On December 15, the Albuquerque Journal published the following guest opinion column submitted by long time community activists Isaac and Sharon Eastvold:
“The city of Albuquerque is moving ahead with yet another “green” project. The city also called the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project on Central “green.” That project cut down over 500 trees, and got rid of electric buses. There seemed to be no end to cost overruns.
Like ART, the new Green Stormwater Infrastructure “pilot project” being touted by City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn proposes to retrofit older neighborhoods with an impossible, destructive burden. Costs are already running into millions, and headed for even greater overruns. The money for this boondoggle is coming from, you guessed it, your tax dollars in the recent municipal bonds.
These bonds never fail to pass. Written comments which opposed putting Green Stormwater Infrastructure in the bond mysteriously disappeared when mailed to the full council and the mayor. Definition: GSI involves excavations of streets for what are called “bio swales.” These would be 9 feet wide from the curb, 9 inches deep and of varying lengths between driveways. The city claims that these excavations will capture stormwater and infiltrate it to groundwater below the swales. It won’t.
The water table depth in this project area varies from 150 to 500 feet. These bio swales need to be located above the water table within 5 to 18 feet. The water table is too far down for this to work.
In addition, the city’s own GeoTest Inc. has twice found clay levels 6 to 9 feet down that would prevent infiltration. They find that stormwater could move laterally, with time, and cause subsidence of adjacent streets and structures.
Albuquerque has been in a drought since 2021. In that year, some residents along Summer NE experienced stormwater over-topping the curb. No structures were damaged. This was caused by improperly resurfacing short stretches of Summer and Marble. Correcting the resurfacing would restore the intended gravity flow of stormwater to the San Mateo, 8-foot diameter, and San Pedro, 4-foot diameter, main drains.
The GSI “pilot project” also proposes cement underground stormwater storage tanks. One of these, on La Veta, is not even planned to connect to the city’s sewer system. It will simply capture water with no option for infiltration. The bio swales and storage tanks, therefore, can not comply with the legally binding N.M./Texas compact requiring all withheld water be returned to the Rio Grande within 96 hours.
Finally, the dark, moist place, of underground tanks would provide inviting habitat for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes now plaguing Albuquerque.
Councilor Fiebelkorn, if she hopes to be elected to any office, should learn from the “greenwashed” and miserably failed ART disaster on Central. Her “pilot project” promises to be yet another expensive misuse of taxpayer’s municipal bond money.
Concerned citizens can support any beautification of the neighborhood or city that is environmentally sound and well-researched. They can not support ignoring good alternatives that resolve real problems less expensively.
What the city is proposing will only benefit the bottomless pockets of a small cadre of city consultants. The result will be the degradation of long-established mid-heights neighborhoods.”
The link to the Albuquerque Journal guest column with photos is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/article_3b567438-b8d6-11ef-b39c-5f8ae05c2f0a.html
BIOGRAPHY
Isaac and Sharon Eastvold are long time community activists. They founded the Fair Heights Neighborhood Association on October 11, 1993. Both have been residents of City Council District 7 since its inception and residents of City Council District 5 which became District 7 because of redistricting. They have also been members of the Neighborhood Stormwater Drainage Management Team since May 31, 2021. Isaac and Sharon Eastvold were the founding members of the Friends of the Albuquerque Petroglyphs (FOTAP). This organization was instrumental in securing city council and community support for the establishment of Petroglyph National Monument on June 27, 1990. Isaac was awarded one of two pens used by President George H.W. Bush to sign the establishment act.
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POSTSCRIPT
GREEN STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE DEFINED
Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is a method of sustainable stormwater management that focuses on treating stormwater runoff prior to it entering waterways by mimicking and working with living, natural systems. It is an approach to managing stormwater runoff in ways that mimic the natural environment as much as possible, using plants, soil, and stone to filter and manage stormwater more effectively, reducing how much enters our sewer systems, and protecting our rivers and streams.
Urban areas have lots of hard surfaces such as roofs, roads, parking lots, etc., that don’t allow water from rain, snow, and ice to soak into the ground naturally, so the runoff collects pollutants and litter on its way down the drain, and overwhelms our sewer systems, which can overflow into our rivers and streams.
Green stormwater infrastructure tools allow runoff to get soaked up by plants, filter into the ground, or evaporate into the air. Some systems also slowly release the water into a sewer once wet weather and the threat of overflows have passed.
https://www.bernco.gov/public-works/public-works-services/water-wastewater-stormwater/stormwater/green-stormwater-infrastructure-and-post-construction-stormwater-management/