Placement of cement plant the greatest issue

The following Letter to the Editor was published in Ruidoso News on March 1, 2022

Recently I’ve read two journalistic accounts concerning the opposition to Roper Construction’s proposed concrete batch plant to be located near the intersection of Highways 48 and 220. One, published by the Union County Leader (16 February, Clayton, New Mexico) and the second was published by the Ruidoso News (23 February). Neither piece addressed the number one issue that has caused the incredible amount of push-back that Mr. Roper has denied repeatedly on revised applications to the New Mexico Environment Department, Air Quality Bureau (NMED, AQB). Simply stated, it is plant placement.

The NMED requires an applicant to identify and give notice to all residents and property owners who live within a half mile of the property borders of a proposed concrete batch plant. One hundred and forty residents/property owners were identified and a small percentage were not notified. This half mile zone must be considered hazardous to life as NMED identifies “sensitive populations” of particular importance including the elderly and children which are both present within the questionable zone of Roper’s proposed site.

Legacy Lane is a small community of primarily retired couples living directly across the Highway 220 divide to the south. A year-round church camp serving children is within the unsafe zone to the southeast. A nursery to the west of the proposed site has its office 100 feet away. A report offered by the Research Journal of Environmental Toxicology (16 July 2011) suggests that distances from emitting sources should be measured in miles rather than fractions of a mile.

Mr. Roper “…does not agree that the proposed concrete batch plant would create health risks for area residents.” (Ruidoso News). Research within the industry does not verify his opinion. In addition to the particulate matter (PM) that the AQB has been focusing on, according to a 19 August 2020 report by the Rice/Kinder Institute for Urban Research, “Volatile organic compounds (VOCs, emitted by concrete batch plants) can irritate the eyes and respiratory system and cause shortness of breath, headaches, fatigue, skin problems and impair the memory. Higher concentrations can (also) damage the liver, kidney, and brain.” NMED has stated that the particulate matter will be contained within the boundary of the proposed site. Tell that to the families of the 5,200 residents of Houston who died prematurely of PM poison complications in 2015.

Clifford Richardson and Johnny Autrey, business men in Lincoln County, are cited in the Ruidoso News as saying “business is business” and the affected residents are “just busy bodies” respectively. When business threatens the lives of residents, I believe people need to speak up. There are residents who have been told by their doctors they will not survive any toxic emissions from a concrete batch plant. Mr. Roper knows this, yet he says, “If I thought I was endangering people’s lives I would not be pursuing this.” The casualness that these businessmen expressed in their article statements is highly questionable at best.

When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring (1962), I read it in mid-school and one of the stunning take-aways for me was that it was the accumulation of DDT over time that almost made the California Condor extinct. Exposure did not result in immediate negative consequences. Science is now showing how crystalline silica, the particulate matter that causes silicosis and is emitted by concrete batch plants, accumulates over time to suffocate animals and humans by disabling their lungs. And there is no cure.

We have witnessed the demise of the neighborhood closest to Mr. Roper’s Carrizozo concrete batch plant during the last 16 years. NMED has not monitored the site in person and relied on Mr. Roper’s paperwork to meet government pollution standards. Atmospheric Environment journal (November, 2013) states that “… combustion emissions in the US account for about 200,000 premature deaths per year due to changes in PM 2.5 concentrations…” (emphasis mine). NMED is permitting additional PM 2.5 concentrations to the existing environment which means changes that sensitive populations simply cannot tolerate; their lives will be compromised.

Finally, to have a reporter characterize Alto owners as rich Texans who are “… high dollar home owners (throwing) a group temper tantrum …” (Union County Leader) is irresponsibly opinionated journalism that has no redeeming value. Simply put, Mr. Roper’s proposed site is inappropriate and he continues to have opportunities to relocate and cease the environmental threat upon his neighbors. The Union County Leader inaccurately portrays Mr. Roper as following the rules. His behaviors demonstrate that legally and spiritually, that is questionable

And our lives will be compromised if NMED permits this interloper to build a concrete batch plant in the proposed location. 

There are safe alternatives.

Galen and Chris Farrington
Alto, New Mexico