The Chama Basin Watershed Protection Act, sponsored by U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, all New Mexico Democrats, if enacted, would prohibit all forms of uranium mining through much of Rio Arriba County, including in the Santa Fe and Carson national forests.

Joey Sanchez, the chair of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, stood outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday with dozens of tribal leaders and New Mexico’s entire federal delegation to protest a Bureau of Land Management proposal to unwind mining protections around Chaco Culture National Historical Park as just a week remains for the public to weigh in on the plan.