SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 46

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

INTRODUCED BY

Linda M. Lopez

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO COMPILE DATA AND DEVELOP REGIONAL HEALTH PROFILES FOR THREE SPECIFIC VULNERABLE GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS OF NEW MEXICO.

     WHEREAS, regions of environmental injustice exist within New Mexico as identified in listening sessions and documented in a report on environmental justice in New Mexico sponsored by the department of environment; and

     WHEREAS, poor communities and communities of color are disproportionately and negatively affected by the siting and processes of dirty and polluting industries; and

     WHEREAS, cumulative environmental pollution and contamination affect every aspect of community life, including health, work, poverty and happiness, and can cause loss of life, diminished economic status and decreased quality of life; and

     WHEREAS, detailed and compiled information concerning environmental health problems in communities will enhance decision-making and planning for the provision of health services and the provisions of education regarding the benefits of prevention and will aid in decisions about whether to permit regulated facilities in compromised or potentially compromised regions; and

     WHEREAS, this compiled information will make data available to communities and individuals so that they may decide on appropriate programs and services that will provide prevention, protection, job safety, security and community and economic development; and

     WHEREAS, decisions that have been made in New Mexico as a result of the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries have created more risks than benefits to the residents of the state; and

     WHEREAS, more than five decades of the mining, milling and processing of uranium, known as the uranium legacy, has left devastating contamination of land, air and water and has brought harm to people and animals in the area of western New Mexico that is known as the uranium belt; and

     WHEREAS, the uranium belt includes the regions of the state around the Pueblo of Laguna and the Pueblo of Acoma, the cities of Grants and Milan and the Ambrosia lake, Crownpoint and Church Rock areas; and

     WHEREAS, a lack of compensation for uranium mining injuries and health problems, inadequate health services and insufficient and uncoordinated studies have contributed to the poor health of indigenous people who reside in the uranium belt; and 

     WHEREAS, many residents who live in and within a twenty-mile radius of Mesquite, New Mexico, have suffered health problems that they believe were at least partly caused by the presence of industries whose emissions contaminated the air, soil and water; and

     WHEREAS, the community of Mountain View, New Mexico, located in the southwest quadrant of Bernalillo county, has suffered a variety of health problems, ranging from asthma to cancer and other life-threatening conditions that may be attributable to the proximity of residents to various industries located there; and

     WHEREAS, although studies have been conducted to evaluate the health problems of residents in these areas, no database was developed to compare the findings of these studies, and there has been no coordination to determine the correlation between industry and illness in disparate locations in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, the department of environment has shown a commitment to environmental justice and has been recognized for this by the national environmental justice advisory council of the United States environmental protection agency; and

     WHEREAS, on November 18, 2005, Governor Richardson signed an environmental justice executive order that commits cabinet-level departments to work together to achieve environmental justice;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health be requested to compile data and develop regional health profiles for three specific vulnerable geographic regions of New Mexico; and  

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of health collect and compile health data specifically in the uranium belt, in the area within a twenty-mile radius of Mesquite, New Mexico, and in the community of Mountain View, New Mexico, and that it develop a detailed regional health profile for each of those regions; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of health accumulate available, existing environmental health data from such sources as state and federal research institutions, advocacy organizations, nonprofit environmental health organizations, state and federal government agencies with information on environmental health issues and industry experts; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the compiled data be recorded in a detailed and descriptive manner that identifies specific health conditions, that are found to be related to environmental conditions and that death certificates recorded by the department of health include disease-specific causes of death; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the recorded data be available and used to inform environmental health policy and planning decisions in New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the department of health and the department of environment.

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