SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 10

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009

INTRODUCED BY

John Pinto

FOR THE RADIOACTIVE AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS COMMITTEE

AND THE INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO URGE THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY TO EXPEDITE THE CLEANUP OF THE FORT WINGATE AMMUNITION DEPOT AND TO APPROPRIATE THE FUNDS NECESSARY FOR THAT PURPOSE.

     WHEREAS, the Fort Wingate ammunition depot, located east of Gallup, sits among the red rocks along United States interstate 40, next to the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, Fort Wingate occupies ancestral homelands of both the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Zuni; and

     WHEREAS, Fort Wingate contains sites rich in cultural heritage and historical significance; and

     WHEREAS, over two hundred Navajo ruins were discovered on the property, as well as several modern earth-covered dwellings, called "hogans"; and

     WHEREAS, the property served for centuries as a hunting and gathering area for the Zuni, and over six hundred archaeological sites were recorded by surveyors, including an additional two hundred ruins traceable to the Anasazi, ancestors of the Zuni; and

     WHEREAS, in 1918, the army established a munitions depot at Fort Wingate; and

     WHEREAS, from 1918 until its closure, the twenty-two-thousand-acre installation stored and demolished ammunition; and

     WHEREAS, Fort Wingate stored, conducted functional testing of and demilitarized munitions, using open-burning detonation, incineration and bomb washout as the principal demilitarization methods, and these practices deposited ordnance-related waste on and off the facility; and

     WHEREAS, munitions testing, explosive washout activities, rocket launches, training activities, open burns, open detonations, demilitarization, ammunition packaging, storing and shipping and munitions recycling and remanufacturing have released contaminants into the ground water and the soil; and

     WHEREAS, the aforementioned contaminants, as well as asbestos and lead paint in buildings, buried waste and unexploded ordnance, present human health and ecological hazards at Fort Wingate; and

     WHEREAS, Fort Wingate is under the command of the United States department of the army and is classified as a hazardous waste treatment facility under the Hazardous Waste Act and the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976; and

     WHEREAS, the United States department of the army, the United States army corps of engineers and the bureau of Indian affairs have taken collaborative efforts to clean up the site and to return a large portion of Fort Wingate to the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Zuni; and

     WHEREAS, under current funding and appropriations toward the cleanup of Fort Wingate by the United States, scheduled compliance with cleanup efforts will not be completed until the year 2020;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico congressional delegation urge the United States department of the army to expedite the cleanup of Fort Wingate so that it may be returned to the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Zuni and to appropriate the funds necessary for that purpose; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to United States Senator Jeff Bingaman, United States Senator Tom Udall, United States Representative Martin T. Heinrich, United States Representative Harry Teague, United States Representative Ben R. Lujan, the president of the Navajo Nation, the speaker of the Navajo Nation council and the governor of the Pueblo of Zuni.

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