or Luke Spangenburg at 505.795.2081.
Nursery Chosen to Run SF City/County Composting Program
Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency has selected Payne’s Nurseries and Greenhouses, Inc. to develop and implement a composting program for both the city and county. Payne’s has been producing compost from green waste, horse manure, food waste and cardboard since 2010, and has worked closely with local Whole Foods stores.
This program gives area residents a simple way to be part of an important environmental conservation effort. And it allows the city and county to recycle as much waste as possible while producing a usable product. Compost and mulch improve soils by helping them to hold moisture, reduce compaction as well as providing a healthy environment for soil microbes.
Green waste and horse manure will continue to be collected at the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station (BuRRT), ground into smaller pieces and taken to the Caja del Rio landfill where it will be incorporated into the composting process, which takes 12 to14 months. It is an aerobic (with oxygen) process that does not produce greenhouse gasses and minimizes possible odors.
Payne’s is making premium quality soil conditioners available to the general public, landscaping companies and large wholesale customers. Compost and mulch products will be available in bulk form at Payne’s Organic Soil Yard at 6037 Agua Fría and in bags at Payne’s retail stores.
New Mexico Recycling Coalition News
The New Mexico Recycling Coalition (NMRC) is a nonprofit member-supported organization that works with communities, businesses, schools and grassroots activists to help build sustainable and efficient recycling and composting programs.
“From high levels of contamination in recyclables collected to falling prices in the commodity market, it’s no secret that recycling is facing its share of challenges,” says English Bird, NMRC’s executive director.
NMRC (www.recyclenewmexico.com) was recently awarded a $5,000 Think Green® grant from Waste Management, a Houston-based environmental-services company. Cosponsored by Keep America Beautiful, the grant supports the development of sustainable solutions that improve a community’s environment and address local needs. NMRC will use the grant to develop strategies that will increase recycling in New Mexico to 50 percent.
NMRC’s 2015 New Mexico Recycler of the Year award winner:
• Jill Holbert, associate director of the City of Albuquerque’s Solid Waste Department
When she began working for the city six years ago, Holbert worked to gain a diversion-oriented, Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan to serve as the master plan for managing waste and recycling with diversion as its top priority. She then steered the city to seek a public-private partner to build the largest recycling processing facility in the state in order to roll out a comprehensive curbside residential cart system to approximately 178,000 customers. Both the Materials Recovery Facility and the curbside cart rollout program were completed at the end of 2013. With a strong educational outreach, the curbside program saw a 69 percent increase in the amount of material collected from 2013 to 2014.
Other 2015 award winners:
• Reunity Resources, Public-Private Partnership in the Diversion Sector of the Year
Reunity Resources entered a public-private partnership with the city of Santa Fe 18 months ago. The company acts as the city’s agent to market, educate customers and perform commercial compost collection. In its first year, the company diverted more than 100,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill, an atmospheric CO2 equivalency factor of approximately 540,000 pounds. Reunity Resources has also trained over 5,000 K-6 students in composting practices in 12 Santa Fe public elementary schools this year. This diversion saved $111,858.
• South Central Solid Waste Authority, NMRC Distinguished Member Recognition
The South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA) provides solid-waste services and recycling to Las Cruces and Doña Ana County, serving a population of more than 250,000. Additionally, SCSWA services Sierra County, Sunland Park and Anthony and has plans to expand school-recycling programs to include the Gadsden and Hatch school districts. SCSWA integrates solid-waste disposal with waste-diversion programs that include single-stream recycling, curbside residential collections, household hazardous-waste collection, business collections and drop-off opportunities for green waste, glass, white goods and e-waste. SCSWA has become a model for recycling and diversion innovation, successfully going above and beyond with programs like tire shredding, the recently launched glass-collection and crushing program, green-waste diversion, and electronics recycling.
• Steven Porter, City of Ratón – E. Gifford Stack Lifetime Achievement
Steve Porter spent a career in solid-waste management and diversion. Before he passed away in 2014, Porter served as the City of Ratón’s recycling coordinator. In the short time he served in his position, the emerging recycling program was able to grow in leaps and bounds. Porter wrote a long-term recycling plan. He was a strong advocate of the R3 Marketing Cooperative and brought Ratón on as one of the co-op’s earliest members. His efforts included extensive outreach to the Ratón business community. Porter was a champion of recycling.
Don’t Forget Your Bags!
On June 28, the 10-cent paper fee went into effect in Santa Fe.
Santa Fe’s Reusable Bag Ordinance went into effect on June 28, requiring retail stores to begin charging a 10-cent environmental service fee for every paper bag provided to customers. Due to the negative environmental impacts of both plastic and paper bags, the ordinance is intended to encourage the use of reusable shopping bags. The city is offering free reusable bags at public events across the city and is also distributing the bags to the elderly and people with disabilities.
Stores are not required to charge the 10-cent fee to any person with a voucher or electronic benefits card issued under Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, or the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
One cent of the 10-cent fee collected for every paper bag provided will be retained by retail establishments for administrative costs incurred by the collection and reporting of the fee to the city. The remainder of the fee goes to the city, to be used for educational efforts and for the free, reusable tote bags the city is giving out in the interest of shifting consumer behavior toward more environmentally friendly practices.
For more information, go to: www.SantaFeNM.gov/reusable_bag_ordinance
The Sustainable Business Roundtable
A small group of business leaders—all members of the Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce—has been meeting monthly to explore the meaning and significance of a “green” chamber, “doing business better” and “local living economy.” Its core purpose is to cultivate the vital connections between business, the environment and community.
Facilitated jointly by three members of the Green Chamber board, the Santa Fe Sustainable Business Roundtable met monthly from September 2014 to May 2015. First on the docket was to unpack the meaning of sustainability as it relates to doing business. To better understand sustainability as a system, ten broad principles were chosen as umbrella topics: responsibility, wholeness, interrelatedness, authenticity, valuing, restraints, integrity, leadership, symbiosis and evolution.
Participants used The Top 50 Sustainability Books, annotated by Wayne Visser (2009), to prime the pump. Facilitating the process were Robb Hirsch of Energy, Sustainable Development & Leadership (EDL) Consulting, Bob Mang of Regenesis and The Partnership for Responsible Business, and Chris Putnam of Putnam-Pritchard Interiors and NUBU Design. Santa Fe Green Chamber executive director Glenn Schiffbauer joined as board liason.
Participating in the pilot program were Sam Gerberding of Inn of the Governors, Mark Giorgetti of Palo Santo Designs, George Gundry of Tomasitas and Atrisco Café & Bar, Sheila Nixon of Joe’s Dining, Karen Paramanandam of Positive Energy Solar, Jake Rodar of Reynolds Insurance and Steve Wiman of Good Water Company. Now networked, the group aims to continue to learn by sharing best practices, insights, successes and frustrations.
The roundtable examined dynamic models of companies outside Santa Fe, as well as dipping into seminal writings from leading authors in the field of sustainable business. This process helped build a network of deeper business relationships and a mutually created platform as a foundation for providing authentic, sustainable business leadership, locally and beyond.
The program caught the interest of Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales. The group concluded its initial work by meeting with him to discuss and pursue connections between the Roundtable’s deliverable capacity and the city’s sustainability aims.
Member businesses interested in participating in a future Roundtable are encouraged to contact Glenn Schiffbauer (glenn@nmgreenchamber.com) or any SFGCC board member.
SNAP Participants Get More for their Buck this Season at NM Farmers’ Markets
As of June 1, people who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will have the opportunity to stretch their purchasing power for New Mexico-grown fresh fruits and vegetables at more than 30 farmers’ markets across the state including at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Markets at the Railyard and Southside (Santa Fe Place Mall).
The SNAP Double Up Food Bucks program (DUFB) provides SNAP customers a one-to-one match for their food purchases up to $50 each market day. For example, when a customer scans $20 from a SNAP EBT card, the customer will receive an additional $20 in free match that can be spent on locally grown fresh produce. The program, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helps vendors by increasing their revenue and helps the community by increasing access to healthy foods.
The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute has offered a SNAP doubling program sporadically since 2010. In 2014, the SFFMI raised enough funding from private contributions and foundations and $20,000 from the city of Santa Fe to run the program year-round. Each year has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people participating in the program.
Other partners include the Community Leadership Team facilitated by La Familia Medical Center, Feeding Santa Fe, Cooking with Kids, One Santa Fe, NM Farmers Marketing Association and Kitchen Angels. www.farmersmarketinstitute.org,
www.doubleupnm.org
Squash Blossom Local Food: From Nonprofit to Social Enterprise
For years, a wide array of nonprofit organizations has been advocating for New Mexico’s land, water and farmers. Those enterprises based on community service, along with a monetary exchange for goods and services, have tended to last.
A new organization is operating from that premise. A spinoff of Santa Fe’s Farm to Restaurant program, which operated for seven years as part of the nonprofit Farm to Table, Squash Blossom Local Food is aiming for high social impact with low environmental impact.
Farm to Restaurant went from promoting the concept of eating and buying local in 2008 to piloting a local produce-to-chef distribution system in 2010. On June 1, 2015, it was launched into Squash Blossom Local Food, Inc., a stand-alone for-profit business. Founder Nina Yozell-Epstein says, “I am confident this work can be part of a long-term solution towards reclaiming our local food system in northern New Mexico.” Squash Blossom will continue wholesale operations to restaurants in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. This fall, the business will launch retail sales of local harvest boxes with fresh fruit and vegetables, local kimchi, bone broth, breads, cheeses and other edibles.
Squash Blossom was selected as a finalist in this year’s BizMix start-up competition, sponsored by the city of Santa Fe’s Economic Development Department, the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce and others.For more information, visit www.squashblossomlocalfood.com or www.facebook.com/squashblossomlocalfood
Prairie Partners
New Yields for Old Fields: New Ideas in NM Agriculture
The annual meeting of the Northeastern New Mexico Prairie Partners, organized by El Llano Estacado Resource, Conservation & Development Council, is held in Tucumcari each December. The Prairie Partnership is the product of over twelve years of relationship building among landowners, state and federal agencies in eastern New Mexico and the western Panhandle of Texas. The meeting attracts about 60 attendees from around the state, who listen to speakers and share ideas of interest to landowners and agriculture producers.
Developed by Tish McDaniel and Robert Martin of The Nature Conservancy and Christopher Rustay of Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV), the idea for a collaborative effort was based somewhat on work done by the Malpais Borderland Group in southwest New Mexico and the Quivira Coalition. The intent was to develop a cohesive group of producers, resource managers and conservationists who are interested in the integrity of the short grass prairie, the health of its working landscapes and the future of its rural economies. The Prairie Partnership encourages proactive conservation of prairie and playa habitats, and promotes the sustainability of the land-based human communities.
The PLJV describes playas as “relatively small, temporary wetlands found at the bottom of large watersheds. They support many kinds of wildlife and function to recharge aquifers beneath the western Great Plains.”
The partnership’s first meeting, in December 2009, addressed issues including Managing Land to Improve Carbon Storage, Playa Ecology and Conservation, and Wind Energy and Wildlife. In 2014, the meeting focused on New Yields for Old Fields: New Ideas in New Mexico Agriculture. Some of the ideas presented were old ways that are making a comeback. Presentations also included “Honeybees: Unwitting Partners to Agriculture”; “The Ongoing Journey of Rancho Alma Linda (Beautiful Farm)”; and “Where’s the Soil?”
Plans are underway for the 7th Annual Northeastern New Mexico Prairie Partners meeting. Email: elllanoestacadorcd@gmail.com
Marissa Muller is traveling across the county on her solar-powered bike. She stopped in Santa Fe and met with Mayor Gonzales. “This adventure will not only re-balance my personal wellness but also will provide an opportunity to engage businesses and the public sector.” She plans to visit ten states, engage locals and take action on improving physical, mental, social and environmental well being.
http://www.marissamuller.com
Home Grown New Mexico’s Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour – July 26
Home Grown New Mexico’s 5th annual Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour, in Santa Fe, is on Sunday, July 26, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The self-paced tour, which features kitchen gardens, backyard chickens, beehives, goats, greenhouses, fruit trees, rainwater catchment systems and more, will be showcased on these five properties:
• Lisa Sarenduc, owner of Suitable Digs, has green vacation lodgings on her solar-powered property, which features fruit and nut trees, raised vegetable and berry gardens, greywater system, dome greenhouse, rainwater catchment system and a swimming pond.
• Amelia Moody’s home has mixed plantings of raised vegetable gardens, native plants, fruit trees, flowers, composting area and a meadow. The medium-sized lot features a combination of flowers and edibles.
• Deb Farson’s home is a good example of what one can do within a small space. Her home includes raised vegetable beds, an herb garden in pots, cactus garden and water catchment system that waters her gardens and the small community garden behind her property. Being a Certified Master Composter, she has interesting examples of composting and vermicomposting.
• Bert and Mari Tallant’s home features traditional raised vegetable gardens, chickens, espalier fruit trees, a large raspberry patch and water catchment system with a gravity-fed drip system.
• The Tomato Lady, Jannine Cabossel, who sells heirloom tomatoes at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, features her artisan farm, which includes vegetable gardens, garden art, 31 varieties of tomatoes, fruit trees, flowers, grapes, raspberries, beehives, chickens, goats, terraced herb garden, greenhouse, cold frame, composting, Koko the horse, and a place to rest called the Tea House.
Homeowners and Master Gardeners will be present to answer questions at each site. Tickets are $25. Children under 12 are free. Location addresses and a map will be posted at Home Grown New Mexico’s website the week before the tour. For more information call 505.983.9706; to purchase tickets, visit www.homegrownnewmexico.org
Home Grown New Mexico is a nonprofit organization. Its mission is to provide education and connections for home gardeners and urban farmers, who want to learn sustainable gardening methods. This fundraising event will help support their programs and classes.
Greenhouse Grocery’s Happenin’ in the ‘Hood
Look to the lower Siler District in Santa Fe for what’s new in art, food, agriculture and community. Greenhouse Grocery, a community food cooperative, is one of the key elements in the emergence of this neighborhood center. With a green, water-efficient building designed by Lorn Tryk Architects, the Grocery will be neighbor to the arts collective Meow Wolf, Duel Brewing, Awesome Harvest, which makes modular grow systems for home and urban gardening, and other enterprises—as well as the historic village of Agua Fría.
Member owned and operated, Greenhouse Grocery will celebrate local agricultural traditions. Family-friendly and culturally sensitive, with cooking, nutrition and gardening programs, it is being created as a community resource for singles and families, youth and seniors, immigrants and multigenerational residents.
BJ Pheiffer, founder and president, sees the Grocery as an engine of economic development and resilience, “improving quality of life through food equity, safety and security.” The Grocery will provide affordable, healthy food options on the Southside, where, amidst the high-density of fast food restaurants and convenience stores, 43 percent of the area’s children have little direct access to fresh fruit and vegetables.
Greenhouse Grocery is to be a true cooperative, where only members can shop and anyone can join. Its facilities and programs will be open to the public. There will be Membership Matching and Membership Plus programs to ensure equal access. The cooperative will be easily accessible via public transportation.
The grocery currently has 342 members and has raised $4.2 million. Slated to open in July 2016, the grocery needs to reach 550 members and raise $5.2 million to secure financing and begin construction. Community support is actively being sought. For more information, call 505.466.2665, email info@greenhousegrocery.coop or visit www.greenhousegrocery.coop
Joint Powers Agreement for Gila Diversion Reached
Last month the Interstate Stream Commission approved a joint powers agreement to move forward with the controversial diversion along the upper section of the Gila River. The agreement’s wording makes it clear that local entities are expected to take on some of the financial burden. It also authorizes signing of an agreement with parties represented by the newly formed Gila San Francisco Water Commission, the governing body in charge of financing and operating the diversion.
Those parties constitute the New Mexico CAP (Central Arizona Project) entity that would design and build the project to divert Gila water for use in Catron, Grant, Luna and Hidalgo counties. The CAP team is to include county and municipal governments, irrigation ditch associations and soil and water conservation districts.
Estimates of the project’s cost range from $300 million to $1 billion; $128 million in federal funding is available.
Two UNM researchers say that the state water managers based their decision to pursue the diversion and storage project based on studies that lack credibility. In a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation, Jim Brooks and Dave Propst outlined their concerns. They also allege that the commission’s studies were planned, proposed and presented behind closed doors, and there wasn’t a transparent peer review. The commission has defended its decision, saying there were 200 public meetings on the proposed diversion and that the research was exhaustive.
The diversion would permanently take 14,000 acre-feet of water—4.5 billion gallons per year—from the last remaining stretch of the wild Gila, which flows through the Mogollon Mountains, box canyons of the Gila National Forest—the nation’s first federally designated wilderness area—and across the arid Cliff-Gila Valley. The river’s ecosystem is dependent upon the nutrients the river spreads and the groundwater it recharges during seasonal floods.
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior must approve the agreement by Nov. 26.
State Supreme Court Asked to Review Copper Rule
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has asked the state Supreme Court to review a Court of Appeals decision that will allow “widespread pollution” without ensuring whether groundwater in certain areas has a current or future use. Clean-water advocates Amigos Bravos, the Gila Resources Information Project, Turner Ranch Properties and a former state Groundwater Bureau chief also filed petitions seeking a review of the Copper Rule, which sets the standard for water discharges from mines.
New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn, who also serves as chairman of the Water Quality Control Commission, has endorsed the Copper Rule as written. The rule’s supporters say that, if the court overturns the rule, it could threaten the viability of copper mining in New Mexico, which employs about 1,500 workers and has an estimated impact of $326 million, according to an industry website.
Waste stockpiles of rock are also said to be a threat because chemicals used to leach ore can make it into the groundwater below, along with heavy metals. “We are concerned that migration of pollution will impact New Mexico communities,” said Amigos Bravos Interim Executive Director Rachel Conn.
Freeport-McMoRan, which owns New Mexico’s three major copper mines, paid the state $13 million in fines in 2011 for contaminating 31 square miles of groundwater.
Water advocates say that a years-long public process over groundwater protection involving stakeholders, industry players, experts and the Environment Department was discarded by the department ahead of the Copper Rule’s creation. They also allege that the rule violates the New Mexico Water Quality Act.
If the Supreme Court agrees to review the petition, a decision could take years.
SF Below 100 Gallons Per Person Per Day in Water Use
City of Santa Fe water customers have decreased average daily water use from 101 gallons per person per day (GPCD) to 95 GPCD, a decline of 6 percent and the first time the city has ever fallen below the 100-GPCD threshold. Despite four of the driest years on record, Santa Fe now has the lowest usage in the Southwest, substantially lower than the national average of about 150 gallons.
Groups Work to Save Chaco Area from Drilling
Northwest New Mexico is being besieged with truck traffic, oil tanks, pipelines, flares and fracking equipment. A coalition of Native American and environmental groups has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to issue an injunction to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the New Mexico Energy and Natural Resources Department’s Oil Conservation Division from approving more oil and gas drilling permits in the Mancos Shale formation near Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The groups say that horizontal drilling from wells drilled miles from Chaco can reach under the park, endangering the water supply and possibly the geologic stability of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and Rep. Ben Ray Luján have sent a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, requesting that the escalation of fracking in the area be monitored. Udall pointed out that energy development on public and tribal lands increased by 81 percent between 2008 and 2014.
A U.S. Geological Survey report released in April concluded that manmade earthquakes in New Mexico linked to oil and gas exploration have increased by about 4,000 percent in recent years. The report says that in the first 13 years of this century, 16 earthquakes were measured at magnitude 3.8 in New Mexico, compared to only one quake of that size in the preceding 32 years.
New Mexico Tops List for Methane Gas Pollution on Public and Tribal Land
New Mexico tops the nation for the amount of methane pollution (almost 34 billion cubic feet) that escapes from oil and gas drilling on federal and tribal land, according to a new in-depth analysis conduced by ICF International. The report (online at http://www.edf.org/energy/study-finds-substantial-loss-natural-gas-us-federal-and-tribal-lands) says that natural gas worth more than $100 million a year is being wasted in New Mexico. New Mexico has not created rules to curb gas leaks and flaring for developers working on state-owned and private land. This summer, the Bureau of Land Management plans to release a draft of new rules for venting, flaring and other waste.
Researchers have been studying the largest methane bloom ever detected in the U.S., over the Four Corners region. Scientists have said the source is likely from established gas, coal and coalbed methane mining and processing.