At Week's End; 329; New Mexico Groundwater

. . . . BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP Tayzing Groundwater, like the air we breathe is a vital natural-resource.

Yet for some, safe groundwater is difficult to come by. The drinking water has been polluted by the consequence of a disregard or in some case as human error. What the government or the public itself is and is not doing to correct the problem and how we must protect ourselves, our focus. And on Weeksend, Roger Morris and other journalists discuss what's in the news in New Mexico at Weeksend. Hello, I'm Neil Boggs at Weeksend. Polluted groundwater, it's not at all uncommon, another result of all the contamination that ends up in our soil. For those affected by bad water, there is great concern, not just for their present health, but also how it will ultimately affect them. The cost of dealing with contamination is steep, but even higher

as the price will pay if our water is not cleaned up. Producer Esther Reyes visited some area families whose lives have been affected by the dilemma. Groundwater contamination. Both stay and city officials are investigating the problem. Still, some albacrukey residents must deal with polluted water every day. Mark Chavis and his family live in Carneway. Three years ago, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Division found Chavis as well had a high level of nitrates. The potential for septic contamination, which could result in nitrate contamination, is pretty high in this area. Mark Chavis as well has above the standard, I think he's got about 15 to 20 parts per million nitrate in the standard it's 10. High nitrates, though not considered hazardous by some, can pose health risks to expecting mothers and children under one year old. The Chavis is now drink bottled

water. Their well water, used only for showering or domestic purposes, is still a concern. You know, I think about that a lot, my children, you know, I've got a lot of money into this place and I've done a lot of work here and I'm just hoping that it's all, you know, it won't end up being for nothing. The state EID has been to Carneway several times to test for changes in the water condition, but Chavis hasn't been told if he'll ever be hooked up to city water. Right now, he can either move away or deal with it. There is no other options and we can't move away, you know, this is our home, this is where we want to stay. Home to Eddie Harmeo is the San Jose community. A super fun site where groundwater contamination has made cleanup a national priority. 10 years ago, most of the area's residents had their well shut down. Their homes were hooked up to city water, but Harmeo says at the time he didn't know why. We were never informed on the water conditions

just that the city was coming in and they incorporated it into the city and they put the city water. Now, the whole neighborhood is on the city system, but the bad publicity has hurt him. I've got my place for sale for three, four years and not even nobody ever shows up to look at it. These days, he uses the well water only on his garden, but Harmeo may give up on that as well. All I'm doing is spending money and not getting a benefit out of the garden at all. I don't even let my dog drink out water. I make sure that he don't. I make sure he always has water from city water. With us to discuss the ground water problem is Bill Bennett of the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department, Steve Carey of the State Environmental Improvement Division and Chris Shoey of the Southwest Research and Information Center. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us this evening. Mr. Carey, Albuquerque South Valley, one of the areas we just heard from, Groundwater Pollution there is so bad that the federal government put the area on its super

fund list, making clean up a national priority. But that was eight years ago. Is the problem any better? Is groundwater contamination any less there now than it was when all this began? Well Neil, groundwater contamination is as we're finding out a very, very complex issue to deal with. A lot of these contamination problems were started decades ago and have taken that period of time to reveal themselves in the form of contaminated wells, both private wells, as well as municipal water supply wells. Now the area down in the South Valley was found to have a groundwater problem about ten years ago and at that time the state didn't feel it had the resources or the wherewithal to deal with the complexity of it and EPA was called in, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and they worked with us and with a governor who declared at the state's number one priority site and as a result of that effort it was placed on the

super fund national priorities list. But are the polluters still polluting? Since that time, since that time EPA as well as the parties who are responsible for the contamination down there have spent millions of dollars investigating the problem and EPA has convinced these parties that they have been they are responsible and these parties have agreed to implement a cleanup that the EPA has selected with the input of both the state regulators, city officials as well as local citizens. Those remedies are one of them should be implemented very soon this summer and I expect that once they're started to clean up a groundwater we're talking about decades before the water's clean again. Mr. Shoei, do you see any of the pollution result of contamination being eradicated? That was what it was getting after. In the sand hose area as Steve pointed out the cleanup is just beginning. After several million dollars of investigations over the last decade,

there still hasn't been any cleanup done today. The water is still bad. The water is still bad. There are hopefully not as many people on private wells as there may have been but we still think that there are some and identifying those as people as important. The community has been increasingly actively involved in meeting with the consultants for and the actual the companies themselves meeting with the EPA and the community interests are important because during this time of investigation when all these millions of dollars were spent there wasn't money put into asking and answering critical questions that faced the people in the community such as how many people are drinking polluted water and where how far does the contamination in the community go? Those things still haven't been answered yet. Community involvement is something I want to come back to. I want to go to Mr. Kerry though from a city standpoint. Now who are the big polluters in the sand hose area? What organizations or companies or entities are doing that?

Neil. The major parties who have acknowledged responsibility for contamination in the sand hose area include van waters and rogers. That's a chemical distribution. That's correct and general electric. And that's their jet aircraft engine division? Yes that is correct also. And these parties have entered into agreements with EPA acknowledging their responsibility and agreeing to conduct the remedies that EPA has selected at company expense. Are they conducting them though have it started they keep I hear a lot of emphasis being given to voluntary compliance or an immediate addressing of the problem? What does immediate mean in that type of timetable? Well I guess what I can say Neil is that the immediate concerns that are faced down in a site like that are to make sure that people have safe water to drink and Chris mentioned that and the state and EPA all agree that is the utmost importance and every effort has been taken to see that people have been identified and have been given safe water. The longer

term issue then is how are you going to clean up the problem so that in the future people don't come in and drill a well expecting to get clean water and instead find water they cannot drink and this process takes a much longer period of time. Mr. Bennett is moving as long as fast as you would like to see it move from the city standpoint. No I don't suspect that that process down there has moved along as fast as anyone would like to have seen but again it is an extremely complex site it's the most one of the most complex ground water problems probably in the United States both technically institutionally there are a number of different agencies and programs of agencies and statutes at the federal and state level that have to be employed to cause this cleanup to occur so the answer is no but some cleanup is underway down there in association with the superfund site we through the use of federal leaking underground storage tank trust funds we are cleaning up a site involving some very serious hydrocarbon fuel contamination and that that work has been going on for some time so we are getting started and we are using a lot of

federal funds to help go in and clean up. We mentioned underground storage tanks I understand there about three thousand of them in New Mexico holding various things a lot of petroleum products actually over fourteen thousand of them in the state of New Mexico and about three thousand five hundred in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. And how many of them are leaking? Well we don't know that of course EPA estimates are as high as thirty percent are leaking I like to use a figure a more conservative figure of about ten percent would probably be leaking and my staff of three specialists is currently working sixty one active cases involving leaking underground storage tanks forty eight of those involve actual groundwater contamination. A simplistic answer a question perhaps but how long will they go on leaking again is there a timetable for limiting that or they sealed off or what? The leaking underground storage tank program is one of the I think the rays of hope and environmental protection tanks have to be upgraded by no more than ten years

from now and in the process of upgrading we're incurring a lot of those leaks by ten years from now all of the tanks will have been upgraded most of a lot of clean ups are underway a lot of additional clean ups will be underway so I think we'll get a handle on the leaking underground storage tank problem but it will be decades also there before all of the clean ups will be completed. Mr. Shoey how have we handcuffed ourselves in this state through the state laws that we have in relating to things like that for example the state hazardous waste act which I understand doesn't allow for anything stronger than the minimum standards the federal government might set. Well we need to have laws and provisions of our laws allow us to go beyond what the minimum standards of the federal government are there was a rather onerous piece of legislation was passed in the legislature this year that really has no incentive for underground storage tank owners and operators to prevent pollution from happening we've got to prevent it from happening

that carried that piece of legislation carried this idea of we can't be more stringent than the feds we also need to be looking at our our state water quality act and it's allowance for some level of pollution that's okay under the under current law we need to be moving forward with a variety of of changes in our policies and we're in here in in Albuquerque in Bernalino county this the county commission and the city council have appointed an advisory committee with agencies of the environmental health department public works department we're trying to come up with a recommend set of recommendations to have a a policy that that helps us to protect the quality of the water from here on out there's going to be a large opportunity and need for people in affected communities to be part of that this summer when when it starts to go public. One specific issue I'd like Mr. Shui to bring to his his community folks is the fact that the underground storage tank program targets one specific type of contamination is a very

effective program other programs target other areas yet super fund itself will only address the national priorities now what is the state going to do and this is really a citizen concern what you can do but all the sites that are not going to qualify for this program or that program should the citizenry be pressing for a law that will allow us to do more than the federal government sets as the least that we can do well you know the hazardous waste that as you mentioned is sort of a tough spot EPA says you must be at least as stringent as that law and the state legislature has said you cannot be more stringent than and that pretty well says what the law has to say is that limiting what we can do it certainly is a limit it certainly is a limit and when and I agree with Steve that we need to have something at the state level that allows us to take care of some of these problems that fall through the existing federal super fund the federal hazardous waste law but we've got to make sure that we do that that there are incentives to financial incentives to prevent contamination new contamination and that there not be any

allowance for rate payers tax payers consumers to pay the cost of of cleaning up somebody else's mess we didn't do that somebody else did very briefly people who were concerned becoming frightened are becoming angry where could that lead if there isn't faster action in any of you we we hope that it will lead to stronger laws that you're alluding to and again I want to emphasize as Chris pointed out that through the city and county groundwater protection policy development we are actively seeking citizen input into what we can do in local government to protect our groundwater for the future and so some of the blame will ultimately follow us the citizens if we don't participate and make no and I take it and we're actively reaching out and asking for that citizen involvement thank you very much mr. Bennett mr. Kerry mr. Shoei for being with us next Roger Morris and fellow journalists discuss the week's events in New Mexico and what may lie

ahead on week's review good evening and welcome to week's review I'm Roger Morris as always we'll be discussing some of the big stories of the week in New Mexico joining me are Helen Goswan state editor for United Press International and Fred McCaffrey political columnist for the Santa Fe reporter Fred this week a potentially important new proposal for electoral reform several I'm sure the United States Senate is taking up the whole question of campaign financing and so of course just before it we get all those kind of tendentious little releases from common cause and other

people who who want to see the laws changed I know I'm not supposed to say anything bad about common cause because it represents us all I just that I can't remember them when I give it my franchise you know anyway they'll talk a lot about things like special interests as though that didn't pretty much include everybody also I don't think we're going to get any easy answers Senator Domenici has a very simple bill it doesn't got a prayer and hell of passing but it's a very simple it just does away with packs political action committees altogether and says no candidate can take contributions from outside his or her own state very simple that's one that's clean and maybe that's ultimately where we'll end up but I can't see it passing at this stage of the game does he have any support in the Senate I don't really think he thinks it'll pass either but he wants to get it on the record you know you keep introducing a thing and each time maybe you

make a little progress of course he for a long time has been a model himself hasn't he in terms of campaign finance has not taken a lot of pack money by comparison to others in the delegation you know the the house delegation the people reported on very thoroughly they they picked a strange period of time they said over the last five years and I don't know why you would use five when they're biennial elections but they say that of congressman Richardson's contributions 62% have come from political action Joe schemes 40% shifts 31% the average for the house is 47% so Richardson is ahead of that and the other tour below but there are reasons for that too you know bill is on the type of committees that generate a lot of contributions he also is a Democrat and the other two are Republicans and the Republicans are not in control so they get

smaller contributions yeah and the problems are deciding where are you going to put the limits are you going to put them on the person giving the money or on the person taking the money if you put them on the takers that is on the people in congress you almost automatically play into the hands of incumbents because they're always going to get the maximum amount and it makes it very difficult ever to get them out of there so the Republicans especially in house races are very much opposed to that but if you put the limits on the giver you know that's not philosophically so great either we should be able to support the candidates of our choice with some to some limit that we set for ourselves and there's the fact that even after all this gets done we are left with the problem of what about state elections yeah that's a whole other

ball game incredible problem and at the heart of American politics will be for for some time to come Helen we had an issue of giving and taking in the Albuquerque public school system over the last couple of weeks you have an interesting perspective on that in terms of the rest of the state well it it's it is interesting to look at the situation APS is thinking about cutting back on music and art and certain athletic programs and I'm I'm sure that that's a horrible news to the students and the parents here but I don't think what the students and parents realize is that many district and the states have never had those advantages yeah they just don't have the number of students or they have not had the funding to do those those kind of programs and and so you end up with certain districts resenting all the hula baloo up here because they're saying well wait a minute we haven't never had that kind of stuff what are you talking about isn't that a reflection of the of the ultimate provincialism in a sense of the of the Albuquerque and the Santa Fe press the people who are who are from the bigger districts oh certainly and I think that that's the another

thing that that the people let's say unless cruisers resent you know the albuquerque journal is a dominant paper there and and yet the only the albuquerque journal is only covering albuquerque schools problems yet never get down to the fact that last cruisers several years ago had to cut the same sorts of things and funding and programs and all the issues that are really important to rural school districts don't get that kind of coverage in in the nemexico media oh no and you can see the influence in law making as well two years ago they passed what they call the density factor and it was for the six biggest school districts and it was to give them things like security guards and health clinics and the things that they said the words result of being in an over urban environment well a superintendent from one of the southern districts told me I'd love to have a health clinic I've never seen a health clinic let alone you know have a special factor density you know germs don't know where the kids go to school another another symptom of how divided this state is north and south east and west between rural and and urban areas it's incredible I think sometimes some of these communities in the south would like to have diplomatic recognition from

Santa Fe and albuquerque let me talk about a subject which is not diplomacy and that is the the ongoing war here between Paul Bardock and Bruce King I take it you two have differing perspectives on this latest charge that Bruce spent a semantic difference tell us tell us briefly how it goes here well what happened of course is that during the last year of King's last administration they had predicted that we were going to have a surplus the King administration have 58 million dollars instead we ended up that year with a hundred and seven million dollar shortfall and Bardock he has been calling that a deficit and saying Bruce left us in a deficit position and King says that's a lot of hogwash it's not a deficit it's only a shortfall and and Helen who remembers the time just as I did be due because we were both coming it says she thinks it comes pretty close to being a deficit don't you the end result is exactly the

same and now I came into the office of very first thing he had to do was cut back every agent's agency put on a firing freeze make plans you know he had to retrench the state had to retrench as soon as he came in because we were looking at coming up a hundred million dollars short doesn't this trace to an old rivalry between King and Anaya less than it does now to this King Bardock he well that certainly was an element and it that the King people hadn't didn't give Tony much fair warning yeah Tony was running saying you know we won't raise taxes and of course one of the first things he had to start talking about was raising tax they left him out on a limb but the only reason I say it was not a deficit because I say if Helen and her husband wrote enough checks so they used up everything in the checking account and then bounced a few that would be a deficit but if they just used up the money that was in the checking account and then moved the money over from the savings account which the state happened to have at that time that's not truly a deficit but one way or another it wasn't a good thing and Tony and I

ended up getting smashed by it because it started his regime on a bad footing that he never quite got rid of the rest of the time he was in office I think and don't you think that was a major element oh yeah I mean it was the beginning of the negative bumper stickers that became a buffet special a special of a representative buffer from Albuquerque where the very first one of the very first ones that came out was Tony taxes Tony spends yeah and it kind of set the tone for the rest of the four years in any case this next governor is going to have to be a rather shrewd and innovative financial manager I'm not sure that this debate tells us very much about he's going to have to understand the differences between a deficit and a shortfall and deal with both of the business there let me ask you about rather disturbing story this week Helen reports of violence from Las Vegas around Highlands University which is a continuing story in New Mexico

really well I think that's what's significant of it is is that it is a continuing story I mean in the end it might not be that this was a racially motivated fight between a group of students from from Highlands on one end who were running a party in a group that wanted to join the party and got angry because they were rejected in the end it might not be have have been racially motivated but the fact that the first thing that hit everybody's mind was that it was a racially motivated fight and the fact that the racial slurs were thrown around as the fight was starting as a sign that that problem is not resolved itself up in north and and a long going battle here between a in this case an Hispanic majority on that campus and the black students coming in from the outside real tragedy because of course Hispanics in his country have so often been the objects of that kind of discrimination and not unique to Las Vegas you see the same situations and some of the other more remote New Mexico communities where there is a strong Hispanic population or strong population of any particular race when the newcomers come in if they're of a different race they face that kind of situation and you'd think that a university the

repositories it were of learning and wisdom and of the spiritual values of this culture would be the last place that ought to happen that's a sad commentary I'm afraid well fortunately it's not solely you know stuck on the campus apparently it is something that is is also that is more of a town campus issue than just a campus issue the students there say that that actually tensions are not as high there as when the blacks have to go into town and and do things in town yeah let me raise a one final and rather sad note and that is the in fact the death this week of Steve Reynolds state engineer we mentioned this issue in a in a previous program his passing it seems to me is going to pose some very fateful and and perhaps ominous choices if not for this governor then for the next how do we replace this man who was a czar and autocrat over not only water in this state but many of the other regulatory functions of state government and have many other states because he was on almost all the compacts of states for the

whole south west and indeed maybe the whole western area in ten or fifteen seconds any guesses about what what's going to be done any any any successors on the horizon I don't see anybody I don't there's no obvious choices out there that's for sure yeah and and their governor I take it is talking about perhaps a committee or some group of people I think it would take a serious change by the legislature and maybe even a constitutional change to do it yeah thank you Fred McCaffrey and Helen Goswam for week's review I'm Roger Morris if you wish to express your views about our program please write us at week's end K-N-M-E-T-V 1130 University Boulevard Northeast Albuquerque, New Mexico 8-7-102 thanks for joining us I'm Neil

Boggs at Week's End