EIB AGAIN IGNORES THE EVIDENCE-APPEAL FORTHCOMING

After 15 months of inaction, the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) convened on August 28 to address the remanding  by the New Mexico Court of Appeals of their attempt to overturn the air quality permit denial for the proposed Alto Concrete Batch Plant.  In May 2025 the Court of Appeals ordered the EIB to consider all evidence presented in the hearings held before the board in October 2022 and March 2023, in their deliberation to sustain or overturn the air quality permit denial originally issued by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Deputy Secretary in June 2022.  Again, the EIB chose not to do so.

An EIB member, who was not on board during the previous hearings held nearly 4 years ago, promulgated a motion to overturn the permit denial based on data submitted in the original 2021  air quality permit application for the proposed concrete batch plant.   The board member concluded that since the data and mitigation techniques in the original application stated air quality emission standards would be met, the data submitted by the Alto CEP were incorrect.  No mention was made of the extensive expert witness testimony from the SWCA environmental consulting firm presented in the EIB hearings (without challenge or objection during those hearings)  which demonstrated that the required emission standards would not be met when the appropriate EPA modeling for concrete batch plant haul roads is used in the emission analysis.   The EIB ultimately voted in favor of the motion with the statement that the permit denial “should be overturned”.

Furthermore, the EIB did not provide the required advanced notice of the scheduled deliberations pertaining to the proposed concrete batch plant.  The  New Mexico statutory law, the Open Meetings Act, requires that the public, legal counsel and all interested parties be given a minimum of 72 hours advance notice of agendas for deliberations by public bodies. (i.e. government departments). Legal counsel for the Alto CEP, Tom Hnasko was notified of this agenda item approximately 21 hours prior to the start of the meeting.  As a result  of this late notice Mr. Hnasko was unable to participate in the meeting.  Other members of the Alto CEP were not made aware of the agenda item until after the meeting had adjourned.  Details from the meeting were garnered from review of video of the posted on the NMED You Tube channel which can be seen here (relevant discussion from 01:53:55 – 02:19:45).

The Alto CEP will be filing an appeal with the New Mexico Court of Appels objecting to these actions taken by the EIB.   

The Alto CEP, a 501(c)3 designated public charity, needs your support to continue the fight against the proposed concrete batch plant on your behalf.  Please support our fight through the donation options presented here.