La Cienega Valley
Citizens for Environmental Safeguards
CES Mission Statement
The mission of the La Cienega Valley Citizens for Environmental Safeguards
(CES) is to educate, organize and implement community grassroots committees
and groups to take action that protects our
environment, watershed and cultural landscape. We work to fulfill the
public interest and welfare, as a conservation organization whose mission
it is, also to conserve imperiled watershed both in water
quantity and quality issues, habitat, native species and their threatened
habitat. This mission has evolved to include the oversight of water quality
issues pending from the contaminants in particular
from Los Alamos National Laboratory, which our community is downwind
and downstream. CES is working in coalition with other small grassroots
organizations to stop the military proliferation of the
nuclear weapons and mixed waste dumpsites. Consistent with our mission
CES has formed committee groups, which represent different aspects of the
issues facing our community. These resident/community committees' acts
to protect the cultural resources and the public welfare interests in land
use issues that affect our traditional and historic communities. Active
public participation in this process fulfills our
public educational goals to our local residents, community supporters
and the general public in the process. In the interest of the public
welfare, CES's goal is to protect information and the public input process
on environmental issues that would be useful to the preservation of watersheds
within the state of New Mexico and elsewhere.
About the La Cienega Valley Area
La Cienega Valley is comprised of three traditional and historic communities
that date back to the early 1600s. La Cienega (about 1200 households),
La Cieneguilla (about 200) and La Bajada (About 50 households). All
are situated immediately outside the municipal boundaries of the City of
Santa Fe.
The problems facing the La Cienega and La Cieneguilla Valley have significant
cultural and agricultural impacts on the Santa Fe River ( that runs through
these villages) as well as our historic acequia (ditch) system. The protection
of these water resources and cultural landscapes is paramount to the preservation
of the entire traditional and historic regional area. This area has
been continuously settled for over five thousand years.
About Citizens for Environmental Safeguards
Citizens for Environmental Safeguards (CES) have been meeting for over
a year, however, the efforts and struggles of some community residents
date back more than 20 years. Some of the water right priorities that are
being threatened in this area date back to 1720. It was during this
era that the traditional acequias were built for agricultural farming.
To this day sustainable farming exists in the valley, but the County and
City of Santa Fe is in the process of trying to divert substantial amounts
of water that the valley is dependent upon for both domestic and agricultural
uses. The uncontrolled sprawl, poor planning, the reactionary "mob rule
politicial landscape" in the the area and the potential of a water
grab by these municipality are intent upon drying up the wells of La Cieneguilla
and La Cienega. The D.O.E. has had a significant impact on the economy
of New Mexico which literally impedes people from raising local community
important issues that effects their public health, safety and welfare.
Our goal is to bring about regional and national support for
these concerns.
CES Projects:
CES upcoming projects will encompass the research and development for a
La Cienega Valley Area Watershed Management Plan. Look for our newsletter
which will serve as the impetus to convince community residents to become
involved in a community program to restore our wetlands, clean-up of the
river and surrounding creeks, and formulate and address the impacts of
nitrates and other contaminates that have been part of an EPA case study
for over 15 years.
We are looking for our association to have consistently sustained projects
over the next ten years.
CES Current Projects:
Air
· Airport Noise Abatement - Citizens Against Airport Expansion &
National Guard Facilities
· Blackhawk Helicopters Training Base
· U.S. Plan Colombia and the Blackhawk Connection
Water
Aquifer Recharge
· Aquifer Recharge and Recovery Act:
· Significant problems
· Benefits of Storm Water Recharge
· Cerrillos Road Reconstruction Project -
· Storm water impacts on downstream cultural resources, personal
property and lives
· City Effluent Task Force/ Amounts of outfall to the Santa
Fe River
· Las Campanas and City Effluent Agreement
Water Quality
· Designation of The State of New Mexico's First Sole Source Aquifer
/Aquifer Recharge
· City Water Quality Task Force/
Contaminates From Los Alamos National Laboratory
· Upper La Cienega Groundwater Problems/
· Por Su Gracias/ Blue Baby Syndrome
· Downs at Santa Fe Manure Piles
Water Quantity
· The Rio Grande Compact; City and County Water planning and the
impacts on the Middle Rio Grande
· Protest of the Komis Well transfer which will impact springs
in La Cieneguilla and La Cienega and the Santa Fe River
· City Effluent Task Force/ Amounts of outfall to the Santa
Fe River
· Las Campanas and City Effluent Agreement
Watershed Remediation
· Remedios de la Tierra/ Remediation of Native herbs and plants
to the wetlands
Landuse Issues
Santa Fe County
The S.L.E.Z.A Report Card
( The Slightly Legitimate Extraterritorial Zoning Authority)
Community Bulletin Board
Community Forum |
|
National and International Governmental Policies
The WTO and FTAA the effects of local decision making
Email:
ecimino@environmentalsafeguards.org
info@environmentalsafeguards.org
water @environmentalsafeguards.org
waterconservation@environmentalsafeguards.org
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