New Mexico Environmental Law Center

New Mexico Environmental Law Center

‍New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) is the only public interest nonprofit law center in New Mexico with a sharp focus on environmental justice. Environmental justice requires meaningful involvement of all people, respect for cultural values and practices, and the fair and equitable implementation of environmental regulations. NMELC proudly provides critically-needed free and low-cost legal representation and services to clients and communities who continue to be disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices and who are often excluded from decision-making processes. The following example is drawn from our efforts to support Santa Fe’s Southside community in their fight for language access to legal processes that impact their health and environment.

In 2021, NMELC clients from the Southside of Santa Fe filed a civil rights complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO), seeking language justice for their primarily Spanish-speaking community. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) denied our client and others the use of a Spanish-language interpreter during an asphalt plant hearing, in violation of their civil rights. The EPA accepted the complaint for investigation and promptly began conversations to resolve the issue with NMED. In 2024, NMELC filed additional evidence of NMED’s intentional discrimination against New Mexicans with limited English proficiency, showing that the hearing officer that denied a primarily Spanish-speaking resident the use of an interpreter and ultimately issued an air pollution permit to an asphalt plant located less than one mile from a predominately low-income and People of Color community located on Santa Fe’s Southside and who later denied a similar air pollution permit application for a facility to be located more than one mile away from a primarily White, English-speaking affluent community in Alto, New Mexico.

Unfortunately, in July 2024, ECRCO informed us that they would be closing the investigation into the complaint, stating that NMED had solved its discrimination problem by creating a powerpoint slide that could be used to educate the public on how to use Zoom’s interpretation feature, which we believe disregarded NMED’s ongoing pattern of discrimination. Despite requests for reconsideration, ECRCO has maintained its position; however, the community on Santa Fe’s Southside will continue fighting for language access for all—with NMELC’s support. Most recently, NMELC alongside WildEarth Guardians submitted a letter to the state’s Oil Conservation Commission (OCC) opposing the OCC’s baseless decision to deny Spanish interpretation services to members of the public during a rule making hearing which asked the OCC to better protect residents’ health from oil and gas extraction.

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The Santa Fe Community Foundation invited its nonprofit grantees to submit stories related to our April topic of Environment.