Is this environmental racism by the ABQ Mayor & Council?
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and City Council applaud themselves for fighting “environmental racism” by stopping business development in the Albuquerque South Valley. While they look away from the pollution their policies have created, the pollution flows to South Valley residents via the Rio Grande.
July 2023 Downtown Albuquerque, photograph provided a subscriber.
Homeless people are urinating and defecating on our sidewalks and city streets, just as this person is doing. Our firm was renovating a restaurant in downtown Albuquerque. As I was walking to the building, I witnessed a homeless person urinating on the sidewalk while APD just looked away. This is not just about decency. It is about our public health.
The City of Albuquerque’s Storm Water Pollution Prevention states,” When it rains,…pollutants get washed from … streets into storm drains and then directly into the Rio Grande untreated!” Please note that the homeless person in the photographs is just feet from a storm drain. It further states, “Pet waste left on the ground gets carried away by storm water contributing harmful bacteria, parasites and viruses to our river. Please clean up after your pet.”
What impact does the Mayor and City Council’s Homeless have on the water quality of the Middle Rio Grande? To answer that question, we requested documentation from the NMED Surface Water Quality Bureau and Albuquerque Metropolitan Flood Control Authority to assess the water quality of the Middle Rio Grande over the past ten to twenty years. Specifically, we requested Escherichia coli counts of the Rio Grande River north and south of Albuquerque. E coli is a bacteria found in the intestines of people and animals and is used to assess water quality.
I assumed that as a graduate civil engineer emphasizing water resources, I would be able to find the information within the haystack and then decern the info. I wasn’t successful in finding the news, but I was able to ask the right questions. The answer was that the Rio Grande’s water quality has deteriorated with increased homelessness. But further study is needed to determine the exact extent, and no public official wants to know.
What I also discovered was quite remarkable. The EPA Standard for E. coli for surface freshwater ways is 100 cfu/100 mL. However, in the Middle Rio Grande, that standard is 410 CFU/100mL; However, in Isleta Pueblo, that standard is 88 CFU/100mL. What is recorded for E. coli for the Middle Rio Grande varies between 25 (little water) and over 600 (high flow). Why are the Mayor and Council okay with a contaminated Rio Grande?
What can be done now?
On our most recent KKOB radio program, my good buddy Josh stated that his friends rafted on the Middle Rio Grande, and all had horrible skin rashes the following day. I would not swim or fish in the Middle Rio Grande.
The city of Albuquerque has looked to pet owners to help solve the E. coli problem. It is time we hold the homeless accountable. It is time the police did not turn a blind eye to the homeless.
A downtown property owner told me that the city at one time was going to provide toilet facilities for the homeless, but it did not happen. The Mayor and City Council should immediately offer restroom facilities for the homeless.
The Mayor and City Council should develop a program to clean and sanitize our city streets and sidewalks to keep the human waste out of the Rio Grande and from being tracked into our homes on the bottom of our shoes.
What can be done for the long term?
We must upgrade our wastewater treatment facilities on the Rio Grande to ensure the water leaving our cities is as clean as the water entering our cities. New Mexico has the funds available,
We need new drinking water sources for the cities on the Rio Grande so they do not suck the Rio Grande dry and ensure adequate water flows to improve the water quality.
Is this environmental racism by the ABQ Mayor & Council?
The answer is yes; if you read the article “South Valley Celebrates Revocation of Asphalt Plant’s Permit” in the February 14, 2023 edition of The Paper (co-owned by Albuquerque Council member Pat Davis), the answer would be yes. Because in The Paper stated, “Mountain View Coalition members and their attorneys are now celebrating their victory in the battle to address the long history of cumulative impacts, environmental injustice, and environmental racism in their community.” Thus, if you are responsible for polluting the South Valley, you are an “Environmental Racist.”
But there is more to the story than what was written. How much more pollution, and how would it compare to shopping center traffic? Did creating many good-paying jobs for low-income families justify the asphalt plant alone? How can the family that owns the asphalt company be racist if they can trace their heritage to Spain? The air quality in the South Valley is more impacted by air pollution sources up-wind in Albuquerque than what is created in the South Valley.
Stopping the new plant in the South Valley is more about the Gentrification of the South Valley than the environmental racism of the disenfranchised. Like most Gentrified communities, the disenfranchised are forced onto undesirable lands, such as the Highland Meadows community.
Conclusion
In New Mexico, we are too intertwined among families, land, water, and air to cling to the idea that, somehow, we are separate from one another. What comes to mind from that great American philosopher Pogo, when racism is tossed at one’s supposed enemy, ‘We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is US.”
It is time to end throwing the Racism Stones. As Jesus said, “Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone.”
Postscript
I try to add a few Easter Eggs in my articles. This article has a few; the last article had a few, posse and marauder with power and money. If you “clicked” on power and money, posse and marauder would have made more sense.
I discussed who are the prosecuting attorneys and judges for Biden and Trump’s legal proceedings in last week’s radio program. I specifically outlined why Assistant US Attorney Weiss was weak and had a history of letting the Bidens off the hook. A week later, the national conservative media were covering the same facts.
A Side Note
In the 8/11/2023 Albuquerque Journal article AP, “Mickelson wagered more than 1$ billion, book claims”. Phill Mickelson has wagered more than 1 billion over the last three decades and wanted to place a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup while playing for Team USA, according to a much-anticipated book by renowned gambler Bill Walters.
Billy Walters and my path crossed three decades ago at the Paradise Hill Golf Course.
A competitor recommended our company to renovate the Paradise Golf Course Club House for the new owners. We were out of work, and we took the job. The owner’s representatives (the boys) were out of Las Vegas, and they looked the part. During the renovation, the boys would fly in from Vegas every couple of weeks. I would meet them at the end of the day. We sat around the bar table while they drank whiskey, smoked cigars, and they talked about what Billy wanted and his recent successes. The boys explained that Billy, Billy Walters was more successful than Jimmy the Greek. I wanted to believe it.
Billy won more than he lost, and we got paid. After that, I never took another job that wasn’t good enough for my competitor, and I always ensured there was a letter of financing from a bank.
I hope you have a great week.
Host, “To the Point with Mick Rich.” 2018 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate (NM). Founder & CEO, Mick Rich Contractors. Husband, father, grandfather. Read more from Mick Rich at MickRich.substack.com.
Opinions expressed by Piñon Post contributors do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the publication or its editorial staff. Submit an op-ed to the Piñon Post at news@pinonpost.com.
Mayor Keller and Company are turning Albuquerque into another San Francisco (i.e., feceland). Well, stupid people voted for them so I suppose they are getting what they deserve. Too bad innocent people who didn’t vote for them are victimized.
So correct! However, the long term solution is to never, ever vote in another Democrat. Not likely, but certainly THE solution to bad government.
There are Democrats (Nathan Small, House District 36) whose districts lie along the Rio Grande and whose big claims are that their efforts are VITAL!! to protecting the cleanliness of the state’s water. Yet here is a clear case of Democrats dropping the ball and allowing filth to pollute our waterways because of their soft on homelessness policies.
If these politicians wanted the problems fixed,they would be fixed!!! They have had enough time to fix these problems!!! I say we the citizens need to fire them!! Put in people that care about our home!! The more $$ we give them the more it doesn’t help!! This has been proven over and over again.
Tt: I could not have said it better. New Mexico’s challenges are all solvable because Santa Fe Democrats have created them by pursuing their patron’s agenda. Patronage, AKA Bought & Sold by Special Interests.
San Francisco 2.0
All I can say is shit rolls down hill in this case it is down stream. Southern NM has always gotten the bad end of the stick when it comes to Santa Fe and ABQ, and it has always put folks at risk and both cities continue to send their crap down stream to people that do not have a say in their government. NM Cities are blue, the rest of the state (rural NM) is Red, until the city folk start realizing the destruction the dems are doing to our state it will remain the same.
Great & accurate article. With the advent of reverse osmosis (RO) you miss an unaddressed issue. This system is widely used throughout the valley. It removes a great amount of pollutants from the water. The major draw back is returns those removed pollutants back into the sewer systems. Added to this is the use of water softners also widely used.
Therefore those pollutants not removed at treatment facilities are returned directly to the river. Salts therefore are also increasing exponentially. These include arsenic which are difficult to deal with.
With falling aquifers these same pollutants are refilling these also. So fresh water may not as widely available as it once was. Big and medium size cities are a blight on water way worse than farming contributions. Quit trying so hard to increase cities population. Mother nature just can’t keep up.
Great job placing the blame where it truly belongs!
It is our government in NM. THEIR JOBS ARE NOT ABOUT WE THE PEOPLE, BUT ABOUT THE POLITICIANS. CYFD AND THE PROBATION SYSTEM IS DEFINITELY SCREWED UP!!! I DO NOT SEE NM EVER CHANGING!
This all clear proof that the political structure not just in New Mexico, but the rest of the U.S.A needs serious restructuring. Politicians that care about people, not money, are the solution to disgusting problems like these around America these days.
This is more evidence that America political system is broken & seriously needs to be fixed! Proof that American taxpayer’s 💸
Money has been going down into the SEWER!!!
Another reason for concealed carry.. Pretty boy Tim Keller and Moochie Loserjan put out the welcome signs and the riff-raff smelled a free lunch.. NO MORE SANCTUARY CITIES OR SANCTUARY STATE!!! Close the borders and quit the free meals! put them to work cleaning roads and public areas– they don’t want to work they will move on ,or be moved out!