Hey, Ruidoso! You’ll be affected, too.

The following comments were presented to the Ruidoso Village Council meeting on 14 December, 2021, by Galen Farrington.

“My wife and I have observed as the water concern issues have escalated during our almost 50 years in the Ruidoso area. We now live in Legacy Estates about one half mile east of Highway 48 on Highway 220, immediately across from what is now the proposed site for Roper Construction’s cement batch plant facility.

“The opposition to the plant is enormous due to incredibly negative environmental, health, quality of life, and deed restriction issues.

“Aside from the ethical, political, and substantially documented negative air quality concerns of placing such a plant in a primarily residential area, his application requests operational times commensurate with using over 70,000 gallons of water a day. This amount of water is simply unsustainable in light of the fact that this resource is diminishing by the day in the Southwest. The entire state of New Mexico is classified as water stressed and is singularly the most water stressed state in the nation. The level of this environmental stress is directly comparable to 17 desert countries of the world and is considered to be at the same level as the United Arab Emirates. There is only one classification higher and it precludes human existence.

“There are 24 water systems in Lincoln County with Ruidoso’s being the largest.

“Long time residents remember why our mountain is called Sierra Blanca and remember the monsoon season which seemed to start every Fourth of July and end in September. The current years-long drought cannot be ignored. Our county systems are severely compromised now and we know of at least one that must truck in water to meet residents’ needs.

“As an interloper, Mr. Roper has infringed not only on the human rights of the immediately surrounding property owners, he will compromise the quality of life of the over 23,000 residents served by the county’s water systems.

“We are here today to ask for a commitment of solidarity from this council to support opposition to the location of Mr. Roper’s proposed cement batch plant project near the intersection of Highways 48 and 220 due to its negative impact on our life-sustaining resources of air and water. A letter of opposition and solidarity sent to the New Mexico Environmental Department (address below) would be extraordinarily helpful in preventing this travesty.”

Permit Programs Manager,
Deepika Saikrishanan
New Mexico Environmental Department
Air Quality Bureau
525 Camino de los Marques, Suite 1
Santa Fe, NM 87505—1816