The A2 Times In New Mexico, Advocates Demand Clean Air from Intel by Stewart Sinclair |
Concerned residents of Corrales attend the CAFA-now! Community meeting at the Historic Old San Ysidro Church. Photo Credit: Stewart Sinclair |
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Dennis O’Mara was outside the Historic Old San Ysidro Church when Marcy and I arrived. Beyond the church, Intel’s sprawling microprocessor plant overlooked Corrales. “I promise I’ll be good,” Marcy told Dennis. In a couple of hours, they would open the church doors for a town hall meeting to discuss emissions from the Intel plant. Dennis was introspective; Marcy poised to pounce.
In 1980, the tech multinational built its seventh chip factory on a sod farm in Rio Rancho, becoming Intel’s first to ship a billion chips in 2002. As the company shifted manufacturing overseas, the plant then scaled back production, downsizing from 3,300 to 1,100 employees by 2017. However, competition with China, supply chain issues exposed by the pandemic, and protectionism under both Republican and Democratic administrations, spurred a re-shoring of manufacturing, culminating in the federal CHIPS Act in 2022. The bill provides $52 billion for semiconductor plants in the U.S., from which the Intel Corporation was awarded $8.5 billion this March. (Intel doesn't need the money. Between 2021 and 2023, it averaged $65 billion in revenue, and $30 billion in profits.) In 2020, Intel broke ground on new facilities in Arizona, Oregon, and Ohio. In Rio Rancho, they completed a two-year, $3.5 billion modification to the plant this spring.
"Waste products are filtered once by pollution control devices, and whatever is not destroyed or captured is emitted into the air or water.”
Semiconductor manufacturing claims, falsely, to be a clean industry. The plant in Rio Rancho requires 2.4 million gallons of water daily, and uses around 250 dangerous chemicals, acids and inorganic compounds to manufacture microchips. Waste products are filtered once by pollution control devices, and whatever is not destroyed or captured is emitted into the air or water.
Since the 90s, many Corraleños suspected that drops in well water levels, strange odors, and elevated rates of pulmonary fibrosis and cancer are connected to the plant. It’s difficult to prove, but Marcy Brandenburg has no doubt. The week of their community meeting, she drove me around the plant and the five locations Clean Air for All Now! placed air monitors. Whenever Marcy saw someone on the street, without hesitation, she stopped the car and handed them a flyer for the town hall.
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The Intel Microprocessor fabrication plant in Rio Rancho, NM. Seen from Corrales, NM. Photo: Stewart Sinclair |
Marcy and her husband Dave moved to Rio Rancho over twenty-five years ago. Together, they opened a drive-through coffee shop near Intel in 1999. Soon after, she developed “chronic nausea and intractable vomiting.” Inquiries in town aroused her suspicions about environmental safety at Intel. In 2003, she quit working at the shop. Dave continued until they were able to sell it in 2006. Since then, Marcy’s been, she says, “the biggest thorn in Intel’s side.” If she smells something suspicious in Corrales, she emails Intel’s community liaison. In 2020, CAFA-now! requested a researcher from the University of New Mexico-based state Tumor Registry to conduct a cancer rate study around the plant, which has yet to be released. Marcy suggested that pressure from Intel has contributed to the delay.
Dennis is more cautious. He retired from the CDC and moved from Atlanta to Corrales with his wife in 2006. The couple had their own experiences with strange chemical odors, and burning sensations in their throats and lungs. Learning of high rates of uncommon illnesses led him to look into the plant, concluding two things: Intel’s emissions are dangerous; and Intel wasn’t being transparent.
When the church doors opened at 6:00 p.m., an older cowboy sauntered up the steps, the first in what would become a crowd of fifty.
A few weeks before the meeting, CAFA-now! published their demands in an op-ed urging Intel to “live up to its ‘cutting-edge’ reputation by not settling for the bare minimum of abatement technology.” They hoped the town hall would induce others in the community to demand that Intel make the necessary upgrades.
When the church doors opened at 6:00 p.m., an older cowboy sauntered up the steps, the first in what would become a crowd of fifty. Marcy welcomed the audience, recapped the decades-old battle with Intel, and acknowledged neighbors who’d become sick or died. Dennis presented the data, showing what CAFA-now!’s monitors had detected. Emissions of dangerous particulate matter (PM 2.5) regularly peaked late at night or very early morning, ruling out alternative sources like rush hour traffic. Often, PM 2.5 emissions spiked well above levels the World Health Organization considers safe.
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Dennis O’Mara presents data from CAFA-now!’s air monitors. Photo: Stewart Sinclair |
The data was convincing, but incomplete. CAFA-now! needed funding to purchase more monitors, and volunteers to place them on their properties in a broader radius around the plant. This would define the plume’s boundaries, and allow comparisons to air quality in adjacent communities. Additionally, attendees were encouraged to join CAFA-now! and contact Intel about their concerns.
The meeting helped rekindle the long-simmering case against Intel’s emissions. In attendance was Sandoval County Commissioner Katherine Bruch, who told the Corrales Comment: “I’d like to have a conversation with Intel directly about what CAFA-now! is asking about so we can get a better idea of what, if any, efforts they’re making on these items.”
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Dennis O’Mara and Marcy Brandenburg. Photo: Stewart Sinclair |
I’d disband the group immediately if Intel would just do what they’re supposed to.
When we left the church, the Intel plant was lit up on the mesa, but I suspected that some Corraleños might now be seeing it in a different light. Neither Marcy nor Dennis expected Intel to capitulate after one community meeting, but the show of support validated CAFA-now!’s efforts. For months, the two residents had gathered data, made their case in the press, and organized and promoted the town hall. It was hard work and had taken a toll, but they knew that much work remained ahead.
“I’d disband the group immediately if Intel would just do what they’re supposed to,” Marcy lamented. “Not much chance of that,” Dennis replied. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” |
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