A mine in New Mexico says it needs to use 3.2 billion gallons of drinking water for the next two years, possibly robbing 64,000 people of access to clean water.
The Hobbs News-Sun reports that Lea County commissioners voted last week to send a letter to federal government to protest the potential use of water to flood the fertilizer mines.
Commissioners want the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to include Lea County in its environmental review of a proposal spearheaded by Intrepid Potash to extract potash ore from an underground mine by flooding it with water out of Lea County.
The project would be an extension to Intrepid's already existing solar solution mine that's located about 20 miles east of Carlsbad. The commission's letter comes as the BLM continues to seek public comment about the project extension.
Information from: Hobbs News-Sun.
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