Velarde New Mexico vs. New Mexico State Land Office

Last September I attended a meeting in Velarde, New Mexico about a gravel mine on private land in the heart of the community.

I was saddened and astonished to learn that the current Land Commissioner had dropped the effort, that my team had worked so hard on, to force the mine operator to take responsibility for the mess he had made and to clean it up. Instead, I learned that the same man who had created the problem was now financially benefiting from a new lease on the adjoining State Trust Lands.

As I sat in the meeting in Velarde my sadness changed to anger and to determination that we must fix this problem and make Velarde whole again. Our communities need a Land Office that will work as their partner not as an adversary. At that moment I knew I must tell everyone in New Mexico what had happened in Velarde.

As I have traveled around the state campaigning to become the next Land Commissioner, I discovered that the same type of thing was happening in many other places. Other communities were faced with the same arrogance and lack of cooperation from the current State Land Office Administration.

Last Thursday evening I attended a candidate Forum in Alcalde, New Mexico. What I witnessed was beyond astonishing. The current Land Commissioner refused to take responsibility for his actions about the gravel operation in Velarde and in fact insisted that everyone else was to blame.

After witnessing this performance, my determination and resolve to make a positive difference as your next Land Commissioner in Velarde and across the state was only made stronger.

I pledge to you that I will do everything in my power to make things right in Velarde and to work with the community to ensure that the State Land Office and Velarde become partners to develop a bright future for both the community and State Trust Lands.

I need your vote Tuesday, June 6, to begin the serious campaign to take back the Land Office. Please tell your friends and family too!


Highwall created by mining operation of Richard Cook. Foreground is mine operator's private property and highwall represents beginning of State Trust Land.

LA JICARITA NEWS Vol IX, November 2004, Number X

Coppola Mining continues to haul sand-and-gravel from its State Land Office site in Velarde while negotiations between the Land Office and members of Vecinos del Rio, the group that has been fighting the mining operation, are on-going. State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons told members of Vecinos del Rio that in the interest of the community he is looking to relocate the mine to another tract of state land.

Here is an overview of the history of the mine, excerpted from the Vecinos del Rio Newsletter.

"In late June[2004] the State Land Office (SLO), with fewer than 48 hours notice, held a public meeting at the Oñate Center to 'inform' the community that they had withdrawn the lawsuit filed by former Land Commissioner Ray Powell against Richard Cook relating to the High Wall [site of Cook's sand-and-gravel mine] in Velarde. Then, to add insult to injury, the SLO announced that the current State Land Commissioner, Patrick Lyons, had leased 160 acres of State land adjacent to the Cook property and the Velarde village to a new entity, Coppola Mining, LLC, for further sand-and-gravel mining. This 5-year lease (with options to renew) was negotiated and entered into without any public input or advance notification. Within days of the execution of the lease between the SLO and Coppola, the SLO denied another lease application for the same tract of land because it was 'not in the best interest of the people of New Mexico.'

"On July 5, Coppola started mining sand-and-gravel on the state land, trucking it out through Velarde. [The company] at times haul[s] over 200 loads a day (400 truck trips), operating up to 6 and 7 days a week starting at 5:30 am. On August 9, the law firm of [Mary] Humphrey & [Connie] Odé, acting partly pro bono and representing Vecinos and residents living in Velarde, filed a Writ of Mandamus in the First Judicial District Court. [The Writ of Mandamus accuses the SLO of failing to follow the law in awarding the mining lease and to address reclamation of the dangerous 150 foot-high wall left from Cook's previous mining operation on the property he owns that abuts the state land.] Judge Hall scheduled the hearing for August 27, at which time he determined that there were technical defects in our Writ filing; but rather than throwing out our application, he gave us until September 27 to make corrections and re-file, which Humphrey and Odé did on September 24. The new hearing was to take place on November 9, but the Land Office attorneys subsequently requested, and we agreed, that we give them a 2 to 4 week continuance so that a mediator could be brought in to hopefully help us settle the issue out-of-court."

Even if Commissioner Lyons relocates the mine elsewhere something must be done to remediate the high wall left by Cook's operation, and negotiations continue to address that issue. While Coppola has been removing sand-and-gravel from behind the wall in the hope that it will collapse back onto state land, total remediation of the wall depends upon Cook to go back into the site and collapse the wall from the front. He will need a permit from Rio Arriba County, which passed a sand-and-gravel ordinance several years ago, and will have to follow all the rules and regulations set down by that ordinance.