Submitted by Zachary Darden, Rio Rancho
Over the past few months, the Castelion Corporation has been quietly considering Sandoval County as the location for a new rocket motor manufacturing facility, which will contain several structures, with the biggest one being over 200,000 square feet, on more than 1,000 acres.
Despite the scale of the project, the Californian company has kept its plans largely under wraps, only hosting two city meetings that were open to the public before the project was pushed forward by council members of Rio Rancho, including Mayor Greg Hull, with backing from Senator Jay Block.
The secrecy around this project has sparked outrage among several council members, such as Nicole List, who expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and insufficient notice for residents to attend these meetings. As a concerned resident myself, I became aware of the public meetings only through social media platforms such as Nextdoor and Facebook, just days before they occurred. There were no flyers available to provide additional information.
Additionally, there are significant environmental issues that remain unaddressed, including the impact of the facility’s projected use of 8 million gallons of water on local aquifers and the potential for soil and water contamination from chemicals like ammonium perchlorate. To say the least, the environmental concerns aren’t just being brushed aside, they are being deliberately ignored.
The implications for existing property owners and nearby tribal lands, particularly those of the Santa Ana reservation, have also not been adequately considered and left in the dark. While Mayor Hull claims to prioritize the interests of Rio Rancho residents, he could not assure that the limited job opportunities created by Castelion would be reserved for New Mexicans rather than out-of-state workers.
Furthermore, the company has not clarified how it plans to safeguard national security in the event of a foreign threat targeting the facility, given the significant military presence in the area. New data released by WildEarth Guardians reveals that oil and gas waste spills in New Mexico jumped nearly 400% in the third quarter of 2025, and as of current times, a toxic chromium plume from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is continuing to spread underground onto the land of San Ildefonso Pueblo. With the current spill threats currently ongoing in New Mexico, the Castelion corporation did not conduct a toxic plume study prior to the Rio Rancho council members advancing this project further, driving more questions about the safety of this project.
All and all, the Castelion Corporation, as well as Sandoval County and the city of Rio Rancho, have failed to ensure trust from the residents of the area, resulting in a project that will more than likely have irreversible consequences. Until we have full transparency, real independent testing and iron-clad accountability, pushing this forward isn’t “innovation”, it’s reckless. It’s gambling with our health, our water, our land and our future.
As a Sandoval County resident and a business owner in Rio Rancho, I appreciate Darden’s thoughtful LTE–I couldn’t agree more. Castelion’s threat to our community’s health and safety should not be taken lightly.
This is spot on. The history of the military industrial complex in New Mexico is a history of environmental and public health disasters, from the Trinity Downwinders to the PFAS forever chemical contamination at Holloman AFB (the highest recorded levels in the world) to the chromium plume at Los Alamos National Labs mentioned in this article.
The US military and the weapons industry as a whole see this state as a dumping ground, inhabited by people who are too poor to matter. Shame on Sandoval County and the Rio Rancho City Council for pushing Project Ranger through!
Thank you for bringing this important issue forward, Zachary Darden. We all deserve to have our a say in our community’s growth and development, and it is an issue of gross negligence that this project was not brought to residents’ attention long before this recent meeting. In my Albuquerque neighborhood, we have some work being planned by an aerial fiber installer. I have already received two notices on this. One in my mailbox, another with a brightly colored door flyer hung on my front door knob. You’d have to be dead to miss hearing about the community work planned for the area. In comparison, the lack of effort made to alert residents and indeed all New Mexicans about a project with such national security and environmental ramifications is astounding. The Castilion project sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen. It’s clear Castilian is not a corporation that values community input or perspective. Mayor Greg Hull and Senator Jay Block, what on earth are you thinking?
Thank you Zachary, for bringing perspective on the implications of such a project. Without residence like you who have a real love and passion for the outdoors and our environment; projects like this would go unnoticed and unchecked.
I truly admire your courageous and bold stance on calling attention to the disregard and irresponsibility of this California based company.
Shame on the Castelion Corporation, but I believe the higher accountability lands squarely on the shoulders of the New Mexican politicians who stood Idly by and allowed such a venture to go forward without the proper visibility and environmental based studies.
As a New Mexican resident and veteran of the United States military, we put our trust in those who we vote for, that they will look through the lens of the entire community and not for selfish motivated gains.
I speak up and stand alongside Zachary and all the others who stood up to let their voices be counted.
I agree. Why not set up test grounds at White Sands?
From Placitas: given that Castelion announced its selection of RR for its site, what can or will happen next? Will it take the courts? Can residents insist on a City Council/mayoral reconsideration with written & oral input? Surely they knew such growth would not be taken lightly? For a 200000 sq.ft. Building, plus more buildings, 300 workers is hardly a high number especially if imported, except in terms of more cars. Does that include the janitors, service workers? (Presumably they would already be local?). Where will they live? Adding 100 new residents to Corrales or the Vulcan new developments, or Enchanted Hills, would respectively affect each of those already crowded communities. Santa Ana & Bernalillo would both be affected by depleted aquifers, contamination, and air pollution. What were the elected officials responses, I wonder?
Thanks to Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Darden for all this information. As a home owner in Rio Rancho I feel betrayed by Mayor Hull and Senator Block(both for whom I have voted for in the past) for pushing this project through without the approval of
the residents of Rio Rancho. This all about money. No environmental tests have been done yet and probably never will be. Will this operation be “Belching” out smoke, flames and foul orders? Not to mention the sound. And what about taxes and decreases in the value of our homes? Who wants to buy a home next to a rocket
factory. I hope enough people take a stand against this before it is too late.