USDA will stop trying to ban mining on Upper Pecos Watershed

A two-year process to protect the Upper Pecos Watershed from mining started by former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in December will be halted without fanfare by the Trump administration.

Pecos residents and conservation advocacy groups have been pushing to ban mining on federally held public land in the Upper Pecos Watershed after a mining company, Comexico LLC, acquired 20 mining leases on federal land in 2019. The area has a long history with mining, with a mass fish kill-off in 1991 caused by mine waste from the Tererro Mine. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the Forest Service’s December requests to withdraw 165,000 acres from mining in the Upper Pecos Watershed and 310,000 acres in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains will be canceled.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA is removing the burdensome Biden-era regulations that have stifled energy and mineral development to revitalize rural communities and reaffirm America’s role as a global energy powerhouse,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement.

On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the Forest Service would be able to cut more timber on public lands to reduce wildfire risk. Tucked into the last sentence of that announcement, the agency said it had canceled two unnamed mineral leasing withdrawals on Forest Service lands, sparking concern from New Mexico advocacy groups.

“They won’t listen to the people and the communities which are affected by this process. Never have and probably never will,” said Lela McFerrin, vice president of the Upper Pecos Watershed Association. “They just bully their way into our public lands and opening them up, so somebody can make money.”

McFerrin has lived within 100 feet of the Pecos River for almost 50 years.

“The river is basically our salvation. It provides all the clean water to all the acequias, all the farmers … all the way down to Texas,” she said.

Because the mineral withdrawal is in the initial two-year segregation period, it is easier to undo, said Sally Paez, attorney for advocacy group New Mexico Wild.

“But it still needs to be a reasoned decision. It can’t be changed on a whim,” she said.

In February, the Bureau of Land Management indefinitely postponed a public meeting meant to collect comments on the proposed mineral withdrawal but still collected public comment related to the proposal via mail. The Protect the Pecos Coalition reported collecting more than 800 public comments in support of the withdrawal, which it submitted to USDA.

USDA declined to say when it will file official notice in the federal register that the withdrawal is being canceled or share how many public comments the agency received about the proposed mineral withdrawal, saying the information is not available at this time.

On Tuesday, New Mexico Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Melanie Stansbury reintroduced the Pecos Watershed Protection Act, which would permanently withdraw all federally managed minerals in the watershed from development.

“The Trump administration’s decision to reverse the community-driven Pecos Watershed withdrawal is disturbing and insulting, especially after they canceled the only public meeting on the proposal,” the Democrats said in a statement. “This is a rural community that overwhelmingly supports protecting the Pecos River. The Trump administration just blatantly disregarded that, and the value of the Pecos River with it.”

The Village of Pecos, Santa Fe County and San Miguel County all support the bill.

In March, the state land commissioner prohibited mineral development on 2,552 acres of state lands in the Upper Pecos region through 2045.