We keep quoting the maxim for untiring activists: “Sometimes it’s hard when you wake up in the morning to choose whether to save the Earth or savor it.” The Pajarito Group made a difference working in the company of our compatriots who share the passion for preserving the One World we’re traveling on together.

Thanks to each of you who responded to the online poll asking whether you would like to remain the separate Pajarito Group of the Rio Grande Chapter or rejoin the Northern Group from whence we separated in about 1998 to focus on Los Alamos National Laboratory issues and the Valles Caldera.

Votes were 68% to rejoin Northern Group; 32% to stay independent Pajarito, with many good suggestions.

Summarizing the comments: Most of us don’t have the time to commit to sustaining a separate group, but people want to remain connected by being a Los Alamos activist group focused on local issues (particularly county development and LANL) within the Northern New Mexico Group.

The rejoining will be finalized in January after we have met all the requirements from National about the “dissolution” of the group.

At that time, you will receive an official Northern New Mexico Group welcome.

That said, we are still Sierrans who now bring to the Northern Group a few hundred volunteers who want to: Be a conservation chair, organize a social event, watchdog a county initiative (and there are many many initiatives to watchdog!), join the Political Committee, be a hike leader, plant trees, participate in a community cleanup, work on open-space issues including the Pueblo Canyon bike-trail siting, and even run for government office.

Los Alamos can continue to contribute to saving the world, though, despite the nuclear-weapons triggers to be manufactured here, the climate emergency is so much more huge, difficult, and insidious than a war against a Russia. This problem is global; the primary enemy is attitude, ignorance, misdirected political posturing, and the failure to: create a cost-benefit analysis of sustainable energy; put the good of the nation before corporatocracy; rid politics of dark money — along with just plain laziness. But— here, in Los Alamos, at this local level, we’re working on it, and doing a darn good job.

Thank you for all the years and all your commitment and stewardship. We know our future — as our Right Now — depends on that work and caring. Let’s continue to save the Earth.

Featured image: Pajarito Group picnic 2013.

Pajarito Environmental Education Center and Pajarito Group of the Sierra Club invite you to an upcoming program on Tuesday, December 8th: “I Am Cheo!” This short film will inspire children (and their parents) to stand up and take action to protect our living family—we are every human and all the Earth.

Produced by the Hispanic Access Foundation, told through the eyes of a young boy, “I Am Cheo,” this short film explores the intersection of Latinex culture and communities with the outdoors and climate issues, and emphasizes the need for engagement and action to preserve our future. Let us help the children lead us!

Following the film, a panel of local organizations, individuals, and community groups taking action to address climate change, will discuss the current issues of culture and climate change.

Our panelists are:

• Garrett Altmann, Santa Clara Pueblo Forestry Department
• Dino Chavarria, Santa Clara Pueblo Environment Department
• Jordan Garcia, Power Network Manager at Los Alamos County Department of Public Utilities
• Monica Irlando-Wildman & Pablo Irlando-Wildman, Sancre Productions
• Arte Romero y Carver, Steering Committee of Youth United 4 Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA)
• Sandra West, co-host of Resilient New Mexico podcast

You don’t need to be a member to join the program. Simply register as a guest for his free program here.

Todos estamos a través de nuestra humanidad y la devastación de cambio climático.
We are all connected through our humanity and the devastation suffered through climate change.

Los Alamos. It’s Science City. Time for the science of climate change to direct our city’s decisions.

According to one LANL scenario, Pit Production is hiring 1,200 to 1,600 new employees per year from 2020 to 2025. That’s a lot of new people requiring homes, infrastructure, offices, retail, schools and more

The County’s draft Downtown Master Plan is now open for comment. The draft will be completed in November. The Project Team is holding multiple online public-comment sessions. Pajarito Group members are joining these meetings to comment on issues such as land use (open and public space, brown-space infill, mixed use, landscaping), transportation (primarily a walkable/bikeable community) and, probably most important, establishing an enforceable building code requiring energy-efficient construction to support the county’s goal of zero net carbon by 2040.

If funds are available and the plan proceeds, the downtowns of both White Rock and Los Alamos will be reorganized and rebuilt. The good news? The project team continually references the 2016 Comprehensive Plan. Things have changed, however, since 2016. COVID-19 forced us into a different business model that should also reflect how residential and public space is managed. This new model offers the possibility of a new urban setting focusing on relational community, energy efficiency and open space.

More good news: At the July Board of Public Utilities meeting, the Department of Public Utilities’ Conservation Committee presented their updated Water and Energy Conservation Plan.

Our Pajarito Group strategy: The county must adopt and enforce the BPU’s updated Water and Energy Conservation Plan for both the overarching Downtown Master Plan and for individual building codes for all development within the county. We attest that although costs are initially higher to the developer/customer, the sustainability requirements will quickly result in cost savings and fewer expensive externalities for which the public and Earth would bear the burden.

To protect the planet, these requirements will need to be implemented sooner or later. We’re Science City. Let’s insist on it sooner.

The Water and Energy Conservation Plan:

• Eliminate use of natural gas.
• Accommodate a massive increase in residential and local solar.
• Reduce water use by at least 1/3.

The first goal, “Eliminate use of natural gas,” is the most consequential. It is also the most controversial because it means no gas hookups for new construction — not commercial, not residential. The assumption is that all-electric utilities/appliances could cost consumers more until the county has contracted for or developed its own 100% renewable electricity. The committee understands that enforcement depends on education and persuasion to convince people to switch from polluting, inefficient gas to renewable electricity. The Pajarito Group can help with education and persuasion. Let’s not only match but exceed the Green New Deal and show the nation how to get renewable utilities right.

The Pajarito Group supports the Water and Energy Conservation Plan. But of the 20 excellent recommendations from the Conservation Committee’s plan, we can focus on:

• Solar-ready roofs and siting for new construction.
• Accommodating purchase-power-only hybrid solar.
• Reducing outdoor water use with Xeriscaping education, rebates and/or incentives.
• Coordinating and supporting energy-efficiency efforts with Los Alamos Public Schools.
• And again: Stop issuing natural gas hookups for new construction, both residential and business.

As the plan states, resistance will come from the belief that these energy-conservation efforts will increase rates; however, “….it should also be noted that unit prices will probably go up anyway, with or without conservation. And there are scenarios where gas, electricity or water prices would go up even faster without conservation.”

Your tasks:

1. Read the BPU’s Conservation Committee report and recommendations from the Los Alamos County website.
2. Read the Downtown plans for White Rock and Los Alamos
3. Take the survey and in the comments, support the updated Water and Energy Conservation Plan.

More news from the Pajarito Group

Pajarito Group working on Zero Food Waste

Astonishingly, when you add in all the externalities, the Number One greenhouse gas producer is food waste. The Pajarito Group, working with the Environmental Sustainability Board and Zero Waste Team continues to focus on food waste. As we keep saying: 40% of all food produced in America is wasted; 25% of fresh water goes to food that isn’t eaten; it takes the water from a five-hour shower to produce a pound of beef. You want more shocking facts? We posted a slide show with everything you need to know on the Sierra Club website.

Michael and Iris retire

Two long-serving Pajarito ExCom members, Michael DiRosa and Iris Chung, have departed Los Alamos for Michael’s work assignment in DC. Michael has been the group’s high-level strategist who aspired to guide our arguments to be logical, succinct, and sticking with the science. He was also the Pajarito Outings Leader. In fact, it was on one of those outings when Michael met Iris. Iris, on a business trip from sea-level East Coast to Albuquerque, longed to hike the New Mexico mountains, saw his Pajarito hike in the Sierran, called him, joined as the only one who signed up, and found herself bushwhacking up Caballo Peak post-Cerro Grande Fire. Now Iris and Michael are returning to the East Coast — to DC where we hope they both can logically, positively, sanely influence the powers in the Capitol as much as they helped influence policy in Los Alamos.  Wear a mask, social-distance, stay safe, and keep in touch. We hope the assignment is only temporary.

The world has seen how inept, unprepared, disinterested, unfocused, and unscientific the US Administration and much of Congress has been in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This failure to protect the public makes me concerned for the government choices when it comes to nuclear weapons.

And yet, even with the pandemic and its subsequent economic/educational/cultural meltdown, even as Earth’s climate is changing at a rate that has exceeded most scientific forecasts (Siberia measured 100 F on June 20; the humans cut or burn 200,00 acres of Amazon forest per day; drought and floods worldwide severely impact agriculture, adding to the increase in climate refugees despite the pandemic), even as the world grapples with centuries of injustice — even as all these demands press the life out of us, the federal government is transitioning toward producing 30, then 80, nuclear-weapons triggers (pits) per year by 2030.

Much of the effort will be at Los Alamos National Laboratory on the skirt of the Jemez Mountains that have been in serious drought for almost 20 years, and with only one way in and one way out in case of a “radiological incident.”

The effort is to be shared between Savannah River National Lab and Los Alamos National Lab. Although this is a huge shift in the LANL mission, there’s been little public collaboration on issues that will significantly affect both Los Alamos and Northern New Mexico. After multiple requests, the Lab finally wrote a letter thanking the Pajarito Group for our interest and telling us to comment on the Site-wide Environmental Impact Statement.

Here’s the background: Our federal government is committed to nuclear weapons’ viability, as well as to creating new weapons such as the nuclear-armed, submarine-launched cruise missile (W76-2), the W93 submarine-launched nuclear warhead (to replace the Trident), and the 87-1, a redesign of a 40-year-old thermonuclear weapon made for ground-based missiles. These are our current federal priorities. Except for voting for a change in the Senate and the Executive, we can’t do much about the federal nuclear “security” mission.

However, because LANL expects Los Alamos and Northern New Mexico to support and fund all the extraneous needs required by the huge increase in both staffing and infrastructure, we can work locally.

Here’s the Pajarito Group’s strategy: Focus on local governments. Let our cities and counties know they must monitor and restrict LANL’s demands on our communities. Local governments’ job is to protect both human communities and the natural environment. LANL must alleviate issues before the project proceeds. We locals must communicate our demands in order to ensure that negative impacts are either stopped or mitigated.

The most urgent issues regarding the impacted communities of Los Alamos and Northern New Mexico include:  transportation, quality of life, protecting the natural environment, affordable housing, and limiting climate change. These issues must be fully addressed with public input prior to the pit-facility infrastructure moving forward.

Of these, let’s focus on the “lowest-hanging fruit:” initiating and sustaining a smart transportation plan.

Smart transportation plan

Although the supplemental EIS states LANL will need about 400 new hires for the pit factory, LANL management predicts it will hire 1,000 to 1,500 new workers per year for the next five years. To meet these needs, the Los Alamos County Council created an inventory of all the vacant land, both public and private, within the county. These include school property as well as TAs 70/71 adjacent to Pajarito Acres.

LANL also proposes to house many of these new workers off The Hill (primarily in Rio Rancho, where homes are affordable), LANL proposes to maintain the existing paradigm of individuals driving cars. For this the lab is urging the state to build a shortcut from I-25 across the Caja del Rio Western Wildway Priority Wildlife Corridor, bridging the Rio north of Frijoles Canyon to connect to State Road 4. The state and other agencies — not LANL — would fund this project.

A most efficient transportation model, however, is for a LANL-sponsored, free system such as a bus fleet similar to what the Nevada Test Site provided from Las Vegas. Not only would the fleet significantly reduce the state and nation’s responsibility for continued repairs and upgrades, but eliminate the need for a short cut requiring bridging the Rio Grande.

Questions to address about the new pit facility

1. What percentage of the Lab’s proposed 4,000 to 7,000 new work force will be engaged in making pits?
2. What is LANL’s expectation from the State and County in funding the expansion as well as providing land, housing, fire/utilities/water/police-protection (etc)?
3. What engagement has there been with other affected communities including the Pueblos, and what are their positions?
4. The new facility is a significantly broader scope than was analyzed for the 2008 Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory. How did DOE/NNSA come to the decision that currently no new significant circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns apply to this project, and therefore requiring only an addendum rather than a new, more complete SWEIS?
5. How will LANL proceed with the project if a new administration decides not to fund it at the new, current level?

Read more

National Nuclear Security Administration: Plutonium Pit Production

American Physical Society: The Modern Pit Facility

Arms Control Association: Reconsidering U.S. Plutonium Pit Production Plans

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Why a decision on a second US plutonium-pit-production factory should be delayed

US Department of Energy: Draft Supplement Analysis of the 2008 Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory for Plutonium Operations

Santa Fe New Mexican: LANL to increase plutonium lab work ahead of pit production

Contacts

Contact Senators Martin Heinrich, Tom Udall, and your representative, and tell them you want a Manhattan Project for Climate Change at LANL rather than new nuclear weapons triggers.

Martin Heinrich: website | contact
Tom Udall: website | contact

Ben Ray Lujan: website | contact
Xochitl Torres Small: website | contact
Deb Haaland: website | contact

Los Alamos County Council: website | contact

Featured image: Precision Plutonium Pit Foundry Mold, 1959, from Wikipedia.

Join the Pajarito Group and Voices of Los Alamos at the Los Alamos Nature Center for a special screening of “SACRED LAND, SACRED WATER: Confluences in the Rio Grande Valley.”

This free screening begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2. Join executive producer, director, and editor Lewis Jacobs for a Q&A after the film.

Officially released in September 2018, “Sacred Land, Sacred Water” is a call to action for residents and policy makers in the greater Albuquerque area to prevent horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking in our region in order to protect our life-sustaining water.

This documentary shows the dangers that fracking poses to the one continuous aquifer underlying the entire Albuquerque Basin—the aquifer that provides 85% of the drinking water to over 800,000 residents. Inspired by geologist and best-selling author, Donald T. Phillips, the film includes interviews of concerned citizens, clips of public testimony, and highly illustrated presentations of both the subsurface geology of the Rio Grande Rift and the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking.

The confluence of the Basin’s water with the subsurface geological formations unique to the Rio Grande Valley are indeed “Sacred Land, Sacred Water.”  As the River endures, so do the cultures. Native American, Spanish, and European traditions contribute distinct influences in faith and spirit, architecture and the arts, song and dance, science and technology—and, with the confluence of water and geology create the beating heart of the Valley and of all living beings within the Rio Grande ecosystem.

To be inspired by the power of activists, check out the previews.

“We are the Earth and Sky.
We are the thunder cries. We are the fire, we are the light in your eyes.
We are standing strong, like a rock in a storm.
We are standing strong, this is our home.
All the nations under the sun—we are one.”

For information please contact Jody Benson.

Free Wildlife Talk – Los Alamos Nature Center – October 19 at 7 p.m.
PEEC-Pajarito Environmental Education Center
2600 Canyon Road in Los Alamos

Dr. James Cain USGS, New Mexico Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Department of Fish, Wildlife, & Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University

Wildfires and forest restoration treatments can result in large changes to habitat conditions for many wildlife species, and forest restoration plans should include monitoring and research programs to document the short- and long-term responses to restoration treatments.   We are currently monitoring the responses of black bears to recent wildfires and forest restoration treatments in the Jemez Mountains.

Preliminary results of our research will be presented followed by a general discussion of black bears and their presence and ecology in the Jemez Mountains.

Hosted by the Northern New Mexico and Pajarito Groups of Sierra Club.
Link to program.

Featured image from Wikipedia.

Stewart Udall was a major figure in American conservation. Perhaps no other public official or secretary of the interior has ever had as much success in environmental protection, natural resource conservation, and outdoor recreation-opportunity creation as Udall. As a highly successful U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, he helped create the Wilderness Act, Endangered Species Preservation Act, and Wild and Scenic Rivers System, along with establishing dozens of new national parks and wildlife refuges. Udall also spent significant time in the 1980s and 90s defending Navajo uranium miners. He spent his twilight years in northern New Mexico where he was active in the conservation community. He has a connection with Los Alamos in that he was interested in LANL’s Hot Dry Rock initiative.

Einberger will sell and sign books after his talk.

Please join the Pajarito Group and the Library’s Authors Speak at Fuller Lodge to hear about one of our environmental heroes, and to get some tips about furthering our current activism.

I  belong outside. Born and raised in Los Alamos by two trail­-loving parents, I’ve been exploring the canyons, mesas and mountains surrounding me for as long as I can remember.

The sunshine, clear air, and sense of absolute freedom keep drawing me back to the trails no matter how exhausted, busy or sunburnt I may be. One of my favorite aspects of the outdoors, however, is the people I find there. Nothing seems to give me more satisfaction than smiling hello to an unknown passerby on a trail and being greeted with the same warmth in return. Nowhere else in the world have I encountered so many people in one town who shared the same level of appreciation for the outdoors as Los Alamos residents do.

Which is why, when my friend Kevin Parkinson and I decided to advocate for a plastic-bag fee in Los Alamos County, I wasn’t too worried. Who could be opposed to such legislation? The consequences of trash pollution in Los Alamos couldn’t be more obvious. Even in areas miles away from roads and buildings, evidence of human presence can be found. In fact, much of my time outdoors today is spent picking up aluminum cans, candy wrappers, and broken glass bottles. In a community where so many residents feel strongly about the preservation of their trails, rallying public support couldn’t be difficult. Or so we thought.

Our bag-fee initiative began in late April, when we attended a forum organized by the League of Women Voters to allow community members to meet candidates for the County Council election. By taking this measure, we hoped to be better informed on how the county government would respond to our demands, allowing us to organize our movement to be as efficient as possible.

Later, we created an online petition in support of a 10­-cent plastic-bag fee in Los Alamos stores, on which we need 1,000 signatures. Now, we’re continuing to make our demands known by attending Environmental Sustainability Board meetings, collaborating with the Zero Waste Board and spreading the word of our cause.

Although our petition is steadily accumulating signatures, I am struck every day by how difficult it has been to gain support within the community. When we discussed the initiative with County Council candidates, for instance, many still offered the same response: “Los Alamos isn’t ready for a bag fee, so for now we should focus on educating the town.”

However, time has shown that education simply isn’t effective in reducing the consumption of single-­use plastic bags. In 2014, a similar initiative to ours was presented to County Council, but, in the end, did not pass. Since then, activists have been working hard to promote a more sustainable lifestyle within the community to no avail. In the five years since the last movement against plastic bags, consumption of disposable items such as straws, cups, and, of course, bags has remained unchanged.

The contradiction between what people believe and how they act has proved to be very frustrating to me and the other students I am working with.

While so many people in Los Alamos are outwardly appreciative of the environment that surrounds them, at their core they are far more devoted to the plastic bags they use to carry their groceries home. Even though the consequences of disposable plastic items are glaring and undeniable, the town is reluctant to forgo the convenience they provide. I believe that this period of hesitation is over, and people must make a change now if they want to have any chance of reaping the benefits later.

Over the past few weeks, it has become all too apparent that implementing a plastic-bag fee in Los Alamos will be far more difficult than I expected. Many of my community members are skeptical that such a policy is worth the effort, and I can understand why. After all, in a world where 240,000 plastic bags are consumed every 10 seconds, what difference will it make for one small town to introduce a measly 10-cent fee?

What so many people don’t realize is that the successful implementation of such a fee does not represent the end of a campaign by a handful of high-school students, but rather the beginning of an environmental movement in which the entire community can partake. When shoppers realize how little effort is required to bring reusable bags to the store, they will start making other small changes in their lifestyles. Eventually, Los Alamos residents will become more conscious of the trash they produce, the energy they consume, and the impact their lifestyles have on the planet. Our clean water will become cleaner, our crisp air crisper, and our wonderful trails even more wonderful.

In a few months, I will be starting a new life in college. Despite being nervous about leaving home, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue voicing my opinion in an entirely new location.

My experience in Los Alamos and everything I’ve learned from it have shaped me into a more efficient and determined activist. I can’t wait to get to work, and, most importantly, to discover all the trails the world has to offer and the people I will meet on them.

You can sign the petition here.

Zoe Hemez is outgoing co-president of the Los Alamos High School EcoClub. She serves the Zero Waste Subcommittee of Los Alamos County until she leaves for college.

The Los Alamos High School EcoClub is taking on the very powerful plastics industry as well as Los Alamos citizens who believe access to a free single-use plastic shopping bag is more important than reducing the effects of this toxin on the Earth now as well as the Earth the students will inherit in the future. When the students get 1000 signatures, they will present the petition to the County Council.

Here is the EcoClub’s petition. Please read it. If you read it, you will sign it.

Why 1000 you ask? That is the number the Council required when they tabled our Sierra Club measure four years ago. Even now, few councilors are willing to take on this effort unless there is overwhelming support (by overwhelming, they mean enough to overwhelm the vehement opposition).

We will be coming back to you for help on this.