<P> The top secret remote Los Alamos Research Center was developed in the mountains of New Mexico as a research facility, opening in 1943 for the purpose of developing the world's first atomic bomb . Teams of scientists and engineers were recruited to work on this project . The first test at Trinity Site in the desert of the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now known as White Sands Missile Range, 28 miles southeast of San Antonio, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945 ushered in the atomic age . New Mexico had become a center of world - class science . High - altitude balloon experiments from Holloman Air Force Base caused debris found near Roswell, New Mexico (The Roswell Incident) in 1947 . This reputedly led to the persistent (but unproven) claims by a few individuals that the government had captured and concealed extraterrestrial corpses and equipment . </P> <P> Albuquerque expanded rapidly after the war . The state quickly emerged as a leader in nuclear, solar, and geothermal energy research and development . The Sandia National Laboratories, founded in 1949, carried out nuclear research and special weapons development at Kirtland Air Force Base south of Albuquerque and at Livermore, California . </P> <P> Since the late 19th century, New Mexico and other arid Western states have sought to assert sovereign control over water allocation policies within their boundaries . In the 1990s the legislature debated H.R. 128, the proposed State Water Sovereignty Protection Act . Since the passage of the Newlands Act in 1902, Western states have benefited from federal water projects . In spite of these projects, water allocation remained a politically charged issue throughout the 20th century . Most states have sought to limit federal control over water distribution, preferring instead to allocate water under the discredited doctrine of prior appropriation . </P> <P> As a state dependent on both smokestack industry and scenic tourism, New Mexico was at the center of the debates over clean air legislation, particularly the Clean Air Act of 1967 and its amendments in 1970 and 1977 . The Kennecott Copper Corporation, which operated a large smelter at Hurley, New Mexico, generating as a byproduct thick clouds of air pollution, led the opposition to the environmentalists, represented by the New Mexico Citizens for Clean Air and Water . Eventually the company was forced to comply with fairly strict federal standards . They often delayed the compliance process for years by threatening economic repercussions, such as plant closings and unemployment, if forced to comply with standards . </P>

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