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“The interim storage of high-level radioactive waste poses significant and unacceptable risks to New Mexicans, our environment and our economy… New Mexico’s agricultural industry contributes approximately $3 billion per year to the state’s economy… New Mexico’s oil and natural gas industry contributed $2 billion to the state last year.” (New Mexico Governor Michelle Grisham)
Notice that agriculture is worth $1 billion more to the state, than the oil and gas!

WIPP nuclear waste dump, URENCO, and Waste Control Specialists are all nuclear-nuclear waste sites in this area.

Excerpted from the letter that the Governor of New Mexico wrote opposing Holtec’s interim high-level nuclear waste plan: “The interim storage of high-level radioactive waste poses significant and unacceptable risks to New Mexicans, our environment and our economy…. the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is evaluating the issuance of a 40-year license to Holtec International for a consolidated interim storage facility in southeastern New Mexico… this facility would store spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and reactor-related materials greater than low-level radioactive waste… New Mexico’s agricultural industry contributes approximately $3 billion per year to the state’s economy, $300 million of which is generated in Lea and Eddy Counties, where the proposed facility is to be sited.

Further, the Permian Basin, situated in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is the largest inland oil and gas reservoir and the most prolific oil and gas producing region in the world. New Mexico’s oil and natural gas industry contributed $2 billion to the state last year… Lea County and Eddy County were ranked the second and sixth oil-producing counties in the country, respectively, earlier this year, with production continuing to increase…

Any disruption of agriculture or oil and gas activities as a result of a perceived or actual incident would be catastrophic to New Mexico, and any steps toward siting such a project could cause a decrease in investment in two of our state’s biggest industries. For those reasons, the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau and the Permian Basin Petroleum Association have all sent me letters opposing high-live waste storage in southeastern New Mexico…

In addition… I am concerned about the financial burden it could place on the state and local communities. Transporting material of this nature safely requires both well-maintained infrastructure and highly specialized emergency response equipment and personnel that can respond to an incident at the facility or on transit routes. The state of New Mexico cannot be expected to support these activities…” (Disclaimer: Excerpts retyped from the original, so there could be an error, though it was checked. The original is always the original. Original letter in its entirety:

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/356082/28140747/1560043070497/governorletter060719.pdf?token=Y0woRR1a1WsuXvXfMWmJL66wNEQ%3D
HT Mittens and FC at the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle: https://lasinkhole.wordpress.com

Related with maps of the immediate area: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/new-mexico-native-american-archaeological-site-which-holtec-tries-to-hide-in-its-environmental-report-is-over-1000-years-old-perhaps-8000-years-old-comment-tonight-by-1159-pm-et/

In the near vicinity, WIPP already had a catastrophic problem five years ago, in May 2014. Although it is in a salt bed, and actually designed to fail, the failure may have been hastened by nearby fracking.

WIPP 22 May 2014

Excerpted from EIA.gov document:
“Permian Basin

The Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico has generated hydrocarbons for about 100 years and supplied more than 33.4 billion barrels of oil and about 118 trillion cubic feet of natural gas as of September 2018. Implementing hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and completion technology advancements during the past decade has reversed the production drop in the Permian, and the basin has exceeded its previous peak in the early 1970s. In 2017, it accounted for 20% of the total U.S. crude oil production and about 9% of the total U.S. dry natural gas production. For 2016, EIA estimates remaining proven reserves in the Permian Basin to exceed 5 billion barrels of oil and 19.1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas, making it one of the largest hydrocarbon-producing basins in the United States and the world (EIA, 2017).

Regional tectonic setting and geologic framework

The Permian Basin is a complex sedimentary system located in the foreland of the Marathon–Ouachita orogenic belt. It covers an area of more than 75,000 square miles and extends across 52 counties in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. The Permian Basin was developed in the open marine area known as the Tobosa Basin in the middle Carboniferous period approximately 325 million–320 million years ago (Galley, 1958). The ancestral Tobosa Basin was formed by an asymmetric structural flexure in the Precambrian basement at the southern margin of the North American plate in late Proterozoic time (Beamont, 1981; Jordan 1981). During consequent phases of basin development, sediments eroded from the surrounding highlands and were deposited in the basin (Brown et al., 1973; Dorobek et al., 1991).

The Permian Basin is now an asymmetrical, northwest to southeast-trending sedimentary system bounded by the Marathon-Ouachita orogenic belt to the south, the Northwest shelf and Matador Arch to the north, the Diablo platform to the west, and the Eastern shelf to the east (Gardiner, 1990; Ewing, 1991; Hills, 1985). The basin is comprised of several sub-basins and platforms: three main sub-divisions include the Delaware Basin, Central Basin Platform, and the Midland Basin…”
See more here: https://www.eia.gov/maps/pdf/PermianBasin_Wolfcamp_EIAReport_Oct2018.pdf

Click to access Permian_MajorFeatures.pdf