Local Issues

These issues are of particular interest to the residents of Los Alamos, and to the Pajarito Group of the Sierra Club.

Sierra Club / Pajarito Group LA Monitor Article for January 2009
An Audit to Invite
Michael Di Rosa
19 January 2009
“Audit” had never brought to mind the words educational, enjoyable, and free shower heads until I had one conducted by our County’s own Water & Energy Conservation Officer, Matt Dickens, of the Department of Public Utilities. More pleasant anomalies, like a leap down the rabbit hole, are that these audits are done only at the utility customer’s request, are scheduled for the customer’s convenience, take only an hour, are a free service of the DPU, and serve to save the customer money while reducing the energy and water the DPU dispenses. I volunteered for Matt’s audit out of curiosity for the process. Matt arrived promptly for the appointment, carrying a plumber’s tote in one hand and charts in the other.
First he reviewed the charts, which summarized my household usage of water, gas, and electric from 2005 to 2008. Among them were bar charts that spanned from January to December and grouped by each month the usage by year. Water use by these charts, Matt explained, appears for most as an arch centered about summertime irrigation. The arch's base in in winter months indicates indoor use; its height from the base outside use. Matt can compare your outdoor usage against known averages for watering your particular landscapes or gardens. A substantial excess from the average indicates either overkill watering or a horribly leaky irrigation system, either habits or plumbing in need of repair.
Gas was reviewed next. Consumption by homes like mine heated by gas is highest in winter months, a trend that describes a trough on the bar chart about the summer months. And it’s a deep trough. In my case, I burn 9 times more “Therms” in January than I do in July, during which months I draw gas only to cook and heat water. One inference from such a steep seasonal swing is that winterizing one’s home, replacing an inefficient furnace, or installing programmable thermostats are among the most significant steps a homeowner can take to reduce energy use and bills. Time and money spent on these changes yield more savings than will, say, agonizing over efficiency figures of new water heaters. Sometimes the attention to home heating yields purely comfort. In 2007, I bought a new furnace to replace the rumbling Bryant installed in my 1957 home. My gas consumption hasn’t changed, but I no longer freeze.
My electricity consumption was unremarkably steady, though it edged upward a few percent each year. When I suspected my 70’s vintage refrigerator, Matt recommended doing two things. First, clean the condenser coils. Second, get a Watt meter on loan at no charge from the DPU for a week. Plug the Watt meter into the outlet, the refrigerator into the meter, and then see by the meter’s numbers whether the refrigerator is drawing more energy than those of like size and year. Better, I thought, would be to compare the energy draw against newer Energy Star standards. Later research showed my refrigerator swills 2000 kWh yearly ($200 annually in Los Alamos) while a new replacement would sip 400 kWh ($40 annually). In five years, a new fridge would pay for itself and keep 5 tons of coal-fired CO2 from our air.
Just as I was thinking my fridge should go the way of its era’s flared trousers, Matt reminded me that the corset’s contemporary was still lighting my home by giving me free compact fluorescent bulbs. Under the DPU’s “Watt Swap”, residents may trade six incandescent bulbs for their CFL equivalents. With just these CFL’s in place of their Edisonian ancestors I’ll save nearly enough cash to cover a full subscription to LA Green, our County’s renewable-energy plan. Contact PEEC, a DPU partner, for more information about the Watt Swap and LA Green.
Matt then went on a hunt for waste. Each spigot and shower head was measured for flow rate by a brief filling of a graduated plastic bag. When spigots flowed more than 2 gallons per minute, Matt rummaged through his bag to find and offer a free 1.5 gpm aerator. Low-flow shower heads were similarly offered. Matt also dunked a water-filled bladder in the tank of my old toilet so flushes would use a gallon less. In installing plumbing bits throughout my house, Matt gave my home its first remodeling.
The high-tech gadgetry was saved for last. With an infrared imaging camera that Sharper Image fanatics would lust after, Matt viewed windows, doors, and electrical outlets to look for leaks of cold air into the house. We then went outside to look for leaks of warm air out. Nothing was badly amiss, and Matt concluded his visit with a few ideas for inexpensive improvements to window insulation. I was sorry to see Matt go, partly because I wanted just 10 minutes with the imager to looks for birds hiding in my trees.
We are fortunate, I’m now certain, to have an energy-audit program that is free and personally conducted by someone of Matt’s caliber. Behind a genuine friendliness is the experience of thousands of audits he has done in residential and commercial settings from Phoenix, to Albuquerque, and now here. Matt’s charter as Conservation Officer is the County’s as it should be ours—reduce County water use by 12% and electricity and natural gas consumption by 10% by 2020. Through energy audits and other free DPU-sponsored programs, you will come to know these targets as easy to hit both personally and as a County, by living as fully and comfortably as ever while using no more than we need.

Protecting Utah's Wilderness

“This is the most beautiful place on earth...The canyonlands. The slickrock desert. The red dust and the burnt cliffs and the lonely sky.” “Under the spreading sunrise are more mesas, more canyons, league on league of red cliff and arid tablelands, extending through purple haze over the bulging curve of the planet to the ranges of Colorado—a sea of desert”. “There is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning...the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert... the extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life-forms.”

This is how Edward Abbey described the red rock wilderness areas of southern Utah in his book Desert Solitaire. However, the Bush administration sees these areas differently—as good places to “drill, baby, drill.” In 2003 the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed opening up pristine wilderness in these areas to energy exploration. Environmental advocates fought the leasing proposal and in 2006 a federal court ruled that the plan violated the National Environmental Policy Act. The Interior Department's own Board of Land Appeals also issued an administrative ruling backing the leasing prohibition. “Previous administrations proved that there can be a balance between wilderness protection and oil and gas development,” said former BLM director Jim Baca, quoted in the Washington Post. “Unfortunately, the Bush administration has worked tirelessly to appease the oil and gas industry no matter the cost to our national heritage of wild and untamed places.”

Utah already has more acres leased for oil and gas development than are currently being drilled, yet in its final weeks, the Bush administration has been trying to push through leases in environmentally sensitive areas, planning to auction off 276,025 acres on Dec. 19. The BLM's energy team leader for Utah, Terry Catlin, says the list of lease sites, announced on Election Day, is based on “industry nominations”. If the sales are finalized before Jan. 20, it could be very difficult for the new administration to reverse them.

On December 4, as reported by The New Mexican, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) filed formal protests, outlining their objections to drilling in 92 parcels of wild lands in eastern Utah totaling 100,000 acres around Desolation and Labyrinth Canyons along the Green River, and near Canyonlands National Park. Under intense pressure from the National Park Service, the BLM has already pulled drilling leases on nearly 100,000 acres on and near the borders of Arches National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Canyonlands National Park, and Nine Mile Canyon (home to thousands of ancient rock art panels).

Other agencies raising grave concerns about the auction include Utah's Division of State Parks and Recreation, which fears that drilling could pollute groundwater, Yuba Reservoir and the Sevier River in central Utah, and the fisherman's group Trout Unlimited, which fears drilling near the remote Deep Creek Mountains in the western Utah desert would threaten recovery programs for native Bonneville cutthroat trout.

The BLM's Catlin was quoted in the New Mexican as saying “We always look very seriously at protests that come in.” As this article goes to press, the BLM is planning to announce on Dec. 12 what additional parcels, if any, it may drop from the Dec. 19 auction. It seems that for now, efforts by conservation and outdoor groups, combined with falling oil prices that make plans to “drill here, drill now” seem less inviting to industry, will save at least some of Utah's wilderness areas. But it's likely to be an ongoing battle: Catlin adds “We're not saying the lands are unavailable for leasing, because we've got some brand new land use plans saying they are.” Scott Groene, Executive Director of SUWA, believes that the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress may provide “perhaps the best opportunity for wilderness protection in the past quarter century”. In order to protect southern Utah's beautiful and unique wilderness areas, SUWA encourages the new Secretary of the Interior and staff at the BLM to review last-minute Bush administration decisions for legal violations; to reform the BLM, which manages more spectacular western public lands than any other federal agency but has been gutted by Bush appointees under pressure from anti-wilderness interests; and to re-instate the process that gives Wilderness Study Area protection to lands identified by the BLM as having wilderness character.

To find out more, and to get involved, please come to a multimedia slideshow presentation on “Wild Utah: America's Redrock Wilderness”, Wednesday Feb. 4, 2009 at 7 PM in the upstairs meeting rooms of the Mesa Public Library. This event is presented by Bob Brister, Interregional Outreach Coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and hosted by the Pajarito Group of the Sierra Club. Meanwhile, check out the websites www.suwa.org, www.sierraclub.org, and http://riogrande.sierraclub.org/pajarito/mainpaj.asp . Or, drive on up (carpool or drive a hybrid!) and see for yourself. This is our own backyard.

--Nona Girardi

Beyond Recycling: Cradle to Cradle, Food for Industry, Food for Thought

As we slip into winter, it’s a good time to switch our reading choice from light summer fare to something to enlighten the long winter nights. Consider Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, a 2002 publication from North Point Press. McDonough, an architect, specializes in environmentally sound buildings. Braungart, a German chemist, studies the environmental effects of chemicals. This book has heft, figuratively and literally (more on the literal heft later).
The core of their proposal is the concept of “waste equals food.” Taking examples from nature, they demonstrate that nothing is wasted; everything moves from one use to another in endless cycles. How many seeds does a cherry tree have to produce to replace itself and add another tree? But in its lifetime, how many cherries and seeds does a cherry tree actually produce? Why aren’t we buried in cherries?
The biomass of ants on the earth is greater than the biomass of humans yet we’re not overrun with ant landfills or ant pollution. These organisms exist in a system where everything is reused. “Waste” from one organism (or the organism itself ) is food for something else. This is different from our current recycling, which the authors refer to as “downcycling.” We’re not keeping that plastic bottle in the system indefinitely; we’re merely sending it on a detour on its way to the landfill. Maybe the plastic bottle can be made into carpet or a jacket but that wasn’t the intended use for the material; forcing it to be something else takes considerable effort.
But what if the bottle were made of a material designed from the outset to be remade into new bottles or similar products? What if your computer were made of materials intended from the start to be reused in computer manufacturing instead of creating an environmental mess in China or India or some other out-of-sight place?
This is the waste-equals-food concept – in this case, food for industry.
Doesn’t this make more sense than pitching everything – hazardous components and all – in the landfill and then producing new materials? The book itself is an example. The book is printed not on traditional wood-pulp paper, but rather on a plastic-like material that is completely reusable (and unfortunately, heavy). Every component material is separable and reusable.
Not all materials need to be “industrial feedstock.” Natural materials can be turned into food for people, composted or used in some manner in the production of what humans know as food.
Another concept introduced by the authors is “product of service.” Do you really want to own that computer or wide-screen TV? Or, do you just want to use it for a while? This concept is similar to leasing: that the company retains ownership of the product and the customer pays to use it. In this case, however, the manufacturer wants the product back because it’s their feedstock for making new products. Nothing goes to the landfill.
The authors advocate a revised paradigm for corporate management – the “triple bottom line.” That’s the idea that beyond the traditional financial bottom line, a company also has an “equity bottom line” and an “ecology bottom line.” The equity bottom line refers to how fairly the employees are paid and treated, and the ecology bottom line refers to how the company’s products and processes affect the environment. None of the separate bottom lines should predominate over the others. The company must do well with the financial bottom line in order to survive, but it must also do well with the other bottom lines in order to retain good employees and function sustainably.
The authors argue convincingly for a new industrial- consumer paradigm. It’s a paradigm that’s not really new; it’s all around us and has been as long as life has existed on earth. We just need to view ourselves and what we do as part of a larger system rather than outside it. It’s a system where industry and the environment aren’t adversaries but where everything is part of the whole. The book isn’t simply theoretical musing; for the technically inclined, the authors include a section outlining some technical aspects of how this can be done.
—David Gemeinhart

Letter to the Forest Sevice

Pajarito Group of the SIERRA CLUB, Post Office Box 945, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544

26August 2008

Daniel J. Jiron, Forest Supervisor, Santa Fe National Forest, 1474 Rodeo Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

Mr. Jiron,

The Pajarito Group of the Sierra Club, located in Los Alamos, is composed of over 500 members who regularly use and enjoy Northern New Mexico’s wild areas including the various districts of Santa Fe National Forest. We care greatly about current and future uses and stewardship of the forest. On behalf of the Group’s membership I thank you for your efforts at public outreach and input gathering regarding the local implementation of the Travel Management Rule (TMR) now under consideration.

From the outset, it seems reasonable to question the logic and scale of the proposed action. What percentage of Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) users are engaged in motorsport activities and what percentage in “quiet” activities? A 2004 SFNF report shows motorsports to be the minority by a wide margin. Even accepting that the sport has grown over the years, we’re now being presented with a situation where the minority is dominating the majority. Motorsport users have a disproportionate impact on the forest both physically and esthetically. Can it be argued that motorsport users have no more impact on trails and streams than hikers, sightseers, or campers? The two groups of users are incompatible. How does a hiker escape the noise of OHVs or trail bikes? What part of the forest, beside the wilderness areas, is off-limits to OHVs? OHV use is inherently destructive; it’s been referred to as “recreational bulldozing”. Such activity is clearly contrary to the Forest Service’s mission and obligation to protect the forest for the national benefit. Given the above, logic would seem to dictate that the Forest Service (FS) should be moving to curtail OHV activity, not encourage it.

Roads and trails designated open for motorsport use are required to be maintained for sustainable use. Since the routes will be for motorsport use, they will have to be maintained to a standard capable of withstanding abusive vehicle use. Maintenance funding is inadequate to maintain current roads and hiking trails. How will trails be maintained to higher standards in the future given the meager maintenance funding? The proposed action seems to be making a bad situation worse. The Forest Service doesn’t act like an agency with severe funding constraints. Questions regarding the maintenance issue have received vague and unconvincing responses. The Forest Service needs to reconcile the maintenance requirement with paltry maintenance budgets and demonstrate, in black and white, in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) how this will be accomplished.

How will this rule be enforced? Like the maintenance issue, this question has elicited similarly vague and unsatisfying responses. Rules with no enforcement aren’t rules. What will the penalties for violations be? Since enforcement is likely to be spotty, penalties must be severe and riders must clearly understand the penalties. Penalties similar to Game and Fish poaching penalties would be appropriate. Riders violating the rules are, in a sense, “poaching” use of the forest and should be dealt with accordingly. These items, method of enforcement and penalties, should also be addressed in some detail in the DEIS.

A stated objective of the Travel Management Rule is to reduce parallel routes. Many still exist. The areas around San Pedro Parks are a good example of this although the situation exists throughout the forest. If a rule objective is to reduce parallel routes, why do so many exist in the proposed action? What’s the justification?

Clearly, the situation under the Travel Management Rule of closed unless specifically opened will be dramatically better than the current situation of open unless specifically closed. However the TMR as proposed seems to be taking very tentative and, at times, perplexing steps. We ask that SFNF staff step back, look at the present situation in the forest, then look at the proposed action and ask, Does this make sense?

Again, thank you for the opportunity to provide our comments.

Respectfully,

The Pajarito Group’s First Los Alamos Environmental Powwow

            Nobody said it couldn’t be done, just that it would be a lot of work, but after weeks of organizing, when we finally began inviting others, the idea expanded like mycorrhizae.  And as symbiotically, the first invitees called others they knew who called more, until the Powwow ended up with groups as diverse as Los Alamos National Bank, Pajarito Environmental Education Center, and Energy Related Devices. 

            The Los Alamos connection to nature is historic. The founders of Los Alamos chose this location not only because of its isolation, but because of its physical beauty.  Perhaps it was because of the work they were doing, but the relationship between those developers of the bomb and the local wildlands, mountains, and canyons has been deep. The quote from one of the early women here sums it up:  We may not have had bathtubs, “…but oh God! we had the view!” Now the community has many environmental groups with scientists and residents as concerned with saving the planet as they were about saving democracy. 

            The Pajarito Group’s goal was to create a strong and united voice for environmental protection and for a sustainable Los Alamos.  The Powwow was a ravingly successful first step.

            About 200 participants moved among the displays, swapping ideas, hearing about activities and efforts, enjoying stimulating company, hors d’oeuvres (donated in part by Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, and elegantly created by Group ExCom member Dave and wife Donna Gemeinhart), and the heartening, acoustic folk music of Monty and John reminiscent of the good-old-days of the Monkey Wrench Gang.

            Here is what we learned: 

            Powwow co-sponsor Los Alamos National Bank offers lower rates and fees for Eco-Smart loans. Los Alamos Family YMCA is hoping to incorporate green construction and programs as part of its goals.  Both Los Alamos Sustainable Energy Network (LASE) and Energy Independent Los Alamos have ideas that could actually create a renewable-energy community. 

            There’s a “Green Tag” you can purchase to offset your current pollution by buying an investment in development of new, renewable-energy facilities in New Mexico. Or get this—right here in Los Alamos, Energy Related Devices is developing both Solar Cell and Alternate Aerodynamic Windmill Technologies, as well as a remarkable Micro Fuel Cell™ technology designed to use processes that mimic a living cell.

            The Friends of Bandelier offers opportunities to provide support for special projects, such as archaeology, scientific research, and Native crafts expositions.  Los Alamos Cooperative Market hopes to create a local market selling products produced as locally and naturally as possible for the health of both human and the planet. Craig Martin’s Volunteer Task Force gives residents an excuse to both enjoy our local wildlands and help with conservation efforts and trail development.

            Los Alamos Sustainable Energy is dedicated to promoting the development, use, and education of sustainable energy in our community. The goal of the newly formed Los Amigos de Valles Caldera is to raise funds for important resource and infrastructure projects (including several wetlands projects) on the Preserve, thereby offsetting operating costs.

            NM Citizens for Clean Air and Water is an environmental advocacy group that uses their scientific and technical expertise to stop pollution, and in the end, to work toward a society in which both individuals and corporations will cooperate with the goal of a clean environment. The League of Women Voters has programs to sustain not only democracy but the Earth itself.

            The Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) is our local clearinghouse of environmental issues and activities, offering everything from a gift shop and herbarium, to kids camp, demonstration gardens, talks on energy and the environment, and ink-jet cartridge recycling.

            Los Alamos County’s Julie Williams-Hill of the Utilities Department presented the green energy and the water conservation programs of the county, and Public Works Department David Apple showed the green building programs of the County as it embarks on an ambitious agenda of upgrading the physical assets of the county.

            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.” But once in a while, we can actually measure the progress created by our efforts.  Once in a while—as at the Powwow, we can celebrate in the company of our compatriots who share the passion for preserving the one World we’re traveling on together.

            Please watch for the Blue Moon Production video of the Powwow to be presented on Los Alamos local access channel PAC 8.  Los Alamos National Bank was a sponsor.

The list of participants and their web pages has been added to our Links page.

The Powwow also put forth a list of our favorite places for our Best of Los Alamos Open Spaces Survey.  Of the approximately 100 entries, the favorite of the favorites are as follows:

Best Trail:  Red Dot/Blue Dot
Best Bird Watching:  Pajarito Mountain
Best Downhill Ski/Snowboard:  One More Time
Best X-Country/Snow Shoe:  Canada Bonita/Nordic Center
Best Day Trip:  Bandelier
Best Biking:  Pajarito Mountain
Best Valles Caldera Activity:  Hiking
Best Rock Climbing:  Overlook Park
Best Bandelier Place:  Falls Trail
Best Dog Walk:  Bayo Canyon

Science Fair, January 2006

The Pajarito Group Sponsors Its First Science Fair Awards Julie Pearson organized the first annual Pajarito Group "The Power of One" awards for Los Alamos Science Fair projects pertaining to the environment. Mat Johansen presented four $30 checks, as well as a certificate for a $25 Student Sierra Club Membership to each winner. Anna Zerkle, of Barranca 4th grade, won the Elementary category, with "Water Water Everywhere." In the Junior category, Miriam Barnum and Maura Taylor, Barranca 6th grade, won for their project, "Hot Rocks." Aubrie Powell, Los Alamos Middle School 7th grade, took the Mid-School prize for "Fire and Earth." The Senior prize went to Tom Witherell, LAHS, 10th grade for "The Effects of Modern Pollution on Plant Growth." The students were invited to present their projects at our March 1st Meeting.

In addition, we awarded three Honorable Mentions to the following Junior projects: David Stroud and Ryan Kniss, Barranca, 6th, "Reaching for Light"; Emily Funsten, Barranca, 6th, "Dense Forests: the Competition for Light"; Sophie Click, Mountain, 6th "Pollution Solution."

Pajarito Group judges were Don Machen and Mat Johansen. Ilse Bleck, Julie Pearson, and Ted Mockler, helped judge for other "Special Awards" in several categories.

Valle Caldera (former Baca Ranch)

The Valles Caldera Coalition was formed in 1997 and advocates for ecologically sound and sustainable stewardship of the new Valles Caldera National Preserve. Both the Rio Grande Chapter and the Pajarito Group are members of the Coalition.

In 2000, the Baca Ranch was purchased by the federal government. The manner in which the new Valles Caldera will be managed is under development. We strongly feel that Off Road Vehicles (ORVs) should not be permitted in the park. You can read about the developing management of the Valles Caldera National Preserve at Valle Caldera official web page.