This Friday, February 13, ES-CA’s Bills HB188 and HB190 co-sponsored by Rep. Smith and Sen. Sapien will be heard in Santa Fe at 1:30PM in room 315 of the State Capital. If responsible gravel mining is important to you, please attend or at the very least, contact the members of the committee and let them know how you feel (see ES-CA Forum “What Legislators Want to Know”). This first hearing is in the House Regulatory and Public Affairs Committee (HRPAC). For the two responsible gravel mining bills to pass, we must convince HRPAC, then three other committees, the full House, and the full Senate that these Bills are important to the public and must pass.
Anyone wishing to carpool up to the hearing in Santa Fe should arrive at the MERC around 11:45PM this Friday to leave at noon. If you drive or ride the train up on your own, consider coming early to watching the House and Senate debate passage of bills.
You can read these bills by following these links HB188 and HB190. The bills were formed by ES-CA in response to ongoing concerns of our Eastern Sandoval County citizens and ES-CA members, drafted into potential law by Representative Smith, and then co-sponsored by Senator Sapien. HB188 increases potential penalties for sand and gravel violations of county zoning ordinances. HB190 requires very large scale sand and gravel mines to meet the more cohesive requirements of the Mining Act from which they are currently excluded.
This is not just a localized issue. Some of the most beautiful areas of the state have large gravel deposits. While we use the Lafarge Pit as the current example, we are anticipating that the BLM will soon act to permit gravel mining on 2 sections of land (800 acres) also in the Placitas area — so we repeat: we are asking for our citizens to be protected from the negative impacts these mines have to our air, our water, and the value of our properties, and believe these bills to be tools we need.
While I strongly agree that this amendment is sorely needed as a tool to bring some citizen/municipal control over mining operations, I believe that the proposed fine level is something of a sick joke. Any large mine that generates daily gross profits that are a multiple of the fine imposed upon it for violation of ANY STATUTE or rule will likely view said fine simply as a “cost of doing business”. Worse yet, the higher the earnings multiple, the more likely this view will occur.
While I fully concur that the existing fine ($300) is ignored as a cost of doing business, I would respectfully disagree with Mr. Tyler’s opinion that the proposed fine ($1000/day/violation) would not be meaningful. Sandoval County identified 4 violations at Lafarge which, if HB 188 passes, would be $4000 per day in fines, 365 days a year. Based on data I’ve seen, I would guess that to be about 20% of average daily revenues–wiping out sufficient portion of profit margins which no business can simply write off.