Rio Grande Chapter

The New Mexico Environment Department is proposing changes to the water-quality regulations that contain the dairy rule. While we agree with some of the proposed changes, there are some changes to the protocols the agency uses to administer the rule that are troubling ...

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 ...

In the renewable-energy plan PNM is required to produce every year, New Mexico's largest electric utility has proposed to build 50 megawatts of solar, upgrade and add energy output to the New Mexico Wind Energy Center contract and upgrade and add energy to the geothermal facility near Deming to meet its 2020 legal requirement for 20% renewable energy.  ...

In August, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Farmington Field Office notified Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye that it intends to auction off 25 more parcels in Greater Chaco for fracking. These parcels are unnervingly close to the 10-mile buffer that protects Chaco Culture National Historical Park ...

The River Healers have sent drones to multiple fracking sites in the Greater Chaco Area impacted by explosions, fires, spills and methane ...

The leaked report revealed recommendations for shrinking four monuments, showing disregard for more than 2.8 million public comments, 98% of which urged the administration to maintain current and future protections ...

Join us this Friday for our November Sierra Club and Root Beer as Rebecca Sobel of WildEarth Guardians discusses the fracking threats in greater Chaco Canyon ...

For immediate release: Monday, Oct. 16 Photos will be added here 500 New Mexicans spoke Monday in opposition to the New Mexico Public Education Department’s removal of references to climate change and the age of the Earth from its proposed public-school science curriculum. Speakers urged the state to adopt the unedited Next Generation Science Standards framework, which was developed by the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Teachers Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science and Achieve. The department ...

10/14/2017
From leader Aku Five hikers had a PERFECT day on Saturday for a hike from the Ancho Rapids trailhead to Lower Frijoles Falls in Bandelier, and back.  After a  brief side visit to Ancho Rapids, they hiked through White Rock Canyon, enjoying both the exceptional scenery and the considerable challenge of getting to the falls.  In the last few years, the route along the bank of the Rio Grande has become much more overgrown and impeded by deadfall through ...

10/8/2017 From leader Aku:
The weather stabilized beautifully for Sunday’s Sierra Club Frijoles Canyon loop hike, providing a perfect fall outing for Larry, Heidy, Bojan, and Aku in Bandelier. Box elders and many other lower elevation, deciduous trees and shrubs were showing lots of fall color, and we had almost the entire route to ourselves.  It was also an ideal opportunity to experience the spectacularly well-done clearing and “remodeling” of both the Frijoles Rim Trail and the Frijoles Canyon Trail ...