Jesse Jones/Corrales Comment
Concerned Corraleños came together at a community meeting on Thursday, March 14 at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales. It was organized by Clean Air For All Now (CAFANOW), a local environmental advocacy group, to address the decades-long air pollution they say is caused by the Intel chip plant.
Residents concerned about health impacts voiced their grievances and demanded accountability from the semiconductor giant after the presentation by CAFANOW.
In 1993, Corrales Residents for Clean Air and Water (CRCAW) was formed to pressure Intel into controlling its chemical emissions. In 2021, the group changed its name to CAFANOW, reflecting a broader focus on clean air initiatives. In 2021 the Corrales Comment reported CRCAW played a pivotal role in urging the Environmental Protection Agency to study Intel’s emissions, leading to investigations by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Enforcement Investigations Center.
CAFANOW focuses on educating the public about toxic air pollutants from Intel’s Rio Rancho plant. Over nearly four decades, these emissions have caused concerns among residents due to odors and related health issues.
CAFANOW is helping the community measure chemicals emitted by Intel by placing air monitors around the village to track pollution rates. The group hopes the monitors will contribute to greater transparency and accountability regarding environmental pollution.
Intel
The company has now completed construction on its new $3.5 billion, 350,000-square-foot facility that will produce advanced semiconductor microprocessor chips through stacking manufacturing. All this will be done from its facility located on the western mesa overlooking Corrales.
A report by The Paper. in 2021 detailed how the chip maker needs 2.4 million gallons of water daily and about 250 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dozens of acids and inorganic compounds to create the state-of-the-art chips.
The problem though, is how the compounds are disposed of—they can be consumed in chemical reactions, trapped in pollution control devices, collected as hazardous or non-hazardous waste, emitted into the air or released in wastewater after rinsing chips.
Intel has a Title V Synthetic Minor Source Air Permit that was issued by the New Mexico Environment Department, which allows the release of up to 94.7 tons of carbon monoxide, 95.7 tons of nitrogen dioxide, 96.7 tons of volatile organic compounds and 95 tons of hazardous air pollutants into the air each year.
“That’s still pretty large but the amounts of these particular legacy emission chemicals are nowhere near their limits,” said Dennis O’Mara, the Co-Chair of Clean Air for All Now! “So if they want to raise them up, or have to raise them up, they will get raised. It can go up and they’re still legal, they’re still within the EPA and NMED standards.”
The EPA has a Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator which shows that 94.7 tons of carbon monoxide released by the Intel plant each year is the equivalent to 888,073 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle or 82.6 gasoline-powered cars being driven for one year.
David Rockwell, a member of CAFANOW said he challenged Intel on its reporting of the amount of the nitric acid that is in the air. He said Intel responded by saying, “It’s the automobiles running on the highway.” Rockwell said he did not know cars released nitric acid and questioned it right away. He says Intel claimed to see it all day. He responded, “Why does it peak at 4:30 in the morning?” CAFANOW never got an answer, which he says is very common.
The Meeting
CAFANOW gave a presentation of an independent study it commissioned to around 30-40 Corraleños who were interested in learning more about how the pollution from the plant might be affecting their health or the health of their loved ones.
During the presentation, O’Mara discussed the many concerns the community is facing from the pollution. The topics were cancer studies, new medical science, air monitoring data and technical information the group had.
The study that was published by the group in 2019 showed they found statistically significantly higher rates of prostate cancer and myeloid/monocytic leukemia, as well as lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The other study that was requested in 2020 is still pending.
The group has three air monitoring devices in different areas of Corrales that measure the pollution from the plant. The closest is 1,700 feet away from the Intel plant.
“I haven’t noticed any smells per se,” said Corrales resident Sabine Shurter. “Even if I may not be that impacted, as some people here said, the really bad stuff you often don’t even smell, but I think it’s also a neighbor thing. I think the village is really under fire here with this.”
“I think that we’re going to want to continue to see the results from the testing equipment and also on the results that they’re asking about with regards to the health data,” said Sandoval County Commissioner Katherine Bruch, who was in attendance at the meeting.“I’d like to have a conversation with Intel directly about what the CAFA asks are so that we in government can get a better idea of what if any, efforts they’re making on these items.”
To learn more about CAFANOW, visit cafanow.org. They can also be reached at 505-288-0093 or email them at cafanow@gmail.com.