New Mexico is suing the state of Colorado, saying its northern neighbor should be held responsible for the contamination from a massive mine waste spill last year as well as decades of toxic drainage from mines near the headwaters of a shared river. The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office and the state Environment Department announced…
New Mexico Pushes for Remedies in Wake of Mine Waste Spill
The federal government and Colorado have made little progress in remedying damage from the release of millions of gallons of wastewater from a southern Colorado mine last year, New Mexico’s top prosecutor charged in a pair of scathing letters sent to officials this week. The wastewater, which contained arsenic, copper, lead, mercury and other dangerous…
Virgin Galactic Returns to Spaceport America for Exercises
It was nothing but clear, blue skies as the sleek, jet-powered plane approached the runway at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, only to briefly touch down and then thrust off again. Over and over again, Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo was put through the paces as the pilots, ground crew and mission control specialists checked off some of…
New Mexico Sues Volkswagen Over Emissions Scandal
New Mexico is suing Volkswagen and other German automakers over an emissions cheating scandal that involves millions of cars worldwide, the first state to do so but almost certainly not the last. Attorney General Hector Balderas filed the lawsuit in state district court in Santa Fe late Tuesday. He alleges Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and their…
Virgin Galactic Back on Track Toward Space Tourism
The only thing interrupting the creosote and mesquite that makes up one of New Mexico’s most remote stretches of desert is a pristine runway where Virgin Galactic plans one day to launch the world’s first commercial space-line. In the four years since its completion, however, the runway has seen little use. No constant roar of…
Drones Unearth More Details about Chaco Culture
Recently published research describes how archaeologists outfitted a customized drone with a heat-sensing camera to unearth what they believe are ceremonial pits and other features at the site of an ancient village in New Mexico. The discovery of the structures hidden beneath layers of sediment and sagebrush is being hailed as an important step that…
Workers Get Ready to Enter Nuke Dump
The U.S. Department of Energy and the operators of the nation’s only underground nuclear waste dump said Monday they are making plans to allow specially trained workers to enter the site for the first time in weeks after more than a dozen employees were exposed to low levels of radiation during a mysterious leak. Officials…