By Irina Goldstein, Water Specialist and
Teresa Seamster, Northern New Mexico Group chair
Sierra Club’s Water Sentinel program is one of several grassroots initiatives that help to supplement federal and state efforts to monitor national surface-water resources.
As part of this initiative, the Sierra Club Northern New Mexico Group conducted water-quality testing for presence of hormones, PCBs and heavy metals in the Santa Fe River downstream from the City of Santa Fe’s wastewater treatment plant.
The water samples were analyzed for 17 hormones. The results detected presence of two hormones in water samples:
- Androstenedion is an androgenic steroid hormone that regulates sexual characteristics and is used to enhance athletic and sexual performance.
- Androsteron is a metabolite of androstenedion and ...
There are several upcoming events when you can learn and be proactive about water in Santa Fe County.
Stormwater
Santa Fe is one of five cities nationwide selected by the EPA to receive assistance with stormwater planning. A brainstorming session is happening Tuesday 26th of September from 5-7 pm at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. The issues range from small but important (dog poop) to huge (what happens after a unplanned watershed fire?). The risk comes from big intense storms, where everything in our streets, yards, and watershed is picked up by the flowing surface water, and is deposited into the Santa Fe River.How can we keep the pollutants to a minimum? How can we reduce the destructive force?
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By John Buchser, Chapter Water chair
An unplanned release of 3 million gallons of water from the Gold King Mine over its mine tailings in August 2015 caused a pulse of pollutants that turned the Animas River yellow.
After mining in the last of the 5,500 mines in the Silverton area ceased in 1991, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compiled a full-time team of scientists to evaluate the situation. A federal $3 million fund helped fund researchers from major universities in the area. In 2012, the Sierra Club used $8 million from a successful coal-ash lawsuit to reduce coal ash in the San Juan River and study pollution in the San Juan.
Last summer and again this summer, researchers presented their results ...
For immediate release – June 27, 2017
Contacts: Rachel Conn, Amigos Bravos, 575.770.8327, www.amigosbravos.org
Washington – On June 27 the Trump Administration started the process to repeal the Clean Water Rule, putting the sources of drinking water for more than 117 million Americans at risk and increasing threats to streams and wetlands that filter pollution and provide habitat for wildlife.
“The Trump Administration has once again proved it only cares about one thing – putting polluters first. Repealing the Clean Water Rule puts the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans at risk” said Rachel Conn, Projects Director for Amigos Bravos, a New Mexico water protection organization. “The Clean Water Rule is a commonsense safeguard for the streams that ...
By Norm Gaume / Former Albuquerque Water Resources Manager
Published in the Albuquerque Journal, Monday, June 5th, 2017
The Bernalillo County Planning Commission will soon decide whether it will ignore and jeopardize the region’s water supply as it considers the proposed Santolina development. If the panel makes the wrong decision – to ignore water – and the Bernalillo County Commission approves that decision later this summer, the outcome will jeopardize our region’s public water supply, negatively impact local consumers, and affect taxpayers throughout the state.
Santolina’s proposed annual water use is large – 14,380 acre-feet – roughly equivalent to Rio Rancho’s annual use. At the heart of this controversy lies a question that New Mexicans know is not simple: where ...
By Eric Patterson
Water Sentinels — Rios de Taos has been awarded a grant to encourage student participation in water-monitoring activities and the general environmental activities of Sierra Club.
We will continue to work with Taos High School students — the Tiger Salamanders — and will be contacting other high schools to initiate more student environmental programs.
Our long-term goal is to have more student environmental organizations and more young Sierra Club members. If you know of any New Mexico student groups who might be interested in participating, please contact Eric Patterson, Water Sentinels coordinator, at eepatt@gmail.com or 575-776-2833.
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By Denise Fort,
Chapter Energy chair
President Donald Trump’s budget represents an unprecedented attack on the agencies that protect our environment, and, perhaps more ominously, on science. We need to communicate to everyone — the media, elected officials, civic groups, friends in other states — the reasons a strong EPA is important to our health and the planet.
The facts: the proposed budget would slash spending at EPA by more than 30%. It would also slash spending at science-based organizations that provide critically important information about health risks, the effects of climate change, etc.
There are two great new groups founded by former EPA staff. Check out saveepa.wordpress.com for up-to-date information on what the cuts could mean. One example:
The Trump ...
