Naughty by Nature; Think You Care About the Planet? Prove It

Summary

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Those words, written by the New Mexico Board of Public Health back in 1959 in a document called "Policy for Individual Water Supplies and Sewage Disposal Systems," unfortunately ring just as true today as they did 45 years ago, state health officials say. Conventional septic systems offer the crudest type of sewage treatment, removing solids but sending the remaining liquid into a "leach field," where it percolates into the groundwater. Widely distributed houses aren't a big problem, but when houses are bunched together on half-acre or three-quarter-acre lots, the high concentration of septic systems in one area creates a big, nasty stew underground, according to [Dennis McQuillan].

"We'd have floods coming through the Canyon Road area and the Plaza, and there would be a huge amount of sediment in the reservoir that I don't think the treatment facility would be able to handle," says Dave Isackson, fuels specialist with the US Forest Service's Espanola Ranger District, which includes much of the Santa Fe watershed. To keep the watershed from shedding more than water, local and federal officials have begun a thinning and controlled burning program aimed at keeping that unpleasant scenario from becoming reality. Over decades of fire suppression, the forest grew dense with spindly, fuel-fodder trees that historically would have been kept at bay through occasional natural fires.

"We're absolutely 100 percent confident that it's coming from the laboratory," McQuillan says. "Who was using tritium or perchlorate up there other than the lab?"

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Naughty by Nature; Think You Care About the Planet? Prove It

When it comes to environmental issues, the Land of Enchantment is also the Land of Incitement. From oil and gas drilling to nuclear waste to water rights, New Mexicans have plenty to argue about. And with new plans to open more federal lands in the state to energy development, drought pinching already limited water supplies in torturous new ways and endangered species heading into a death spiral, the environment is making headlines almost every day. But how much do Santa Feans really know about those issues--issues that go to the very core of human needs, such as clean and adequate water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, energy?

With Earth Day arriving Thursday, April 22, what better time to find out? Try your hand at this annual environmental quiz and see how you score.

1. What's the biggest source of groundwater contamination in New Mexico?

a. Waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

b. Pharmaceutical chemicals.

c. Sewage from septic tanks.

d. Uranium...

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