Protesters reportedly marched against LANL powerline project Oct. 25

Community members from Santa Fe, N.M., marched Oct. 25 to protest a project by Los Alamos National Laboratory that would build a power line through the Caja del Rio Plateau, local media reported.

Pueblo tribe members and other community members walked through Santa Fe, from the County Administration Building to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office located there. A press conference followed the march, featuring Pueblo and Hispanic leaders, elected officials, and conservationists.

According to local newspaper KUNM, the 45-day objection period for the decision ended Monday, Oct. 28.

Earlier in October, Santa Fe County commissioners wrote a letter to the Los Alamos Field Office and to the regional forester in the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying that neither parties consulted “appropriate stakeholders,” including state and tribal historic preservation officers and federally recognized tribes, when finding and approving the route to the powerline. 

The high-voltage powerline would run 14 miles through the Caja del Rio Plateau, which the Pueblo tribe and its tribal governments have a growing interest in protecting and designating as a National Monument.

“The importance of the Caja del Rio to Santa Fe County and the Pueblos cannot be overstated,” the commission’s letter had said. “We have called upon the President of the United States and U.S. Congress to protect the Caja del Rio, and now call upon NNSA and the Forest Service to do the same.”

The NNSA has said that existing lines could reach their capacity by the end of 2027, not long before Los Alamos plans to ramp up production of plutonium pits, fissile first-stage nuclear-warhead cores, to 30 a year.