The public comment is over but the fight is not done in New Mexico. SANTA FE, N.M. — The scheduled public comment period on removing the Chaco Canyon buffer is over but the New Mexico Department of Justice wants the federal government to extend it. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez’s office submitted formal comments to the federal Bureau of Land Management on Wednesday – the final day of scheduled public comment – opposing the proposal to rescind the 10-mile protective buffer surrounding Chaco Canyon. The federal government wants to open that land to potential mining. New Mexico Pueblo communities see that land as sacred.