***image1***
Manure removal in La Cienega is underway-finally.
Melissa Wright was a young mother in 1998 when she and her husband bought land in the new manufactured-home subdivision Por Su Gracia. For Wright, the purchase signified the American dream. Her lot abutted a grassy hill that blocked the sight and sound of the racetrack next door. Her children enjoyed playing in their new yard and would sometimes venture over to play amongst the rolling hills that dot the La Cienega area.
Paradise was lost, however, when her youngest child became sick two years later. One night Wright was bathing her kids, three at a time, in the tub. Several hours after she took her 1-year-old out of the water, he stopped breathing. His condition worsened and ambulances brought him to the hospital several times that year. Doctors told Wright her baby was "holding breath," a condition in which a child, usually 6 months to 2 years old, involuntarily stops breathing and passes out.
Over time, Wright-and her child's doctor-concluded that nitrates in the water from Wright's domestic well were causing the child's illness.
Wright soon learned something that neighbors in Las Estrellas-a community that also borders the racetrack- already knew. The Downs ran horses from 1970 to 1997 and
***image10***
had stables that could hold up to 1,500 horses. Owners of the track over the
years had piled the horses' waste, along with other material, behind the track-right in the future backyards of some residences.
It was a neighbor who filled Wright in on her proximity to the manure. "He came over and said, 'you know you live on a landfill, right?'" Wright says. "I was shocked."
In fact, as early as 1995, Las Estrellas' residents had begun organizing against what they viewed as a health hazard. Nitrates in a water supply-according to some toxicologists-can be dangerous, particularly for infants. Although
both the State and Santa Fe County acknowledge that manure is a potential groundwater contaminant, neither government has taken a strong role in expediting its removal.
Now the track's latest owners, Pojoaque Pueblo, have removed large amounts of the manure. But it took the Pueblo's application to reopen the Downs to provide both the County and State an opportunity to initiate cleanup orders. Even so, the Pueblo's deadline for removing the waste has continually been extended. For Wright, even if and when the manure is finally removed, it may all be too little, too late.
After she learned about the manure pile by her home, Wright decided to investigate her property's origins.
Her lot, next to her once ideal grassy hills, provides a window into what still remains unknown about the extent and content of the manure piles.
Wright's subdivision was built by the now-defunct developer Vista Del Mundo, Inc. It commissioned an environmental survey to determine the types of waste on lots that bordered the manure piles. That survey, finished in 1996, recommended that no building should be built "on the landfill surface or within 50 feet of the landfill perimeter."
***image3***
A visit to Wright's house confirms that not only does manure exist on her property, but the distance between the Downs' property line and her house is less than 50 feet.
Sam Valencia, who sold Wright her property when he worked for Remax, and who now works for Santa Fe Properties, says before the lot could be sold, the County and State required the lot to be cleaned and new dirt be spread on the lot. "Ninety-nine percent of the manure was hauled off," Valencia says. He says he met all the legal requirements for selling the property.
However, erosion has once again exposed the remaining manure around Wright's house.
After learning of the manure, Wright began contacting the State and the County.
"I took the bull by the horns, but I just went round and round with the Environment Department." She went to County Commission meetings. She says she talked with the previous county hydrologist, as well as the County Permits and Inspections Division Director Charlie Gonzales.
As Wright spent more time in the County records, more documents caught her eye. For example, a 2000 staff memo within the County Land Use Department states that staff had been unable to locate a signed environmental release to build that subdivision on a landfill. In the memo, Charlie Gonzales, then inspections and enforcement supervisor, wrote he saw evidence of what was characterized as a former landfill on Wright's property and manure pockets that weren't compacting evenly.
When water runs through manure, it can pick up nitrates. The same year, Wright's family doctor, Matthew Kelly, wrote a note stating he believed her baby was suffering from nitrate contamination in her water.
Public water supplies in New Mexico have a drinking water standard of 10 milligrams per liter for nitrates.
This also is the federal EPA standard under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Tim Kropp, a toxicologist with the Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy non-profit out of Washington, DC, says the symptoms of Wright's baby were consistent with nitrate poisoning, agreeing with Wright's
***image11***
doctor. "It correlates well, holding breath and nitrate poisoning," Kropp says. "Nitrate is a chemical where there is no type of threshold, any amount of nitrate inhibits the body from receiving oxygen. Children are much more vulnerable." He also says cooking with the water can concentrate the amount of chemicals, something Wright admits to doing, as her husband is Japanese and eats a lot of rice.
After Wright learned her baby could be sick from nitrates, she installed a water-filtering system. When she mentioned it to her neighbors, they said they always had drunk from bottled water.
There is no evidence that the wells in the area have ever had nitrate levels exceeding the standard. "We've done testing of private wells in the past and we've seen nitrate levels in the area of 3 to 7 milligrams per liter, which is still below the federal drinking water standard of 10," says NMED spokesman Jon Goldstein.
Wright's well was tested seven times between March 1999 and June 2001 by both NMED and independent labs. In March 1999, NMED found her nitrate level to be 4.7 milligrams per liter. In February NMED said that level had dropped to 3.6 milligrams per liter. In March 2000, Indepth Water and Soil Sampling found her nitrate level at 4.9
***image4***
milligrams per liter, and after the water was boiled the level increased to 7.8 milligrams per liter. NMED found the level back up to 4.67 milligrams per liter in July, 2000. The Soil, Water and Air Testing Lab at New Mexico State University tested her well in June 2000 and found the nitrate level at 4.8 milligrams per liter. National Testing Laboratories, out of Cleveland, OH, found in October 2000 that her nitrate levels were up to 4.5 milligrams per liter. In June 2001, NMED found their highest level, at 5.6 milligrams per liter.
From 1988 to 1999, the nitrate level in the groundwater running from the Downs increased from just above 3 to 9.1 milligrams per liter.
This was likely caused by an unlined effluent holding pond. Liners help prevent leaching that can increase levels of chemicals in the groundwater. When the State finds nitrate levels above 5 in a drinking-water well, it alerts the user. However, since the well with the higher levels was a monitoring well-a well drilled to water quality tests-no notice was necessary.
In 2002, the pond was drained and a liner was installed. Since then the nitrate level has consistently dropped.
Many in Santa Fe County are familiar with the nitrate problem because it also can arise from septic tanks. Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry has repeatedly
***image5***
stated that groundwater contamination is the greatest environmental threat facing New Mexico today.
William Olson, the bureau chief of NMED's Ground Water Quality Bureau, says linking nitrate pollution to its source is tricky. "There's quite a density of septic tanks out [in La Cienega]. It's tough to describe the source." He also notes that septic tanks become more of a hazard in areas with a shallow aquifer.
NMED Environmental Scientist Pamela Homer, who has worked on the Downs' water issues for years, also says the contamination could be coming from the septic systems, but there isn't a properly placed well to see for sure.
A few neighbors in Por Su Gracia told SFR they had their wells checked for high nitrate levels, but none were found. Nonetheless, Wright believes that the elevated rates in the monitoring well, combined with her child's illness, are connected.
"People said it was a coincidence," Wright recalls. "If you're a mom, there's no coincidence. My children were playing in the tub, I was cooking with that water, I was literally poisoning them."
Although the manure was not a conclusive culprit for the previously elevated nitrate levels, it is the cause of the fires that burn underneath La Cienega.
According to Charlie Velarde, La Cienega's volunteer fire chief, the manure has caught fire numerous times. As the waste decomposes, it heats up and parts continue to smolder today in places that the department can't reach to put out.
Wright's large propane tank sits amongst the stringy dry grass that has managed to grow just feet from the boundary with the Downs.
***image12***
When fires aren't burning, Wright and her neighbor, local activist Beverly Garcia, have taken
walks along the property's edge and discovered more unsettling features of the manure pile. "We've found syringes from the vets treating the horses, film from the photo finishes, racing tickets and racing forms," she says. More recently, Wright says she found hospital waste in bags.
Garcia estimates that the number of times she's been to County meetings, NMED meetings and trips she's made to both entities to request documents about the manure in La Cienega could approach 100.
Nonetheless, action was slow in happening. "We went out there and said, 'Gee, that's a lot of manure, it needs to be removed,'" Homer says. Yet while manure is a potential groundwater contaminant, that contamination hadn't occurred, so the State "didn't feel that it was immediately threatening," Homer says. According to NMED, the ratio of syringes and other trash to manure isn't high enough at the Downs for the piles to be classified as landfills, and regulated as such. Finally, animal waste, such as manure, is exempt from the State's Solid Waste Act, despite being a potentially serious contaminant to the water supply.
Concerned Citizens for Clean Water, a non-profit out of Cloudcroft, NM, has lead the fight in this
***image13***
state against manure contamination. Paul Elders, founder and CEO of the group, says the nitrate levels in eastern New Mexico, thanks to dairies, are between 6 and 8 milligrams per liter. He also cites a study done by Iowa State University that levels as low as 2.46 milligrams per liter can increase the likelihood of bladder cancer in women by as much as three. "Women
shouldn't be drinking water above that amount," Elders says. "This state faces serious water contamination issues." The EPA limit of 10 milligrams per liter is based on a study done by the EPA in 1951. Additionally, in 1977, the National Academy of Sciences said there was "little margin for safety for some infants" for nitrates in their water. Elders hopes the State will increase its regulations of nitrates. His group has filed intent to sue notices for five dairies.
It wasn't until Pojoaque Pueblo proposed re-opening the Downs that the State and the County pushed to get the area cleaned up.
The Pueblo acquired the Downs in 1996 and, when it bought the property, reached an indemnification agreement with previous owner Santa Fe Racing.
Usually in land sales, the new owner inherits all the assets and liabilities along with the property. An indemnification agreement addresses those liabilities and keeps liability with the original owner. In this case, Santa Fe Racing agreed not to hold the Pueblo responsible for claims of health or safety concerns related to what is called in the agreement a "smoldering landfill."
Ken Newton bought the Downs in 1977, but brought in more investors in 1994 to create Santa Fe Racing. He sold his portion [30 percent at that time] in 1996 to the rest of the
***image6***
Santa Fe Racing investors. He says there were dump issues even when he bought it. "The prior owners were dumping manure in an arroyo," Newton says. "We went to NMED and followed their guidelines, we buried the manure with layers of dirt. We also had a composting operation. We separated the trash from the manure and had it hauled off to the city dump." He also says some of the trash on the Downs' property came from neighbors who dumped their trash over the fence.
Richard "Dickie" Montoya, one of the Santa Fe Racing investors who sold the Downs to Pojoaque, says he doesn't recall the indemnification agreement and believes the sale agreement required Pojoaque to take care of any cleanup. As for Santa Fe Racing's management of the waste: "We had an approved area by [NMED] for our waste, and it was monitored by wells."
Christine Sanchez lives about a mile from the Downs. Her family has lived in La Cienega for several generations, and says that while issues with the Downs have existed since it opened, they have become more pronounced recently. "You have people living right up next to the fence. It wasn't like that in the 1970s."
As for the Pueblo, it continued having horse racing for a year, but eventually found it uneconomical, just as the previous owners had. Now, Pojoaque's plans for the Downs include an
***image7***
expansion with slots and concerts. This year it opened the infield to an adult soccer league with great success.
The PPDC submitted a master plan to Santa Fe County for reopening the Downs in 2000. For water issues, it had to apply to NMED for a discharge permit for the water it would use at the facility for watering the track and the fields inside. The track previously had a water treatment plant, so the Pueblo plans to use its own effluent combined with some from the City of Santa Fe's system.
NMED took the opportunity to deal with the manure problem. "A condition of their permit was that they had to have a plan for removing the manure," Homer says. "They first wanted to spread it over the property, but we said that would cause nitrate loading to the soil, so they said they'd take it out by truck, and we said 'that's okay with us,' and gave them their permit."
NMED has granted the PPDC several extensions because its waste removal contracts have fallen through. Homer says NMED didn't fine the PPDC because it was clear to the department that the Pueblo was taking action and trying to get the manure removed.
Pojoaque officials could not be reached for comment on this story prior to publication.
Santa Fe County's position on the manure is that while it also recognizes the potential for groundwater contamination, it had no regulatory powers-groundwater and landfill regulation are under the State's jurisdiction. "There was nothing pending, the State let it slack and it's solely under the State's permit," Stephen Wust, the County hydrologist, says. "The County doesn't have
***image15***
enforcement authority. There was no incentive, nothing was being held up. With the building of a new casino was impetus for fulfilling the waste removal."
The Downs sits in County Commissioner Michael Anaya's district. "The concerns from the citizens living there was that there could be groundwater contamination," Anaya says. "They want the manure removed, and that's what we're going to do, we made it a condition of the Downs' development."
The County
***image14***
also tied master plan approval to the manure removal, like the State, by requiring the waste
to be removed in two years. That was in 2000. The waste wasn't removed
in time for the master plan approval so the County made the removal a condition for the next stage of development approval. Again, the waste wasn't removed. Now, removal is tied to building construction. "If they want to start construction before all the waste is removed, there has to be a financial guarantee," Vicki Lucero, the County Development Review Specialist Supervisor, says. The County would require PPDC to open a bond account to accumulate money to spend later on waste removal. Like the State, the County has let the PPDC slide on its time frame because they see progress.
From 2000 to 2003, the PPDC removed 81,000 cubic yards of waste, and estimated in August there was 80,000 cubic yards left. The PPDC now has until December, 2005, to get rid of the rest. It will remove new manure on a weekly basis once the racing begins again.
These days, every day, next to the Por Su Gracia sub-division, bulldozers and trucks haul out manure. Pojoaque has put up a temporary chain link fence along the border between the development and the community.
In between Wright's lot and the Downs, there is a shorter, solid black fence to help control erosion and block her view of the work and manure.
Removing the manure hasn't satisfied either Garcia or Wright. Garcia is still angry that there was no community involvement in the discussions. She helped start the Upper La Cienega Neighborhood Association to represent the new development areas
***image8***
around the Downs that weren't a part of the La Cienega Neighborhood Association. Her group fizzled after a few meetings. "It was really difficult, we organized a couple meetings, but it never went on. It was hard to find cohesion," Garcia says.
She hoped that the neighborhood would become more involved in the Downs' development proceedings. "We could have formed a group and sat down to work together. If that had happened, I'd feel encouraged, but I don't see that happening," she says.
Wright, once inspired to fix up her lot and neighborhood, says she has lost her will. She still wonders who, if anyone, is responsible for the manure mess on her yard. "I don't expect the Pueblo to clean it up, it's not their fault," she says. Today, the un-compacted pile of waste is causing new problems. With sparse vegetation and transplanted soil on top, her sloping yard has become an erosion nightmare, with bits of manure constantly reappearing.
She and her husband have installed a wall of old tires to help hold back the slope from collapsing into her house. In the
house, she blames a number of new large cracks on the shifting and
***image9***
compacting waste. A large crack runs down the ceiling in the center of the house, along with other cracks showing displacement in a bedroom. An electrical box outside, which used to be flush against the house, now sits several inches from the wall. As a first-time land buyer, she admits she made a mistake, but "it was never disclosed to me that this land was on top of an enormous manure pile. If they had told me I could have made an educated decision whether to buy or not."
Now, facing her own obligation to disclose that her $70,000 land includes a decent amount of horse droppings, she knows when she sells she'll face a financial loss.
"My first tip-off to the problem was that I live on a dump," Wright says sarcastically. "I think the whole thing is a scam."
