Obama Gives Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Monument Status

Obama to create largest national monument of his presidency | TheHill

Also see the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance post.

Bosque Pipeline Out to Bid

Old Bosque map showing Re-built (Old) River Channel.
Click image to enlarge.

Good news. The pipeline for the Rio Bosque has gone out to bid. This means that EPWU is pretty much on schedule if not a bit ahead. Additional good news is that EPWU not only has completed a new well but has connected it with the visitor's center as well as to the old river channel where it will be used for more irrigation.

Butterfield Trail Isn't Taking on Drought

Butterfield Trail isn't taking on drought and don't believe them when they tell you that they are even though the El Paso Inc. wrote a pretty darn good PR piece for them.

First, read this story: Butterfield Trail takes on drought - El Paso Inc.: Local News.

It's good news that run-off from rainwater is used as well as high-tech irrigation. But spare me the notion that drilling a well into the Hueco Bolson some how helps El Pasoans conserve water for a drought. Let's say that Mr. D'Souza and Mr. Balliew go to lunch together and decide (oddly) to share a glass of ice tea. They each dip a separate straw into the beverage and suck. Oh no! The ice tea runs out sooner.

I think that I will go dig a well into the Bolson and start bottling Hueco Water in plastic bottles and selling my product through every big box store from coast to coast. Let's see how that helps El Paso with drought.

Enough said.

Time To Clean Mountains of All Lettering

Image courtesy of Valerie Provencio

As of this morning, the news media was reporting that the new massive lettering on the Juarez Mountains has been put on hold. KVIA's story with news video is HERE. El Diario's report is HERE. Even if you do not speak nor read Spanish, watch the video. You will be stunned by the huge urns of paint and the assembly line of workers up and down the mountain to create this latest graffiti. The El Paso Times story is HERE.

What is disgusting and stunning and a judgment on our anti-environmental culture is the lack of outrage by those interviewed on KVIA. One man thought that it was a good way to get a message out. Another thought the earlier message about reading the Bible was good and that this one honoring a specific person was not. One person stated that Mexico can do what it wants. One gringo on the USA side of the border also didn't seem to care about flora, fauna, or geology. 

Both sets of graffiti on the Juarez Mountains is the work of a sect, La Luz del Mundo. In a nutshell they believe that the true Christian Church created by Jesus himself abruptly ended when the last Apostle of the 1st Century died - supposedly John in 95 BCE. The true church was reestablished in Mexico last century with a new Apostle. Between the end of the first century and the 19th century, no soul was saved because the true church wasn't around. The current Apostle is Samuel Joaquín Flores, whose 50th Anniversary on the job is being "celebrated" by these yahoos in Juarez. 

La Luz del Mundo has a "temple" here in El Paso at 3130 Idalia Avenue. 

Let us hope that officials in Juarez will succeed in forcing the removal of the lettering. Elpasonaturally suggests that, until all lettering on the Juarez mountains is removed including the "message" about the Bible, Juarez and all of its commerce should be boycotted and shunned. Pressure must be put on this City to do the right thing. With what seemed to be the waning of a long and violent drug war, some El Pasoans have ventured across the border again. There has been interest expressed in once again opening up hikes in the Juarez Mountains under the banner of the yearly Celebration of Our Mountains. The Coordinator of COM now says, "Hell NO!"

But Juarez is not alone. For many years, several letters symbolizing local schools scarred the Franklin Mountains. Most have just about disappeared except for the "A" - once a fixture for Austin High School. The mountain (believe it or not) is privately owned and the owner now rents the lighting of the letter. As it is a "business", the letter is well-maintained. Nevertheless, public outrage and pressure should be brought to bear on the owner to get rid of the letter and do environmental remediation. I'm a graduate of Austin High School and I don't need a letter feel proud of my old alma mater. In fact, I would be prouder if AHS would repudiate this particular piece of graffiti.

Paint and gas cans left behind when the A is freshly painted or lit.

There is no excuse for graffiti scarring the Juarez Mountains or the Franklin Mountains. Sadly we seem to live in a culture that doesn't give a damn. Or not. And that is what we need to find out. Time to put pressure on those who destroy our mountains with their "messages".

Outrageous Graffiti Mars Beauty of Juarez Mountains

Picture courtesy of Valerie Provencio. 
Click on image to enlarge.

Our neighbors to the south don't seem to mind the total obliteration of the natural beauty of the Juarez Mountains. New graffiti as shown above is being added to the ugliness of what has existed for too long now:

Click on image to enlarge.

Elpasonaturally asks: What kind of pressures can be placed on Juarez leadership to have all the graffiti removed? 

Greens Must Have Integrity and High Ethical Standards

Sometimes it seems too easy to characterize those who are categorized as "green" or "environmental" or "conservationist" or "pro-sustainability" as "nut-cases", "tree-huggers", well-intentioned but poor or unethical business people. Too often we "greens" make it too easy for others to characterize us as such.

Recently I received as a member of State Senator Rodriguez's Sustainable Energy Advisory Committee a link to a web site. It was sent I'm sure as food for thought. Unfortunately it was just bad science and anyone in the industries that we often take to task - whether engineer or administrator or manager - would be the first to point a finger and say that "greens" just don't know what they are talking about. The link sends you to a page that begins: "Free Energy Live In Action!" Anyone with a simple science education will tell you that there is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. There is no "free energy." It violates the Laws of Thermodynamics.

I also hear from time to time about "green" companies that practice rather shady labor practices. That again is too bad because reputable businesses and organizations that promote LEED standards, or GI/LID or conservation are accused of guilt by association.

If green is going to prevail with the general public, greens must have the highest scientific and ethical standards and not make sweeping generalizations and un-scientific claims and practice business unethically. Sustainability isn't snake oil. It's real medicine for for a sick world in a lot of pain.

Perhaps we "greens" need to police our industry much better than we have been.

Sign the petition to save Lincoln Center and its murals from being destroyed.

About twenty or more people attended the Metropolitan Planning Organization this morning to speak out against the destruction of Lincoln Center and a number of murals painted on pillars of an overpass. 

Although Judge Veronica Escobar explained that the MPO really doesn't own and therefore has no final authority over Lincoln Center (I am told that she does not favor saving this historic building whose heritage is cherished by Hispanic families, ancestors of the Ascarates, Rosa Guerrero and many more), Rep. Pickett, Senator Rodriguez and others pointed out that the MPO has control of the funding of projects. Somewhere along the line they could defund a project that requires destroying the Center. The fear is that, once the MPO, votes to include the HWY 54 project in a Transportation Program, TxDOT really has all control. Indeed the MPO voted to include HWY 54 into a TIP. 

Although MPO has agreed to a process (which some say doesn't predetermine an outcome), there has already been a de facto determination. Ted TxDOT Houghton has already stated publicly that Lincoln Center will be destroyed. TxDOT Regional Engineer, Bob Bielek, in emails to Sen. Rodriguez and Joyce Wilson has said that the building will be destroyed. Moreover, even if there are a number of alternatives now, Bielek speaks of them as Platonic abstractions not ready for the scrutiny of the public. We know this routine all too well. When the final process is trotted out, it will be done at a public meeting so that there is the window dressing of public input. However, the decision-making going into determining which alternative will be used to connect the Border Highway with I-10 will be done behind closed doors. Never mind, heritage. Never mind the will of the people who want an alternative that preserves Lincoln Center. (Bielek said today that the pillars would be left standing thus preserving the murals.)

The MPO may not have final say. But the MPO is the only place where people can go and, in a civil manner, voice objection to Houghton's and TxDOT's desire to destroy Lincoln Center. Sadly, TxDOT does own the Center. However, TxDOT is an agency of the people of Texas and WE are the people. That is why we look to our Congressman, our State Senator and Representatives and our City Council to voice our opinion - and all have agreed on the rightness of saving the Center. We also look to the MPO. Through these elected people and institutions we have a civil manner to press our case. However, given the royalism and the elitism of TxDOT, one begins to wonder whether the voice of the people must be expressed in manners less civil, by civil disobedience or perhaps with greater force. Those alternatives must also now be weighed.