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SPONSOR: |
Cisneros |
DATE TYPED: |
|
HB |
|
||
SHORT TITLE: |
Questa Engineering & Environmental
Services |
SB |
604 |
||||
|
ANALYST: |
Padilla |
|||||
APPROPRIATION
Appropriation
Contained |
Estimated
Additional Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
||
FY03 |
FY04 |
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
$100.0 |
|
|
Recurring |
General
Fund |
(Parenthesis
( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates House Bill 791
Relates to House Capital Outlay Request 1249 and
Senate Capital Outlay Request 795
LFC Files
Responses
Received From
Department
of Finance and Administration
Energy,
Minerals and Natural Resources Department
Environment
Department
SUMMARY
Synopsis
of Bill
Senate Bill 604 appropriates $100.0 from the
general fund to DFA’s Local Government Division for
the purpose of contracting for engineering and environmental services for
Questa’s village council. The services
are needed to assist and advise the village council regarding the future activities
of the Molycorp mine near Questa.
Significant
Issues
The bill does not state what “future activities”
of the Molycorp mine encompass. Presumably it means work related to the
remediation and reclamation of the Molycorp
site. EMNRD believes the
understand ongoing planning for reclamation,
closure and groundwater abatement of the Molycorp
mine.
The Molycorp mine is
currently permitted under the New Mexico Mining Act, which is administered by
ENMRD. EMNRD reports that the mine has
an approved reclamation plan that identifies the reclamation work needed once
mining is completed. The reclamation
plan is also under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency, the
New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
EMNRD explains that the review process for the
reclamation and remediation plans is open to the public. Without proper
expertise, EMNRD believes the plans can be very complicated and difficult to
understand.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The appropriation of $100.0 contained in this
bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining
at the end of fiscal year 2004 shall revert to the general fund.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
DFA notes that this bill gives the Local
Government Division additional responsibilities without commensurate resources
to fulfill them.
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP,
RELATIONSHIP
This bill duplicates House Bill 791.
The bill also appears to duplicate, or at least
relate to, capital outlay requests in the House and the Senate. HCR 1239 and SCR 795 both request $100.0 for
NMED for an environmental planning assessment for the Molycorp
remediation and closure plan.
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS
1. Are the activities funded by this bill the same as those funded in House Capital Outlay Request 1239 and Senate Capital Outlay Request 795?
LP/prr