ourCOMMUNITIESFUTURE

THE GOVERNOR’S TASK FORCE NEW MEXICO TOOLKIT FOR COMMUNITY GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY

dAVId hENKEL

Enhancing Our Environment and Natural Resources

Published by the State of New Mexico,Department of Finance and AdministrationLocal Government Division

For more information about the Governor’s Task Force, visithttp://cpi.nmdfa.state.nm.us, and click onthe link “Our Communities Task Force.”

Ric Richardson and Mark Childs, series editors

Cover photo by David Henkel

Each booklet in this series highlights one of the five legislative themes in the Task Force created by Governor Bill Richardson in 2004 and re-established through Executive Order No. 2005-060. The Toolkit Series provides examples of best practices in pedestrian environments, housing opportunities, natural resources and land conservation, and leadership in the economy of the future. Each booklet addresses key issues salient to New Mexico’s towns and communities, provides an overview of typical patterns and local situations, and identifies examples of best practices from other towns and communities.

OVERVIEW

The Toolkit Series Includes five booklets:

2 RIC RICHARDSON

KATE HILDEBRANDLISA ROACH

Provide Greater Housing Opportunities for All New Mexicans

3 Enhance Our Environment and Natural Resources

DAVID HENKEL

4 Preserve Crit ical Lands

1 MARK C. CHILDSCreate More Walkable Communities & More Mobility Choices

5 Provide Leadership in the Livable Economy of the Future

MELISSA BINDER

ANTHONY ANELLAJOHN WRIGHT

Raymond Sanchez, Esq.Rob Dickson

Steven AnayaDolph Barnhouse, Esq.

Jeanne BassettGus Cordova

Robert CzerniakMike Daly

Bill FulginitiMoises Gonzales

Lawrence KlineDebi Lee

June Lorenzo, Esq.Susan Maddox

Claudia MoncadaCarolyn Monroe

Claude MorelliMichael OlguinLawrence Rael

Maria RinaldiJerry Sandel

Arturo SandovalRoger Schluntz

DeAnza ValenciaChris Vigil

Don WiviottJoel Wooldridge

Ken HughesMary Day

Governor’s Task Force on our communiTies, our FuTure

Sanchez, Mowrer & Desiderio, Albuquerque (Chair)Principal, Paradigm & Co., Albuquerque (Vice Chair)Director, Fannie Mae New Mexico OfficeLuebben, Johnson BarnhouseExecutive Director, New Mexico Public Interest Research GroupEspañola City ManagerAssociate Dean, New Mexico State University, Las CrucesChief Operating Officer, Forest City/Mesa del Sol, AlbuquerqueExecutive Director, New Mexico Municipal LeaguePlanner, Sandoval CountyVice President, Denish & KlineManager, City of PortalesAttorney and Consultant, Pueblo of LagunaBoard Member, Maddox Foundation, HobbsAssociate Director, Diocese of Las CrucesPresident, Land America Albuquerque TitleExecutive Director, Walk AlbuquerquePresident, Socorro Chamber of Commerce, SocorroExecutive Director, Mid Region Council of GovernmentsCommunity Development Director, Town of BernalilloPresident, Aztec Well Servicing, AztecExecutive Director, VOCES IncDean, School of Architecture and Planning, UNMStudent, UNM Law SchoolGovernment Relations Director, NM Homebuilders AssociationDeveloper, The Lofts of Santa FeLobbyist, NM Chapter, American Planning Association

New Mexico Department of Finance and AdministrationNew Mexico Environment Department

MEMBERS:

STAFF:

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D. A FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION

C. INDICATORS OF HEALTH

B. OUR CURRENT BEHAVIOR

A.

C o n t e n t s

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Enhancing Our Environment and Natural ResourcesDAVID HENKEL

OUR CRITICAL AIR, WATER AND LAND

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INTRODUCTIONENHANCING OUR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

This booklet provides an overview of the challenges New Mexicans face in sustaining our high quality of life and conserving our natural resources. The booklet examines the benefits and vulnerabilities of our air, water and land, as well as the impacts made by our behavior. In outlining key indicators of health of various natural resources and sustainable communities, the booklet also sets a framework for action to enhance, conserve and preserve our natural resources.

Our Critical Air, Water and Land: Our future in New Mexico depends upon conserving air, water, and soil. The quality of these vital elements will determine the degree to which vegetation, mineral resources, and available energy allow us to create high quality habitats for human beings and other life forms. A successful response to these challenges will require us to consider how they play out both at the local and also at the regional level. This is important because as individuals we can change our behavior within a local context; but it is only by working together that we can have any significant impact on a regional scale.

Our Current Behavior: The ways we are currently satisfying our needs and wants are exceeding the capacity of the biosphere to support humans. In the arid Southwest we depend on efficient water use. Water can readily be separated into different kinds of water quality for different kinds of use. Furthermore, the kinds of food that we are accustomed to eating require a large amount of water for production and hydrocarbons for transportation to our markets and our homes.

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The next time you have a PB&J [peanut butter and jelly sandwich] you’ll reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. That’s about forty percent of what you’d save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan. A PB&J will also save…about 280 gallons of water over the hamburger. To put this in perspective, three PB&Js a month instead of hamburgers will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead.1

The design of our homes is also a major cause of inefficient energy use: from the preparation of the site, to the materials used in construction, to the relative efficiencies of their everyday use and the energy consumed in doing so, we are in a position to affect the rate of consumption of finite resources upon which we depend.

The most obvious form of excessive behavior is our means of transportation. Since World War II we have become accustomed to buying food from distant areas at all times of year while the true cost of production and transportation is hidden. A study conducted in 2000 concluded that the average American foodstuff travels 1500 miles between the field where it is produced and the table where it is consumed.2

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Figure 1. The Human Footprint in the Lower 48 United States (Green = Low, Orange = Medium, Red = High)

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network/Columbia University -- http://www.wcs.org/sw-high_tech_ tools/landscapeecology/humanfootprint/hfatlas/Atlas-NorthAmerica

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration illustrates that buildings are responsible for almost half (48%) of all GHG [green house gas]emissions annually. Seventy-six percent of all electricity generated by US power plants goes to supply the Building Sector. Therefore, immediate action in the Building Sector is essential if we are to avoid hazardous climate change.

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Indicators of Health: Indicators of community health describe holistic ways to create and reconstitute where we live as nurturing places for a range of social connections, environmental balance, economic opportunity, justice, fairness, and stewardship. We are not only engaged in activities to diminish the risks that come from our current patterns of living, but must be devoted to creating places in which coming generations can live and prosper cooperatively. Thus, we need to consider the following fundamental principles:

Everything is connected. Achieving these goals requires us to observe some fundamental realities about the features of the biological and social realms that sustain human life.

Live within our means. Nature is not forgiving, and if we do not live within the carrying capacity of our natural systems we will no longer be able to inhabit certain places without the unacceptable cost and unsustainabile support systems.

Adopt an orderly approach to survival. We must care for our water resources, the productive quality of our soils, the diversity of our habitats, and the health of our watersheds first.

Do this ourselves. As usual, we are not going to be rescued by the government, some outside force, or anybody else.

Scale is important. We need to accept responsibility at the level of our society, but most of our impacts are going to be local.

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A Framework for Action: New Mexico has ample supplies of fossil fuel, but our medium-term future rests with the development of alternative sources, especially solar, wind, and to a lesser extent geothermal energy. Solar energy has been used here for millennia, as can be seen in the design of early Puebloan settlements at Chaco Canyon, Puyé, Bandelier National Monument, and the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

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Figure 2. Electricity from the Sun

Source: US Department of Energy: National Renewable Energy Labs -- http://www. nrel.gov/pv/thin_film/docs/us_map_pv_land_area_needs.ppt- 402.0KB

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently published a new wind resource map for the state of New Mexico that suggests prime locations for utility-scale wind development. In the future, it will be possible to designate areas suitable for small wind turbine opportunities.

Solar energy from this 100 square mile area in the Southwest could supply the needs of the entire United States.

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Figure 3. New Mexico wind resources

Source: US Department of Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/ windpoweringamerica/wind_maps.asp )

Our Sustainable Communities: New Mexicans understand diversity. We know how to live with change and to be changed. We need to develop ways to conserve resources, create economic and energy independence, and develop sustainable communities. New Mexicans must remain adaptable to the region’s special character, its climate and fragile landscape. We will succeed if we learn from each other.

This map indicates that New Mexico has wind resources consistent with utility-scale production. The largest contiguous area of good-to-excellent resource is in central New Mexico between Albuquerque and Clovis. Other notable areas of good-to-excellent resource are located near the Guadalupe Mountains in southern New Mexico, near Tucumcari, and in the northeastern part of the state near the Colorado and Oklahoma Borders.

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A. OUR CRITICAL AIR, WATER AND LAND

Our ability to sustain an acceptable quality of life in New Mexico relies on our ability to recognize the nature of our natural resources and how to live within their limits. They are critical to our survival.

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Rio Grande River near Albuquerque, NM

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The primary challenges to New Mexico’s natural resources and environment include air quality, water quantity and quality, and the stability of our soil.

Air QualitySources of air pollution sources include combustion and particulates borne on the wind. For example, the San Juan Generating Station in northwestern New Mexico burns 7 million tons of coal each year, and produces over 1.5 million tons of solid waste, much of which is piled up nearby.3

Carbon emissions Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions going into the atmosphere are results of phase changes from combustion and decomposition. As plants and animals die and decay, carbon is also released into the atmosphere by the process of decomposition.

Transportation The fabrication of transport devices and the construction of roadbed materials also rely upon industrial processes that require power generation and burning fuel.

Global climate change Changes in the global climate result from gasses that restrict heat from being released from the atmosphere. The resulting greenhouse effect retains heat closer to the Earth’s surface.

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A1 Our Pr imary Chal lenges

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WaterGiven the human need for water, it is important for us to remember that over the last hundred years severe droughts have occurred on average every 10 years in New Mexico. Our assumptions about how much moisture we can expect have historically been based upon profiles developed during unusually moist climate cycles; however, we are having to adjust to the prospect of a new long term cycle of warmer and drier weather and more severe storm events when they occur.

“To ensure our basic needs, we all need 20 to 50 litres of water free from harmful contaminants each and every day. The state of human health is inextricably linked to a range of water-related conditions: safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, minimized burden of water-related disease and healthy freshwater ecosystems. Urgent improvements in the ways in which water use and sanitation are managed are needed.”4

A large part of the state is considered a desert, meaning that average annual precipitation is 10 inches or less. Within the state there is considerable variation, from 6.7 inches at Shiprock on the Colorado Plateau to 26 inches near Cloudcroft in the Sacramento Mountains. Irrigation largely depends upon precipitation that occurs in the form of snow during the winter months, complemented irregularly by the summer monsoon.5

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Water rightsIn the New Mexico and most other Western states access to water is determined on the basis of historical seniority.6 Native American tribes have the most senior rights of all.7 Ultimately our ability to survive in this climate depends upon the degree to which we can reach accommodations with multiple users, including those with junior and senior water rights to our own.

Water resourcesPeople have come to think of groundwater and surface water as the two main water resources. However, we can also include harvesting more water from precipitation as rain or snow at the front end, and treating effluent at the back end of the cycle. Recently, New Mexicans have been deploying graywater (from showers, lavatories, and washing machines) treatment systems to reuse up to 250 gallons of water a day – systems that can be installed without a state Environment Department permit.8

The need for this kind of innovative thinking is partly due to New Mexico’s experience with drought over the course of hundreds of years, and particularly since the 1950s. It is further emphasized by concerns about the effects of global climate change and the steady decrease in the mountain snowpack, which has historically provided us with water for irrigation and aquifer recharge.

Implications of this potential shortfall are not just local: the multi-state Colorado River Compact concluded in 1922 guarantees specific volumes of water to the signatories, and legally compelling states farther up in the basin--states such as New Mexico--to reduce their water withdrawals sufficiently to supply states lower down in times of shortfall. The original terms of the Compact and subsequent modifications have detailed how the supply of this surface water is to be divided.9

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Figure 4. Water Allocations under the Colorado Compact

Source: “Quality of Water, Colorado River Basin: Progress Report #21.” US Department of the Interior: January 2003.

Upper Basin (7.5 million acre-feet/year)

Percent of water allocated

Colorado ��.��

New Mexico ��.��

Utah ��.0

Wyoming ��.0

Lower Basin (7.5 million acre-feet/year)

Arizona ��.� Plus ��% of available surplus

California ��.� Plus �0% of available surplus

Nevada �.0 Plus �% of available surplus

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A significant amount of water is consumed in irrigating crops, flower beds, and our lawns. For this reason our larger cities have developed programs to help homeowners identify alternatives to conventional flood irrigation.10 Larger struggles loom with respect to the effect of continued use of irrigation water for field crops and other agricultural uses.

Water Quality Although surface water is an obvious resource, about 90% of New Mexico’s citizens depend on groundwater.11 However, pollution sources include leaky septic tanks and cesspool systems; spills and leaks of hydrocarbons; surface impoundments for liquid waste from city sewage treatment plants, factories, dairies and oil and gas production sites; solid waste disposal sites; industrial, military and laboratory waste disposal sites; improperly disposed hazardous waste from households use; over-application of fertilizers and pesticides, and numerous other sources. Additionally, biological pollutants are released from mining operations and landfills, and some parts of New Mexico have natural and man-made radioactive elements in groundwater.

Watershed HealthThe health of our water catchments is affected by erosion, tree removal, vegetation loss, management practices, livestock disturbance, and other human disturbances. We can protect our forests through the application of “best management practices” that are designed to reduce the negative effects on water quality.12

Water Source ProtectionBecause so much of our drinking water comes from the ground, wellhead protection is essential to public health. Wellheads and springs, surface water and groundwater are vulnerable to pollution from specific points such as inadequate sewerage/septic, industrial operations, energy plans, and mines. Surface water is also vulnerable to pollution from non-point sources such as agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, and run-off from roadways and other hard surfaces.

This Northern New Mexico house uses two cisterns to provide all of its irrigation needs.

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Upper Basin (7.5 million acre-feet/year)

Percent of water allocated

Colorado ��.��

New Mexico ��.��

Utah ��.0

Wyoming ��.0

Lower Basin (7.5 million acre-feet/year)

Arizona ��.� Plus ��% of available surplus

California ��.� Plus �0% of available surplus

Nevada �.0 Plus �% of available surplus

Naomi Engelmann’s Consumer Guide to Advanced Wastewater Treatment Systems in New Mexico summarizes 20 systems and discusses design considerations for residential uses. This is available through The Earth Works Institute in Santa Fe - (www.earthworksinstitute.org).

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Environmental JusticeLow income neighborhoods are historically more threatened by nearby location of hazardous land uses than wealthier communities. For this reason the state of New Mexico has enacted regulations that seek to protect communities from this kind of danger with respect to the location of permitted solid waste facilities. It is not unreasonable to assume that similar protections will be developed for other kinds of environmental dangers.

SoilAll of our food sources rely upon a very thin crust of topsoil covering the earth. Consequently the greatest risk to our sources of vegetation both edible and inedible is the erosion of that soil that enables growth of plants. Soil texture, cover, precipitation, management and use all figure into our ability to maintain soil stability, particularly in places where corrosive forces are most pronounced such as steep slopes and places that experience intense wind and precipitation.

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VegetationMost of human life on the planet depends on the top 12 inches of soil covering the earth. Consequently the presence of compatible vegetation serves to stabilize soil, thereby reducing erosion, to regulate temperature and evaporation on the soil surface, and to produce food, fiber, forage and shelter for animals. Without the presence of vegetation, the forces of water and wind exert great erosive pressure on topsoil.

In forested landscapes diverse canopy levels, tree species, and penetration of filtered sunlight promote ecological diversity. Woodlands and savannas (transitional zones between forest and grasslands) can host native species that are well adapted to the local landscape and can exist alongside other trees, shrubs, and grasses. The encroachment of some non-native species can reduce diversity and crowd out desirable native species. In New Mexico examples of such vigorous exotic trees include juniper, tamarisk, Russian olive, and Siberian elm. Introduced as wind breaks, they unfortunately often discourage the presence of grasses and forbs with shallow root systems.

MineralsThe extraction of minerals is a normal and necessary part of the development of our settlements and contemporary American life. The minerals in New Mexico range from fossil fuel sources such as coal and uranium, to hard rock minerals like copper, to those commonly used in residential and road construction such as sand and gravel.

The extraction of minerals may be a nuisance to local communities or it may result in risks to environmental health, whether to wildlife or to human beings. Legislation over the course of the last 40 years has resulted in requirements that mining operations restore the landscape to its pre-mining quality, mitigating disturbances in the landscape that caused erosion and the migration of toxic substances. In New Mexico we need to insist upon strict standards of environmental health associated with mining activities.

A2 Secondary Natural Resources

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EnergyOur commercially most valuable fossil fuels consist of oil, gas, coal, and uranium, and their extraction often results in severe impacts on the local environment. Our renewable energy resources consist of solar, wind, and geothermal energy. Solar energy is widely distributed across the state, and is useful for space heating and the heating of hot water; wind energy is pronounced on the eastern plains and in certain other pockets around the state. Other noteworthy resources include biomass derived from plant and animal matter, as well as methane digestion derived from livestock. A fair amount of current research is being dedicated to the most efficient substitutes for fossil fuels, particularly in transportation.

Because fossil fuels have a finite future, we should be increasingly attentive to renewable energy resources in the generation of electricity, the supply of transportation demands, and the pumping of water.

HabitatHabitat connotes the maintenance of a place in which species can live and propagate, including both human species and other animal species. Mike Dombeck, the former chief of the Forest Service and currently Professor at the University of Wisconsin, reminds us that the national forest system has more influence on our national water supplies than any other single entity. While many of us consider forest land to be primarily important for recreation, hunting, and timber resources, the economic value of the water it produces is greater than $3.7 billion a year.13

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Much of our human behavior can be understood in terms of how we satisfy our fundamental needs. The psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943) argued that there is a hierarchy of needs, beginning with those most closely related to our survival– the strongest needs. As these are satisfied our attention turns to a succession of less critical but still important needs, such as security, social affirmation, esteem, and ultimately personal growth and satisfaction.

Our behavior as consumers seems to follow this pattern, in which we first invest in meeting our needs for survival, and when they are met we use our disposable income to secure other things that we feel we can afford. Food and shelter are certainly primary needs, although our relative wealth determines how elaborately we satisfy them.

B. OUR CURRENT BEHAVIOR

Figure 5: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs The characteristics lower in the pyramid are considered more essential than those above.

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Farther up the ladder of consumer choices we decide how to shape our lifestyles and as we exercise our choices we have a recognizable impact on the physical environment and on our social structure. For example, the difference between air-drying our clothes and using fossil fuels to power clothes dryers is substantial: we currently consume between 6-10% of our domestic energy drying clothes.14

In general, the three areas in which we can exercise the greatest individual control over our behavior are transportation choices, food preferences, and how we manage our households. These are also areas that may invite the greatest resistance to change, but every purchase we make is an economic vote of approval.

Figure 6: Environmental Impacts per Household (%)

Source: Derived from Table 3.1 in Brower & Leon, The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, 1999.

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The American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that the cost of owning and operating a personal vehicle in 2002 was $7,533. However, some analysts believe there are a variety of hidden costs in addition to those for gas, oil, tires, maintenance, insurance, licensing, registration, depreciation, and financing. These additional costs include various oil subsidies, highway subsidies and even health impacts and is entirely added together could raise the annual cost for operating a car to $14,848.15

B1 Transportat ion

Several alternatives to gasoline engines are beginning to appear including bio-diesel, hydrogen fuel cell, bicycles, and public transit options. Automobiles manufactured at the beginning of the 20th century were able to run on bio-diesel fuels; similarly, bicycles have been with us for a long time, as have public transit systems. What is new about these technologies is the greater efficiency and range of choices available to individual consumers.

Figure 7: Magnitude of Impacts per Passenger Mile (by transport mode compared with bus travel)

Source: Derived from Table 3.2 in Brower & Leon, The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, 1999.

Zipcars allow people to share cars without having to own them and save a lot of money. Originally a coastal phenomenon, you can now find them in Albuquerque.

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Food choice is one of the most difficult of human behaviors to change because it is intimately bound up with lifelong culinary choices. From our earliest years our experience of food is not only nutritional but also a strong reminder of the nurture we received from our parents when we were children.

B2 Food Choices

Figure 8: Magnitude of Impact (compared to grain)

Source: Derived from Table 3.3 in Brower & Leon, The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, 1999.

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Since the beginning of the 20th century, the means by which we grow our food has changed and with it the nature of the food available to us has changed. Largely because our industrial processes stress short-term economic gain, the production of food has become highly concentrated among relatively few growers. Harvie (2006), in a paper prepared for a conference sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, underscored the trade-offs between food availability and choice and the impact on biological and environmental health, vastly increased consumption of energy and water, and large government subsidies.

Poor nutrition is a risk factor for four of the six leading causes of death in the United States: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. Our current food system favors the production of animal products and highly refined, calorie-dense foods, rather than the fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and other high-fiber foods important in prevention of these diseases. Hidden behind these nutritional imbalances is a food system reliant on and supported by methods of production and distribution that hurt our environment and us.17

Industrial food production and individual food choices are not the whole picture, however. Livestock raising represents 40% of the gross domestic product of agriculture worldwide, and employs 20% of the world’s population. Livestock products provide one third of the world’s consumption of protein and a significant amount of income for the world’s poorest people.

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Over a third of the energy consumed in the United States in 2006 was due to the use of buildings, and 56% of that was from residences. Aside from the energy consumed, our average residence contributes twice as much greenhouse gas as the average automobile.18 So the efficiency of our houses, their location, and the ways in which we live in them are important to our health and comfort and the environmental quality of our communities.

B3 Household Management

Figure 9: U.S. Primary Energy Consumption by Source and Sector, 2006 (Quadrillion Btu)1 Excludes 0.5 quadrillion Btu of ethanol, which is included in “Renewable Energy.”2 Excludes supplemental gaseous fuels.3 Includes 0.1 quadrillion Btu of coal coke net imports.4 Conventional hydroelectric power, geothermal, solar/PV, wind, and biomass.5 Includes industrial combined-heat-and-power (CHP) and industrial electricity-only plants.6 Includes commercial combined-heat-and-power (CHP) and commercial electricity-only plants.7 Electricity-only and combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plants whose primary business is to sell electricity, or electricity and heat, to the public.

Source: Annual Energy Review 2006;Report No. DOE/EIA-0384(2006); Posted: June 27, 2007 <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pecss_diagram.html>

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Other key considerations in environmentally smart household management include reducing the environmental costs of heating and hot water, installing efficient lighting and appliances, using electricity suppliers who use renewable energy, and discovering non-toxic products for cleaning and decorating. We should maintain our open spaces in ways that complement our houses and not contaminate or drastically alter the natural landscape with exotic, water consuming plant species..

Figure 10. Energy Consumed by Appliances

Source: Derived from Table 3.4 in Brower & Leon, The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, 1999.

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There is an increasing body of information available in magazines, books, and on the Internet about how each of these functions contributes to unnecessary energy consumption. These sources also suggest elaborate alternatives that provide the same degree of comfort and utility but with drastically reduced costs to the environment and the pocketbook.

Sheryl Eisenberg, columnist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, suggests a list of considerations for those looking for a new home, each of which invites scrutiny about the quality of life in the places where we currently live.19

• Is the home located in an existing community on previously developed land? • Is there a "Main Street" style shopping area close at hand? • Are there appealing parks, plazas and public gathering spots? • Are there crosswalks, sidewalks... and walkers? • Are there bike paths...and bikers? • Are there any farmers' markets in the area? • Is there convenient public transit? • Is your place of work nearby? • Is the water supply clean? • Is air quality good? • Does the town have a decent recycling program? • Does the community have a commitment to managing growth?

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Maintaining a high quality of life for current and future generations requires a balanced relationship between natural, economic, and social components in our way of life. 20

C. INDICATORS OF HEALTH

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Historically, most people were dependent on healthy and productive land for their livelihood. What constitutes health and how our behavior affects the natural systems are increasingly distant realities; consequently, we must learn how to read patterns of land, wildlife, the weather, and natural phenomena in other ways. Reestablishing the link between land and people is critical to being able to live within the natural capacities of nature to support us.

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Connections Between Land and People

Indicators of good connections between land and people include — increasing direct access to land; providing learning and inspiration; respecting long-term relationships to land; protecting the emotional and spiritual value of land.

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The productive use of land to support human life requires us to consider access and activity under conditions that are just and fair. Historically many different people have used the lands we now occupy and over the course of time some groups have displaced others. Successive invasions and occupations have pushed early inhabitants to the margins and threatened their economic health and cultural identity. These are long-standing issues that have not yet been resolved and must be taken into consideration in any long-term accommodation that benefits all of us.

Indicators of justice and fairness include — providing equal access to land; acknowledging injustice; engaging the whole community; sharing power over decisions about resource use that affect people indirectly; creating positive outcomes.

Justice and Fairness

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less diversity is more brittle; steep slopes with a narrow range of vegetation species may become highly erosive when subject to forest fire and subsequent rainfall and require far more time to recover than sites with varying kinds of vegetation.

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A healthy landscape, like a healthy body, is not a static condition but a resilient one capable of absorbing and responding to shocks. It is our ability to recover from disease or injury that establishes our degree of healthiness: the less vibrant and well cared for her body, the more difficult it is to recover. A landscape with

Healthy Natural Lands and Biodiversity

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Stewardship and Service Human, animal, and plant communities all require care and attention in order to thrive. As the species with the greatest immediate impact on the biosphere, humans need to understand the consequences of our behavior and collaborate for the protection of the common resources.

Indicators of stewardship include — providing for long-term commitment to resilient communities; reflecting community values; helping community care about larger landscape system; educating local communities about the health of the land; responding to climate change that affects us directly but also other interested parties farther away.

Community ResilienceFor human communities to thrive, current and future generations of residents must have opportunities to develop their capabilities. Education, information, and vigorous constructive debate over the choices we make in living our lives are all part of human development and therefore increase the ability of communities to recover from threats to our livelihood. Residents of New Mexico communities have inherited different traditions and we recognize and make use of this diversity: we need to find common ground in the use of common resources to secure common ends.

Indicators of community resilience include — balancing conservation with community housing goals; balancing conservation with transportation needs; maintaining infrastructure necessary for accomplishing social goals; supporting “smart growth” practices; promoting resilience following hurricane, flood, drought, and wildfire damage.

Indicators of healthy lands include — conserving or restoring healthy wildlife habitats and corridors; conserving or restoring water quality; promoting a land ethic; protecting and enhancing biodiversity.

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Because our natural resources are part of our common heritage, their use in society requires debate and decision so that this common wealth can be nurtured and provide the greatest social benefits. In our society it has been common to regard natural wealth as a somewhat inexhaustible richness rather than a finite common resource.

Indicators of civic engagement and natural capital include — the degree of civic voluntarism to support conservation initiatives at the local level; changes in economic choices affecting natural resources and environmental health; a realignment of historical policies that favor mineral extraction and water allocation for short-term economic gain to ones that integrate their rational use in a holistic way, serving the long-term needs of society and the environment; reduction in the human stress on the carrying capacity of natural systems, as can be seen in the size and intensity of the human footprint on the environment and water resources; and a stabilization in the loss of habitat.

Civic Engagement and Natural Capital

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Freemantle JettyPerth, Australia

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One of the powerful values that historic populations bring to a place is a grounded awareness of how the landscape has responded to pressures at different points in time. Cycles of climate, migration of animals, seed stocks appropriate to different seasonal patterns, the responses of land to flooding and to drought all can affect human communities who can adapt more effectively by understanding past history. The ways in which we adapt strongly marks our culture and social relationships and becomes part of who we are: the sum of our collective experiences and a storehouse of knowledge for the future.

Indicators of valuing living history include — the degree to which our policies and our public attitudes are shaped not only by current knowledge but also by a deeper consultation with the traditions of people whose ancestors were here in the past; our individual and collective openness to actions taken with deliberate attention to medium-term future effects.

The Living History of Land

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Santa Fe Plaza

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Community vitality draws upon social capital including the networks of kinship, behavior and understanding that tie people together—and represents the ability of people to attain economic and social satisfaction in their place.

Indicators of community vitality include — creating public space for community engagement; uniting the community; empowering the community; building new grassroots networks that respect different values and insights of all parts of the community.

All living communities require proper conditions to thrive. In the short run, some of these conditions can be met by resources imported from the outside; but in the long run they depend upon their ability to live within their given critical resource stocks of food, water, fiber, and fuel.

Indicators of healthy habitat include — promoting local, healthy food; offering safe opportunities for recreation; preventing or removing pollution; protecting safe drinking water; distinguishing between water quality profiles to protect potable water resources for the highest use.

Community Vitality

Healthy Habitat

Graphic courtesy of Jose Zelaya and the 4th and Montano Coalition

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Sustainable EnterprisesIn strictly economic terms businesses need to have a profitable bottom line to succeed. A “double bottom line” is a term sometimes applied to economic and social value of an enterprise. In recent years the term “triple bottom line” has been adopted to include environmental values in addition to the economic and social ones. This recognizes the interrelationship of the three, and strongly suggests that to be sustainable enterprises must have sufficient strength in all these areas.

Indicators of sustainable enterprises include — enterprises that do not draw disproportionately on nonrenewable inputs; a concern for the upward mobility, fair treatment, reasonable compensation, and healthy working conditions for the labor force; the production of goods and services by means that returns a fair value to the community of resources that originate there; use of technologies appropriate to the scale and environmental conditions of the area.

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Santa Fe Farmers’ Market

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We can act to improve the health of our natural systems at the household, local, state, regional, and national levels. Most people will find it easier to take action at one of these levels rather than all of them, although as citizens we can influence them all.

Enhancing our environment and protecting our natural systems are practical undertakings that require us to understand our basic community needs. As communities, however, our requirements are a little more complex and require us to consider our common needs including housing, economic well-being, health, education, emergency response capability, and physical infrastructure. The choices we make through community budgeting, land-use policy, and the degree of inclusiveness in decision-making all relate to our ability to work together.

D. A FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION

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D1 How Big Is the Challenge?

The challenge before us is to satisfy our basic needs while preserving the environmental health of the natural systems upon which we depend. One way of doing this is to evaluate the impact that our actions have upon our carbon-based biosphere and upon our limited supplies of water, both with respect to adequate supply and to the side effects of their consumption. There are numerous sources of information about alternatives available to us in our daily lives.21

What begins as environmental education for some people can lead to involvement in policy analysis and even political action. Still others become involved as volunteers in conservation projects, the sharing of public information, and “adopt-a…” programs such as watersheds, parks or stretches of highway.

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Changing laws are important, but changing our behavior is more immediate and more effective in the short run and helps us understand which laws might be changed in the long run. We can have an immediate impact on our environment by making wiser choices about transportation, food, and our households.

TransportationOur transportation choices are strongly affected by our need to move between where we live, where we shop, and where we work. The following rules of thumb may be helpful:

• Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive• Think twice before purchasing another car• Choose a fuel-efficient, low-polluting car• Set concrete goals for reducing your travel• Whenever practical, walk, bicycle, or take public transportation

FoodOur food choices are just as important, although their effect is harder to recognize and change is psychologically more difficult. Many of the choices revolve around the types and amount of resources consumed by particular foods, the energy consumed by how they are processed before we consume them, and the distance between where they are produced and where we buy them.

D2 Priority Actions for American Consumers

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Eat less meat

Americans consume 185 pounds of beef, pork, and poultry per capita each year. It would be better for our health and the environment to knock back fewer bacon burgers, steaks, and chicken wings. Just follow the example of Thomas Jefferson, who ate meat “as a condiment to the vegetables which constitute my principal diet.” Our third president made it to 83, a pretty good run for his period in history….22

D2 Priority Actions for American Consumers

Buy certified organic produce …

Organic farmers and ranchers are not allowed to use chemical poisons on their crops and livestock, and, in general, are better stewards of the land… However, eating organic is not a cure-all: With multinational food conglomerates moving into organics, it is sometimes preferable to buy from conventional local producers who treat their land well and whose products travel short distances to market. 23

The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market began in the 1960s and now features over 100 vendors selling hundreds of products from small farms in the region. Open from April to mid-November at two locations, the Market has developed a micro-loan program to help small farmers improve irrigation and fencing, acquire seeds and equipment, and offset seasonal labor costs.©D

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The following are eight important characteristics of a more naturally healthy food system than the industrial model pursued since the beginning of the 20th Century:

• Food should come from the closest practicable source for the minimization of energy use

• Food should be part of a balanced diet and not contain harmful biological or chemical contaminants

• Food should be fairly traded between producers, processors, retailers, and consumers

• Employees in the food sector should be treated fairly in terms of rights, pay, and conditions

• Food should be environmentally beneficial or benign in its production• Food should be geographically accessible and affordable• We should require high animal-welfare standards in both production and

transfer• We should encourage knowledge and understanding of food and culture 24

©DH

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Household ManagementOur household management choices generally are on an altogether different scale than either food or transportation. The amount of money devoted to building and maintaining our houses generally constitutes the largest expenditure and the greatest savings account for any American household. Key elements include design, the choice of materials, and the ways in which we clean and decorate them.

Choosing Green BuildingThe design and construction of buildings from ecologically friendly materials, with relatively slight environmental impact and positioned to take maximum advantage of the local micro-climate, is becoming increasingly popular. Green building is an important new feature of sustainable living but requires designs based on experience and contracting services with a strong track record in this area.26 One example is the ecologically friendly kitchen design found in the Green Home Guide.27

In Iowa, Woodbury County recently became the first county in the United States to promote organic farming by providing a property-tax rebate for farmers who convert from conventional to organic farming practices. This action was supported by data demonstrating the impact of industrialized agriculture on local economies. The county soon followed with its Local Food Purchase Policy. (Swenson 2006).25

Regardless of the design, you can improve your home’s energy efficiency. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, features such as double-paned windows, Energy Star appliances adequate insulation, an efficient furnace, energy efficient lighting, and shade trees can reduce home energy bills by over 30 percent.28

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These retrofitted photovoltaic panels help supply the electricity needs for this house in northern New Mexico

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Cleaning and DecoratingHousehold cleaning products contain elements that can be toxic either because of their chemical concentration or because individuals are sensitive to certain substances. While some of them have important specific uses, a lot of our cleaning needs can be met by much less expensive and less risky cleaners used by our parents and grandparents: baking soda, borax, lemon juice, liquid soap, and white vinegar.29

Insulating, Recycling, and Composting Insulating windows, air ducts, chimney flues, and around doors to the outside are fairly common practices but it is useful to remember that heavy draperies or low-emission windows greatly help in retaining indoor heat. The degree to which we are able to sort out our trash will ultimately reduce the cost of waste management as well as the rate of extraction of the earth’s resources.30

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Resources:

Natural Home Magazine, < http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/> offers connections to articles on design, products, and cost-savings on line.

Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, <http://www.aceee.org/consumerguide/> offers useful tips for savings from wise household choices on-line

Fannie Mae, < http://www.fanniemae.com/index.jhtml> ,has alot of information about financial support for affordable housing, although it takes a little effort to locate information on ‘green mortgages.’

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers a variety of environmental information by zip code at <http://www.epa.gov/epahome/whereyoulive.htm>

The New Mexico Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, < http://www.usgbcnm.org/ >, has listings on standards, tax credits, and local events.

The U.S. Green Building Council publishes the Field Guide to Green Homes & Green Mortgages on-line at http://www.realtor.org/libweb.nsf/pages/fg313.

Connecting Inside and OutsideSuburban lawns consume a startling amount of water, fertilizer, and pesticides and contribute little more than visual amenity value. We can make our house and grounds more attractive and also more efficient by using shrubs and trees to complement our needs for heating and cooling at different times of the year. We should plant deciduous fruit trees and shrubs to provide shade in the summer and permit sunshine in the winter. Furthermore, the conversion of only a small part of our lawns to gardens can provide us with healthy vegetables at low cost.31

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CONCLUSION

Our Sustainable Communities

In the very near future we are going to be called upon to make some difficult choices about how we live our lives, about how long we can continue to pursue our livelihoods as we have become accustomed in an age of subsidized natural resource consumption. Our focus should be on the future…several generations down the road. The challenge for us is to find ways to derive satisfaction and comfort from different ways of moving around, providing for our basic needs, and living together as members of a common community. Sustainability is not only about slowing down the rate of consumption; it is about rediscovering the common interests we have in sharing our space. We cannot expect to live long in our space unless our neighbors can live there too. New Mexicans have a long history of learning how to live with change, with different customs and values, and to be changed in the process. Our task now is to create a new understanding of common pool resources and neighborly interdependence, while maintaining our adaptability and self-reliant energies. We will succeed if we learn from each other.

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Resources and Notes

http://www.pbjcampaign.org/about.html

Heller, Martin C., and Gregory A. Keoleian. Life Cycle-Based Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S. Food System. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan, 2000: 40.

Jonathan Thompson, “Coal’s other mess”, High Country News (November 26, 2007) pp. 6-7

http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/facts_figures/basic_needs.shtml

“Water in the Desert,” New Mexico Earth Matters, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Volume 1, Number 1, (January 2001)

http://www.ucowr.siu.edu/updates/133/3.pdf

Following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Winters v. United States (1908), aboriginal (Native American) rights to water were considered to predate other historic uses.

David Collins, “State rules govern use of gray water”, Santa Fe New Mexico (9/17/06); also see <www.nmenv.state.nm.us/fod/LiquidWaste/graywater.html>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_Compact#References

See for example “Low-Volume Irrigation Design and Installation Guide, City of Albuquerque Public Works Department (n.d.) Move

“Groundwater: New Mexico’s Buried Treasure”, New Mexico Environment Department (April 2005)

Common BMPs include streamside management buffers in riparian areas to reduce the sedimentation in stream channels caused by erosion. Streamside management also encourages the provision of shade and the growth of timber species useful in manufacturing.

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Mike Dombeck, “Water: the Forgotten Forest Product”, Forest Wisdom, (December 2005)

Sierra, September-October 2007

The AAA used the figure of 50.2 cents per mile bridge should be adjusted upward to account for the increased gasoline prices since that time. (Green Living, 2005)

Harvie, Jamie. 2006. “Redefining Healthy Food: An Ecological Health Approach to Food Production, Distribution, and Procurement.” The Center for Health Design® and Health Care Without Harm.

“The Green Life.” Sierra Club, September 30, 2007.

Annual Energy Review 2006; Report No. DOE/EIA-0384 (2006); Posted June 27, 2007 <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pecss_diagram.html>

“This Green Life.” Natural Resources Defense Council, May 2007.http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/0705.asp

The Center for a New American Dream <http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/greenhome.php> has also published its own set of “Tips for House Hunters.” Other sources include Sierra Magazine (July/August 2006) which featured a story on green cities, a report on America’s best development projects, and rankings of the country’s 50 largest cities according to measures of sustainability.

See “Measures of Health” http://measuresofhealth.net/ devised by Whole Communities

See, for example, the US Department of Energy’s domestic calculation tool at http://www.eere.energy.gov/; also the Sierra Club’s up to date data available at http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/, http://zoomer.sierraclub.org/, and http://sierraclub.org/ecocentro/.

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Schildgen, B. 2006.. op. cit

Schildgen, B. 2006.. op. cit.

op. cit. Local Harvest has a searchable online database of CSA farms at localharvest.org/csa.

Harvie, Jamie. 2006. “Redefining Healthy Food: An Ecological Health Approach to Food Production, Distribution, and Procurement.” The Center for Health Design® and Health Care Without Harm; Swenson, D. 2006. The Economic Impacts of Increased Fruit and Vegetable Production and Consumption in Iowa: PhaseII. Report to the Regional Food Systems Working Group Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, May 2006.

See “Home and Design” in The Green Life for June 16, 2007 at http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/home_and_design/index.html.

http://www.greenhomeguide.com/

You can get an overall profile by auditing your home’s energy use and learn to reduce it at http://hes.lbl.gov/.

A broad range of alternatives is available from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia’s Environmental Health Association at http://lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=household. For healthier choices among house paints see http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/paint/.

Schildgen, B. 2006.. op. cit.

See www.edibleestates.org for innovative ideas about converting decorative space to edible space. Also consult your local Cooperative Extension Service.

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DAVID S. HENKEL, JR. IS COORDINATOR OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING IN THE COMMUNITy AND REGIONAL PLANNING PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITy OF NEW MExICO. DR. HENKEL IS ALSO PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE EARTH WORKS INSTITUTE, A NON-PROFIT ORGANIzATION BASED IN SANTA Fé DEDICATED TO THE RESTORATION OF WATERSHEDS AND OTHER CRITICAL NATURAL SySTEMS OF THE SOUTHWEST.

Unless otherwise noted all images are copyright David Henkel (©DH), Mark C. Childs (©MCC), and Ric Richardson (©RR).

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Graphic Design by Rowe Zwahlen rzwahlen@hotmail.comand Amos Arber: a_arber@yahoo.com.

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THE GOVERNOR’S TASK FORCE NEW MEXICO TOOLKIT FOR COMMUNITY GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY