Fall 2002 Bulletin

Member's Notes

What is Día del Río?

Día del Río is a citizen-led event organized by the Rio Grande/ Rio Bravo Basin Coalition, of which Amigos Bravos is a founding member. Día del Río is both a call to action and a celebration of the basin's rich diversity. Día del Río draws public attention to the critical state of the basin's rivers,riparian habitat and ground water. It also demonstrates the commitment of citizens in the basin to improve the quality of life. The Eighth Annual Día del Río will occur throughout the basin on Saturday, October 19, 2002. Local activities will take place in communities throughout much of the basin where the Coalition has working groups. Typically programs focus on awareness-raising and include public talks, tree planting, and river cleanups. See the Calendar of Events in this newsletter (page 5) for details of Día del Río activities organized in the Taos area by Amigos Bravos and in Albuquerque by Open Space Division.

Why Was the Río Grande Bright Orange?

During the week of July 24th, Amigos Bravos received several calls from concerned citizens noting that the Río Grande in the Taos and Arroyo Hondo areas was very murky and bright orange. They wanted to know why and if it was dangerous. On the afternoon of July 25th, two Amigos Bravos staff drove to the John Dunn bridge to investigate. We then drove on up the Red River. In addition, some web research back at the office filled in the picture. On the afternoon of July 24th a major cloudburst hit the Red River drainage. The river’s flow increased from 3 CFS to over 100 CFS over about one hour and remained very high for about 12 hours. The Red River is called that because much of the rock in the area contains sulfur and iron compounds which have been forced into upper layers of the Earth's crust by ancient hydrothermal (hot volcanic water) activity. After exposure by erosion, these rocks appear as various shades of yellow to red. When they are exposed to rainwater, acids are produced which then dissolve metallic compounds into the runoff, which is typically also carrying large amounts of eroded sediment. The metallic compounds include salts of cadmium, lead, aluminum, beryllium, zinc, arsenic and chromium. All of these are toxic in sufficient quantity and concentration. What is a natural geological and chemical process occurring over eons has now been accelerated by the vast acreage of rock which has been exposed to the elements through the mining process at the Molycorp mine. Indeed, on the afternoon of July 25th, we observed the Red River above the mine to be only slightly clouded, whereas downstream from the mine at the same time the river was quite opaque and orange in color. What happened on July 24 is that a great quantity of the mixture of fine clay carrying many minerals and metallic salts was washed into the Red River and from there, a few hours later, into the Rio Grande. Is it dangerous? We requested the New Mexico Environment Department take water samples and test for these compounds while this runoff was occurring, but they do not have the resources to respond to sporadic events of this type. We have not yet heard whether they will be able to test for this form of pollution in the future. Without testing we can’t confirm whether the levels during this runoff were dangerous for human or fish life - though we found dying crayfish in the Rio Grande near the John Dunn Bridge. With low flows in the big river this summer, and so little dilution of runoff from tributaries, there could be some significant biological impacts this year. Meantime, we'd advise you to follow your instincts and not swim in the Rio Grande when it’s bright orange!

Calendar of Events

September 8 (Sunday)	Amigos Bravos’ Second Annual Awards Ceremony El Pinto Restaurant, Albuquerque, see article on page 1
September 25 (Wednesday)	National Public Lands Day
September 26-27 (Thurs-Fri.)	Clean Water Act Workshop, Natural History Museum, Albuquerque; call the office in Albuquerque at 505-924-2223 for details.
September 28 (Saturday)	Celebration of National Public Lands Day at Cochiti Lake, environmental education fair, sponsored by New Mexico Public Lands Information Center in Santa Fe; call them at 505-438-7542 for details.
October 19 (Saturday)	Día del Río in Albuquerque, Biopark, 9:00-3:00; call Ondrea Linderoth Hummel, project coordinator with the Open Space Division at 505-452-5211
October 19 (Saturday)	Día del Río celebration,Cuchilla Campground on the Taos Ski Valley ‰oad; 8:30 am - river cleanup, 10:00 am - speaker and Native American dancing and ceremony; 12:00 - potluck

Amigos Bravos’ Cash Reserve Fund is Amigos Bravos’ insurance against hard times. The Cash Reserve Fund is money set aside to ensure that the organization can survive cash flow shortages in the annual operating budget. It can only be accessed for certain purposes, such as meeting payroll or for emergency capital outlay. There are strict guidelines on when and how money from the fund can be used. Any use of money from the Fund requires approval from the Board of Directors. This Fund is a hedge against hard times, ensuring that Amigos Bravos will stay healthy and able to pursue its mission. Our Cash Reserve account was opened in March 1998 with a $15,000 grant from the Ruth Mott Fund. Thanks to generous contributions of our members, the $5,082 proceeds of Brian Shields, Unframed, and the net cash flow surplus from FY 1999-2000, the interest bearing account now has a balance of over $36,666. Our goal is to bring the balance up to $50,000.00. Please consider making a contribution to the Amigos Bravos Cash Reserve Fund.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way By including Amigos Bravos in your will..... ....you could protect a river for years CONFIDENTIAL REPLY To explore a bequest to Amigos Bravos, please com- plete this form and return it, marked confidential to Brian Shields, Executive Director, Amigos Bravos. _____I have included Amigos Bravos in my will. _____Please send me information on how to include Amigos Bravos in my will. Name__________________________________________________ Address________________________________________________ City, State, Zip__________________________________________ Telephone_____________________Best time to call___________

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