Editorial, 09/21/2007 - Velarde again threatened; Curry, beat it back

The fate of Velarde, whose value to our Republican state land commissioner is only as great as its supply of rocks and dirt, now is in the hands of New Mexico’s Democratic-led Environment Department.

Concrete magnate Richard Cook wants to move his gravel-crushing operation from prime commercial land in Espanola to the village 11 miles north — where he’s mining the mountainside east of U.S. 68, the road through the Río Grande Gorge.

For Taos-bound motorists, the gorge actually begins at Velarde, and they’re treated to a glimpse of the gouged-out hill as they slow through the village. On the way back, the environmental destruction hits you right between the eyes.

The digging began on property Cook owns. He turned the sloping hillside into a cliff susceptible to landslides.

Alongside that property is state land — under the administration, certainly not the stewardship, of Commisioner Pat Lyons. He lost little time during his first term telling fellow Republican Cook he could dig into the state slopes, under the pretext of creating a less-sheer excavation.

So as long as we’re bulldozing the place, why not let us do our gravel crushing right on the spot? That’s what Cook is asking the Environment Department’s Air Quality Bureau in an application filed last week.

The folks in Velarde, their blood pressure already up over what’s become of the background to their apple-growing stretch of bosque, are apoplectic over this year’s pitch — and with good reason: Gravel-crushing is a noisy, dusty business, made noisier and dustier by endless trains of trucks hauling the processed material away.

They’re not at all reassured by Cook’s contention that the operation will be set back into the hill so it can’t be seen from the highway. Hiding the hardware is one thing; allowing its dust to coat town and countryside to the tune of clanking iron is another.

This isn’t the gentleman’s first attempt to turn the place into a construction yard; he sought a new-operation permit just last spring. That got a thumb-down from the Environment Department — so now he’s putting the application in terms of moving an already-permitted operation from one town to another.

Should the department somehow allow it, Velarde residents wonder how long it’ll be before Lyons leases more land for gravel mining.

So do we: five minutes — or 10?

The Air Quality Bureau’s jurisdiction is limited, and hangs mostly on the presence of a home within a quarter of a mile of the site. Within that distance, lots of the dust will settle — depending on how and where the wind is blowing at the time. But lots more will waft through field and orchard, and into homes and barns.

Environment Secretary Ron Curry, whose conservationist credentials are as close to sterling as we’re likely to see out here in the mine-happy American West, must hold this proposal to the highest possible standards. To the extent that he has any noise-control powers, let him call on them, too.

Velarde, damaged as it may be, is worth more to New Mexico as gateway to a scenic route than it is as a gravel pit. Count on Commissioner Lyons to bring up the violins as he touts the value of the lease to our state’s schoolchildren — on whose behalf it’s his duty to raise money. But he also has a duty not to let the land be trashed — and in the case of Velarde, he’s been derelict at the very least.

Since the commissioner can’t be counted on for much besides moved earth, it’s up to the secretary to bring this latest scheme to a halt.