Oil and Gas Activity Returns to Santa Fe County - Rio Grande Chapter

Taos Branch News
Sentinels Celebrate
River Cleanup Week
On June 2, as part of National River Cleanup
Week 2007, Sentinels-Rios de Taos co-sponsored
a river cleanup day on the Rio Pueblo
with Amigos Bravos, the Rio Pueblo de Taos Watershed
Alliance, and the BLM. Volunteers from all four
organizations picked up trash and recyclables from the
recreation area by the Taos Junction bridge.
On June 9, Water Sentinels co-sponsored with
Centinel Bank and Amigos Bravos a cleanup of the
Rio Fernando. More than 50 community volunteers,
sporting Sierra Club T-shirts, came together to do
a serious cleanup of the Rio Fernando. “This is the
largest group of volunteers ever gathered in Taos for a
river cleanup,” said Rachel Conn, Clean Water Circuit
Rider for Amigos Bravos. The community volunteers
removed a surprisingly large amount of trash from the
river and its banks. “We ran out of garbage bags in
the first hour and had to buy more,” said Jim White,
organizer from Centinel Bank. Afterwards, the community
volunteers were treated to a cookout lunch
furnished by Centinel Bank.
Steering Committee
Eric Patterson, Taos contact and Director of Rios de
Taos Water Sentinels • 776-2833, eepatt@gmail.com
Anna Walters, email alert list •
annaainsworth@kitcarson.net
Norma McCallan, Northern Group contact •
471-0005, nmccallan@mindspring.com
William Brown, The Climate Project • 758-8008,
nmglobalwarming@yahoo.com,
www.nmglobalwarming.org
Global Warming Presentation
The Village of Taos has signed on to the Cool
Cities agenda, in response to a Sierra Club
presentation to the Village Council. Leading
the way on this is Mr. William M. Brown, resident
of Ranchos de Taos.
William M. (Bill) Brown was an earth scientist
with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s U.S.
Geological Survey for 36 years prior to retiring in
2003. Throughout his career, he served our nation
as an earth sciences and industry expert, offering
broad-reaching environmental expertise and contributions
within U.S. and international governments.
He participated in creating environmental
and sustainability initiatives, leading to policy for
federal, state, county, and local governments.
Bill was one of 1,000 people worldwide selected
by Al Gore and The Climate Project to learn and
present the global warming story in 2007. Bill attended
intensive training in Nashville, Tennessee,
in early January 2007 with Al Gore and his expert
team. His training focused on the history, content,
architecture, and style of the story; presentation
and communication skills; and a suite of solutions
including individual, community, corporate, governmental,
and international actions.
Bill now offers Al Gore’s slideshow free of
charge to all communities in New Mexico and the
southern Rocky Mountains. He presents the most
current version of the show as it is continuously
updated with new information. He focuses on local
and regional issues, and seeks ideas for solutions
from his audiences.
Bill presented his version of Al Gore’s slideshow
for the organization Sustain Taos on April 25 at
the Kit Carson meeting room. It is an outstanding
presentation. Bill keeps the presentation current
and up-to-date. It is totally non-partisan, extremely
upbeat, and optimistic. He talks about things that
we, as individuals and communities, can do right
now to help alleviate global warming. He will give
his presentation again on August 7 at 7:30 p.m.,
at the Fort Burgwin summer campus of SMU, just
east of Ranchos de Taos.
This presentation is suitable for a wide variety
of groups from grade school to adults. It is very
non-partisan, so it is especially suitable for community
groups. See Bill’s contact information in the
directory.
—Eric Patterson
River Analysis Begins
in Taos County
Sentinels-Rios de Taos received their
final training in April and have started
to obtain data relating to the health of
Taos County rivers. Some problems have
been found in sections of the Rio Hondo,
the Rio Pueblo, and the Rio Fernando.
We will be doing further analysis on all
three streams in an effort to determine the
sources of pollution.
For more information, contact Sentinels
Director Eric Patterson.
Four Corners Branch News
Potluck Gathering
Elisa Bird for the Sustainable San Juan folks
announces the 1st Annual Potluck Gathering
for all our area groups to meet and share
what we are doing. This is to bring all our area’s
sustainable, environmental, and social justice groups
together. It will be on Saturday, July 7, 5-7 p.m., at
Minium Park – next to Safeway on Main Street in
Historic Downtown Aztec. To make things simple,
just bring a dish to share, something for you to
drink, and silverware. If you want to grill meat, there
is a outdoor grill you can use. At 7 p.m., we will
introduce ourselves and someone will tell a little bit
about their group. We are inviting all the sustainable
groups: Sierra Club, San Juan Peace, San Juan Citizens
Alliance, Oakhaven. Let us know if there is a
group we need to invite – we certainly don’t want to
leave anyone out! Email Elisa.Bird@nmcdnet.net.
Steering Committee
Art Jaquez, Co-Chair
326-5229, 360-0176 • artjaquez2@yahoo.com
Nick Cullander, Co-Chair
334-0935 • ncullander@hotmail.com
Gordon Glass, Air Quality, Outings
564-4460 • agglass@earthlink.net
Desert Rock Update
The draft Desert Rock EIS, released on May
22, strongly supports the Desert Rock Power
Plant. As Ben Luce has noted, “...while it’s
true that emissions are being reduced at some of the
other plants in the region (BIA’s main excuse for
supporting Desert Rock), this is happening because
those plants were out of compliance with EPA standards
to begin with, and their emissions have already
severely damaged New Mexico as a result. It’s ludicrous
to turn around and let another conventional
coal plant be built just because the existing plants got
caught red-handed and now have to clean up their
act. This would be like justifying that one person be
allowed to commit a crime because another just got
caught!” We strongly recommend that everyone who
can, attend one of the public input meetings. As of
this writing, the revised dates are uncertain, but at
least a large public outcry made the BIA add a number
of meeting sites. The text of the draft EIS can be
found on Sithe’s website (www.desertrockenergy
.com), under “Project Documents/Presentations.”
To stay tuned into alerts and upcoming events,
and participate in some lively discussions, join the
Four Corners listserv (sjcsierraclub@yahoo.groups
.com), or contact one of our steering committee
members.
Support America’s Red
Rock Wilderness Act
We in the Four Corners are particularly
interested in the further protection of
Wild Utah. New Mexicans are in a particularly
good position to influence the progress
of this initiative. Senator Jeff Bingaman can
encourage the first hearings on this bill.
Please write Senator Bingaman urging him
to become a co-sponsor of SB 1170 and ask
him to help in scheduling a public hearing
on the merits of this bill in 2007.
The greater number of citizens from all
over New Mexico who let Senator Bingaman
know of their support for this effort, the
better chance movement can begin on this
longstanding goal.
Gordon Glass is also willing to speak with
public groups of all kinds regarding the
lobbying efforts that he has participated in
for the RRWA. Feel free to contact him at
agglass@earthlink.net.
—Gordon Glass
July/August 2007 rio Grande Sierran