Thanks to the help of the La Mesa Water Cooperative and others in our community, we were able to get NMED’s Air Quality Bureau to set up a real time air quality monitor on one of La Mesa’s pump houses (centrally located between the existing and proposed mining sites). I’ve included the letter from NMED below—note that you can go to their site http://drdasnm1.alink.com/ and look at the Station Report (“Placitas PM” station) and see in real time our particulate level (e.g. dust). As this was just installed last week, it will take some time to build up meaningful history (a full year to have conclusive data against the EPA standards)—and the more inquisitive can look at station history, and other parameters. We feel this is important so we have factual data about our air quality rather than having to speculate (and have a real baseline of data to better defend ourselves against the real possibility of the BLM opening yet another 1000 acres to mining within a 3 mile radius of Placitas).
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Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 4:41 PM Subject: RE: Proposed sampler locations
Mr. Ulmer:
The Placitas monitor is up and running. As per Adam Keaster, the cellular signal at that site is marginal so there are periods during which the data hasn’t updated. However, as soon as the signal strength increases the data back-fills. Our Monitoring Team will go back to Placitas next week to install a Yagi antenna which should boost the signal and minimize data delays. But overall, it should produce real-time data.
Below is a copy of the link to our website to see the data. You will need to paste this in your browser. If you have any trouble or questions reviewing the website, please let any of us know.
Respectfully,
Donna J. Intermont
Operations Section Chief
NM Environment Department
Air Quality Bureau
Could you give me an exact address of the
Air Quality installation at: marvinmendelow@hotmail.com.
Thanks, Marvin
I’ve emailed you the information you requested–let me know if you have other questions.
Dick
Have you been able to make any consistent
correlations between particulate pollution,
wind direction and gravel mining operations?
It might help to remark on it when
the BLM issues its RMP.
I am very concerned about crystalline silica from the Lafarge Gravel Pit. http://www.hugoneighborhood.org/ELUT%207A1b)(1)%20Silica%20Dust%20-%20Gravel%20Pit%20Flyer.pdf
This year, I and others have noticed that our wild rabbits are not growing to full size. One is a postal worker who travels through out Placitas. i have also noticed that my grass is not growing, even after all the rains we have had. It normally grows very high. I don’t know if there is a correlation between these two observations and the gravel pit.
However, the idea that i could breathing a known carcinogenic into my lungs that my body can’t remove is alarming!! hopefully we will soon have data on the amount of crystalline silica we are ingesting from the Lafarge mining.
John,
We are also concerned about the emissions. The NMED monitor is measuring all 2.5 micron emissions, not just those from crystalline silica (e.g. vehicle exhaust is also a source), as all create the dangers to us that concern you. We doubt that the Vulcan/Lafarge mine by itself is creating a sufficient level to be in violation of EPA standards, but the multiple sources in our area we feel may be causing a cumulative effect that needs to be mitigated. We have almost 3 months of data collected if you look at the NMED website ( http://drdasnm1.alink.com/ ) and click on the STATION REPORT for the “Placitas PM” station.
Thanks for your interest.
Dick Ulmer, ES-CA LPT Chairman