-Few citizens, however well intentioned, can cope
with the array of industry experts and lawyers that they will face
when opposing a mine,” says Sue McIntosh of the Rio Grande Chapter
of the Sierra Club.
That’s why McIntosh has
written a handbook for mining activists called Avoiding the Shaft:
The New Mexico Citizen’s Mining Manual. When she began the project,
McIntosh focused on the New Mexico Mining Act of 1993, a
groundbreaking legislative bill regulating hard rock mining. But as
activists called on her for help with other projects – like their
fights against Cobre’s Continental Mine near Fierra and Richard
Cook’s pumice mine in the Jemez – McIntosh decided to turn the
manual into a tool for New Mexico mining activists. It’s a
comprehensive look at the business of mining, describing the
nuts-and-bolts of modern techniques and listing vocabulary useful
for mine site visits. It uses layman’s terms to explain laws like
the New Mexico Water Quality Act, the Clean Water Act, and the
National Environmental Policy Act, and describes research tools
such as Freedom of Information Act requests and Internet links to
library resources.
For a copy of the manual,
contact Sierra Club, Santa Fe Group-Rio Grande Chapter, 621 Old
Santa Fe Trail, Suite 10, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505/983-2703). Cost
is $10 and $2.50 for mailing.
* Jennifer
Chergo
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Avoiding the shaft.
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