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Spring 2001 Bulletin
As the struggle for clean water in the Red River and in the community of Questa continues, Amigos Bravos has hired another employee to work on issues related to the organization’s long campaign to hold Moycorp/Unocal (the Questa molybdenum mine) accountable. Amigos Bravos welcomes Rachel Conn to the Amigos Bravos staff and community. Rachel has recently moved to the Taos area from San Luis, Colorado where she was a Project Director for the Costilla County Committee for Environmental Soundness (CES). While in Colorado she directed a year-long project drafting a mining contamination emergency response plan and investigating water quality issues related to Battle Mountain Gold, the cyanide-heap-leaching gold mine located in the foothills above the town of San Luis. She is now working part-time for Amigos Bravos as a Project Assistant and will be focusing on two projects. The first is looking at the economic benefits of reclamation work planned for the Molycorp/Unocal mine. As the costs of reclamation work at the Molycorp mine site are tallied up we are bombarded with cost estimates reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars. It is now time to also start looking at the benefits that reclamation will bring to Questa, Northern New Mexico, and to the state as a whole. Amigos Bravos will be working with UNM Economics Department’s faculty and students on a study that will include a benefit cost analysis and a non-market valuation of reclamation at Molycorp. This study will begin to outline the numerous economic benefits of restoring water quality in the Red River as well as the landscape of the ravaged hills above the town of Questa. All economic benefits, from jobs created by reclamation work to increased tourism and fishing in the area as well as other values associated with a clean environment, will be taken into account. The second project involves a preliminary investigation into rising environmental health concerns in the Questa community. The project will begin by looking at three sets of information: This information will be presented to the community to determine if a more detailed study is necessary. Look in future Bulletins for an update on the progress of both these projects.
A New Staff Member and Two Projects Focus on Molycorp
1. what are the known pollutants we are dealing with in the Questa area;
2. what are the known health effects of these pollutants; and
3. if and how are these health effects manifesting in the community?
County and regional health data will be researched and brought together so we can begin to develop a community environmental health profile.
Please return to the Spring 2001 Bulletin Index.
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