A New Mexico state senator is calling for a moratorium on uranium mining, saying the state needs to hold off on new permits until emerging extraction technology is better understood and the state develops a regulatory framework that “reflects the needs of our communities, the needs of our economic base, and not the needs of industry.”
State Sen. Angel Charley (D-Acoma) said a temporary ban on all new permits is necessary following a presentation Thursday to the interim legislative Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee. The presentation featured anti-mining advocates who described newly invigorated interest by companies seeking to mine uranium from deposits all over the state, including near Church Rock, Canjilon and Pie Town.
Charley likened her push for a moratorium to similar calls from fellow Democrats for a temporary ban on data centers, which state Reps. Micaela Lara Cadena (D-Mesilla) and Angelica Rubio (D-Las Cruces) pitched their colleagues on earlier this week.
“When we’re putting forward moratoriums for AI centers, I think it is responsible and incumbent on us to put forward a moratorium on uranium mining until we understand the risk of the new technologies,” she said.
During the presentation, Leona Morgan, a Diné community advocate, described her concerns about in situ recovery mining, also known as in situ leach mining, a process that companies are proposing to use to extract uranium from aquifers.
NuFuels, Inc., a company seeking to mine uranium in New Mexico, has said the process is safe and less invasive than conventional mining, but the New Mexico Department of Justice recently argued in a Nuclear Regulatory Commission filing that no example exists in the country of groundwater supplies being restored to their pre-mining contamination levels at sites where the process is used.
Charley pointed to Virginia’s uranium moratorium, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2020, as proof that states can legally halt uranium production without running afoul of the federal government.
“It can be done, and it should be done, because we cannot, as New Mexicans, continue to regulate industry after contamination,” she said.
Charley told Source NM in a text message Friday that she is still considering whether she’ll introduce moratorium legislation ahead of the upcoming 60-day session, which begins Jan. 19.
But she’s “open” to the idea, she said, especially given how many mining proposals are gathering momentum all over New Mexico and how many counties are considering their own county-level bans.
“I would need to meet with the coalition that presented yesterday before moving anything forward,” she said. “What struck me is the diverse counties enacting moratoriums throughout the state.”
