Congresswoman says ‘siloed’ environmental review process leaves public in dark
CANJILON – U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) on Thursday toured the site of a proposed uranium mine in northern New Mexico, where she decried President Donald Trump’s efforts to fast-track domestic production of the radioactive element and to skirt environmental reviews in the process.
Gamma Resources, Ltd., a Vancouver-based uranium company, informed the Carson National Forest in late February that it was seeking a permit to conduct exploratory uranium drilling near Canjilon. The uranium operation would be the first in decades in the federal forestland and comes amid renewed corporate interest statewide in extracting the heavy metal due to rising uranium prices and Trump’s push for more mining and drilling.
The company is seeking federal Forest Service permission to dig as many as 12 boreholes up to 500 feet deep to determine the extent of uranium deposits along a four-mile stretch in the Chama Basin for what it has dubbed its “Mesa Arc” project. The company has several dozen active claims comprising roughly 900 acres, about 2 miles south of Canjilon, according to a Bureau of Land Management database.
Officials with Gamma Resources, Ltd., told investors they believe as much as 3 million pounds of uranium sits below the surface of the forest that Leger Fernández toured Thursday, along with leaders of the Upper Chama Soil and Water Conservation District, the CEO of nearby Ghost Ranch, and Garrett VeneKlasen, who is spearheading conservation group New Mexico Wild’s opposition to the project.
Company officials did not immediately respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment Thursday.
Standing at an overlook at one of the mine sites, with the snow-capped San Juan mountains in Colorado in the distance, Leger Fernández reiterated her call that the Forest Service do a full environmental analysis of the exploratory proposal. Carson National Forest officials previously told Source NM that they are reviewing the company’s proposal to determine which level of environmental analysis is required.
Because federal officials are reviewing only an exploratory permit, Leger Fernández told Source NM she fears the Forest Service will default to a narrow environmental assessment that does not require cultural, economic or environmental impact analyses.
“So the company is not forced to explain to the community what would be the impact if they move forward with the whole project,” she said. “Those few wells are not the problem. The problem would be the larger mining operation itself.”
While a full environmental impact statement would be required if the company proceeded with its plans to extract uranium, Leger Fernández said she has little confidence it will be thorough, given Trump’s executive order in January 2025 seeking to expand domestic energy production and federal efforts since then to fast-track mining operations. In the meantime, a “siloed” review process is leaving the public in the dark, she said.
“Once your exploratory permit is issued… then they go to the next point, and then they do an environmental assessment that is limited up to the next point,” she said. “They keep limiting their review, rather than expanding their review to look at full impact.”
Leger Fernández and other congressional delegation members will introduce legislation that seeks to prohibit mining in the Chama watershed, which feeds into the Rio Grande before it travels south through Santa Fe, Albuquerque and, eventually, Texas.
The congresswoman said Thursday that she hopes the bill will be introduced “quickly.”
Since Source NM first reported on the proposal in March, local and state officials have loudly denounced the company’s efforts, along with members of the congressional delegation.
Members of the Rio Arriba County Commission and Upper Chama Soil and Water Conservation District in recent weeks passed resolutions calling for full environmental reviews of the proposal. The Rio Arriba County Commission is also working on an ordinance that would ban uranium transport on county roads, enforceable by the county sheriff.
The state also has its own review process, which will require the company to present detailed environmental and cultural reports, as well as evidence it has sufficient funds to pay to clean up spills. The company had not filed for a state permit as of Thursday.
