Student worried for Rio Grande’s health

I AM a junior at Native American Community Academy and am writing because I have concerns about the health of the Rio Grande.

Water is life, is sacred in Native American cultures like my own in Taos Pueblo, and if there is no care for it, frankly there is no care for our life and future. Recently, I took water samples from the Rio Grande near the Montaño overpass. The results shows high levels of nitrate, phosphate and coliform bacteria.

I wanted to look into the reason why those levels were high, and I found out there was a waste treatment facility run by the city of Rio Rancho that released treated water into the Rio Grande. The actual facility is not too far upstream from where I took the samples, and when looking further into the treatment facility center, only sparse data was available. My research does have limitations: I only took samples twice within a oneweek period after spring; I did not take samples from multiple sites along the river; I used a low-cost water monitoring kit. However, I am a young scientist reporting his findings. I am concerned this wastewater treatment facility may not be properly cleaning/treating the water that is released into the river where our Albuquerque families swim, and our fish and wildlife live in/use.

There needs to be a better guardian for our river, more research/tests, and actual Rio Grande water treatment plans in use to help regulate its natural levels of bacteria, nitrate, phosphate, etc. This is an important issue to me and my whole environmental science class, and for all people throughout the whole world, for their own rivers and for our collective future as people who inhabit our fragile and sacred Earth.

SCOTT PABLO OGLESBEE

Albuquerque