Rio Grande Chapter

The state of New Mexico and PNM announced Friday afternoon that they had struck a deal with the EPA to close units 2 and 3 of the four-unit San Juan coal plant and put pollution controls that are less expensive but less effective on the remaining two units to reduce nitrogen oxide. Below is the Sierra Club's response.

Thousands of activists have joined our campaign transition away from coal at San Juan and everywhere to protect our children from health-damaging pollution and disastrous climate consequences. If this deal goes through, you have succeeded in shutting down nearly 900 megawatts of coal -- enough to power 900,000 homes. No jobs will be lost, and PNM will invest at least $1 million into the Four Corners area for economic development.

However, the deal specifies only natural gas as a replacement power, not renewables or efficiency. The Sierra Club will continue to work to clean up the air in the Four Corners area and across the country.

A NEW TWIST ON RECYCLING

There’s a fun new activity on NASA’s Climate Kids website. Instead of just emptying the paper-shredder receptacle into the recycle bin, recycle it yourself! Make your own recycled paper greeting cards—and then plant them! This “seed paper’ activity is easy and fun, and produces a greeting anyone would find endearing for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. Visit climatekids.nasa.gov/seed-paper.

Check out these great sites for kids:

Protecting New Mexico Water
Renee Blake, Public News Service-NM

(01/28/13) SANTA FE, N.M. - The Citizens Coalition (made up of Amigos Bravos, the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club and Caballo Concerned Citizens) is troubled by the direction being taken by the New Mexico Environment Department and the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) in connection with groundwater. Two industries, in particular, are the focus of recent concerns: the dairy industry and the copper industry.

Zero Waste is a concept based on nature. Nature doesn't generate waste or pollution. What is waste for one organism is food for another.

Zero Waste focuses on reducing waste by reusing products and composting rather than recycling.

The Sierra Club Policy
The Sierra Club adopted a Zero Waste policy in 2008. It addresses not only the qauntity of waste we generate but also its toxicity and its important link to corporate responsibility and climate change.

By Mary Katherine Ray, Chapter Wildlife Chair

Trapping season began in New Mexico on November 1 and will not end until March 15. This is the season when fur is its thickest and most valuable, so trappers are out to make a profit by killing wildlife such as bobcats, foxes, coyotes and badgers.

They can set their traps on public lands where the rest of us go to enjoy these same animals and their habitats. No warning signs are required, and the distance a trap can be set from roads and trails is a mere 25 yards. How much trapping occurs depends on current fur prices. The more money pelts are bringing, the more traps there will be.
In order to protect your dog and yourself while hiking, please take a look at these photos of traps that could be encountered and note how to open them if your dog is caught.

By Laurence Gibson, El Paso Group chair

What follows is the story of the El Paso Group’s fight to contain sprawl in Northwest El Paso, sprawl that will severely impact our magnificent Franklin Mountains State Park and destroy our last remaining greenway, turning it into a superhighway with freeway interchanges. This was an exhausting fight, straining both the physical, emotional and financial resources of our group. It may be too early to assess the lessons we learned. However, some conclusions seem obvious.

By Mona Blaber and John Buchser

In the previous Sierran, we reported to you that the state of New Mexico had proposed closing the two smallest units at Northern New Mexico’s coal-fired San Juan Generating Station as an alternative to EPA-required pollution controls on all four units of the plant.

By Walter Szymanski, Rio Grande Chapter member

At the invitation of New Mexico’s Southwestern County Commission Alliance (SWCCA) and the Council of Border Conservation Districts, a fast-talking lawyer and Republican state representative from Utah named Ken Ivory made a presentation to about 60 attendees at a meeting in Deming on Dec. 3, 2012, urging them to follow his state’s lead and push for legislation in New Mexico to “take back” national public lands.

By Chapter chair John Buchser

Climate change is certainly giving us a slap in the face this year. My relatives in northern New Jersey were directly in the path of Sandy, reminding me of my childhood memories of a very frightening, noisy night followed by the sight of toppled trees along our street in the early ’60s before my family moved to New Mexico.

By Dan Lorimier, Chapter Conservation Coordinator and Lobbyist

After almost three years of wrangling with New Mexico’s dairy industry, calling themselves the Dairy Industry Group for a Cleaner Environment (DIGCE), and the New Mexico Environment Department’s Groundwater Quality Bureau, the Rio Grande Chapter saw the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) implement new regulations specific to the dairy industry early in 2012.