Clean Air for Our

Community
Prepared for the air quality board of
Albuquerque by the San Juan and
Mountain View communities

Calissa Lynn Matthews

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
Introduction
While it is no secret that New Mexico has made many successful strides towards improving the
community’s environmental health, the fight for clean air isn’t over for many Albuquerque
neighborhoods. Air pollution seems to be at its highest in low-income communities whose
inhabitants are predominantly people of color. Albuquerque has a bad habit of handing out
permits to business after business setting up shop within the same neighborhood without taking
into consideration that these polluting facilities start to add up. Clean air isn’t simply an
environmental health issue but a human health issue. Over the years, the members of these
communities have been desperately trying to be heard only to be silenced time and time again by
the air quality board. These are our neighbors and if there’s one thing Albuquerque is good at,
it’s coming together as a community to make change.

Methodology
These claims may sound severe but that is exactly why I was asked by community leaders within
the San Jose and Mountain View neighborhoods to find evidence to back these allegations.
Fortunately, the city of Albuquerque along with prominent community groups have dutifully
collected data over the years. My objective is to look deeper into the data collected and identify
the problem. Beyond that my research will include testimony from members of the affected
communities because facts and figures aren’t everything. I’m going to explore the data starting at
the bigger picture and working my way down. I’ll begin by looking at air quality in Albuquerque
as well as the rest of New Mexico to see how our city compares. Then I’ll take it one step further
and examine the air quality within low income neighborhoods that have so piqued the interest of
the United States Environmental Protection Agency that it launched an investigation of
Albuquerque’s air policies. Finally, I’ll look into the policies themselves to identify where our
city has failed the people of Albuquerque.

Air Quality Level

In 2015, a report by the American Lung Association ranked the Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las
Vegas area as 16th cleanest among 220 other metropolitan areas within the United States. This
places Bernalillo County at about half the national average levels (Uyttebrouck, 2015). If you
compare this with the Las Cruces, El Paso area that was ranked 23rd most polluted area then it
looks like Albuquerque is doing really well. However, a few hours east, Farmington was ranked
2nd for cleanest air in a metropolitan area (Uyttebrouck, 2015). This shows very clearly that
Albuquerque could be doing better. Albuquerque's policies appear to be doing the work but the
policies fail to consider the cumulative emissions from all the existing businesses before
accepting another one (Williams, 2016).

Air Quality Discrimination

The claims of environmental discrimination come from community leaders and members of the
San Juan and Mountain View neighborhoods. Their stance on the subject is that the city
of Albuquerque needs to reform their air permitting process. After being denied a hearing by the
board, the community filed a formal complaint that led to an investigation by the EPA (Williams,
2016). The members of these communities are also claiming that the air pollution in the area has
led to health problems. Many members of the community have lived there for years and can feel
a difference (Williams, 2016). The board refused to hear the community's proposal on the basis
that air reform is too costly and too much of a hassle for companies that it would drive business
away.
It's not hard to determine that the neighborhoods with lower income have a large amount of
polluting facilities in their area. Members of these communities have been reaching out to the air
quality board, but they haven't been heard. Board members demanded more evidence but refused
to accept the results (Lyman, 2016).

Figure of polluting facilities around the San Juan area.

 Effectiveness of Monitoring
The city of Albuquerque distributes permits on a case by case basis without considering the fact
that pollution can add up. By neglecting to consider the sum total of the number of particulates in
the air, the air quality board is not able to accurately support the claim that their monitoring and
permitting process is effective (Lyman, 2016). This system is not effectively protecting the
citizens of Albuquerque.

Results
The air quality board of the city of Albuquerque appears to hand out permits to business after
business and doesn't look at the bigger picture. The city of Albuquerque has denied requests by
the community to reform their permitting process to include a total emissions test of all the
polluting facilities within the area before admitting an additional business. Handing out these
permits on an individual level with complete disregard for how the overall air pollution
particulates are being affected within the area.
It is clear that there is a larger than normal amount of polluting facilities within the San Juan and
Mountain View neighborhoods and without gathering data on the cumulative, overall, effect of
the facilities working together the city of Albuquerque is failing its residents. Regardless, by
denying the community members a hearing, the air quality board acted in such a way that caught
the attention of the federal government on that basis of racial discrimination by the permitting
process itself.
http://nmenvirolaw.org/images/pdf/160719_EPA_notice_of_acceptance_Title_VI_Complaint.pd
f

Discussion of the Results

The city of Albuquerque needs to do something. The residents of the San Juan and Mountain
View neighborhoods need to feel heard. By denying the community a voice in this matter the
city is effectively creating more tension and upset in areas that already need support. It is unclear
whether the common health problems within these low income areas can be explicitly blamed on
air pollution which is why the air quality board needs to do the work and collect data without any
bias. Regardless of a health concern, these communities are being affected by these companies
and that is something that needs to be recognized.
The very fact that the San Juan neighborhood is home to so many polluting facilities should be
enough to make board members consider the overall impact it is having on the community.
Looking for pollution particulates on an individual case by case basis is not enough.

Conclusion with recommendations

My first recommendation is that the community continues to stay involved. The air quality
board should hear from the residents of these communities to be able to understand the extent of
what is going on in their neighborhoods. It's hard for an outside force like the committee to be
able to fully recognize the consequences of their actions. I suggest that the board no longer
denies the community's requests for hearings to prevent tension between
the community members and the board.
In addition, the city of Albuquerque needs to consider reforming their permitting policies to
consider and measure the overall status of polluted air particulates within an area. It does not
seem effective to measure particulates on a case by case basis and the overall picture should be
looked at as well.
 Works Cited
Uyttebrouck, O. (2015, April 30). Albuquerque area 16th-Cleanest in air report. Retrieved
from https://www.abqjournal.com/577239/albuquerque-area-16thcleanest-in-air-report.html
Williams, E. (2016, August 5). Do Albuquerque's Air Pollution Policies Violate Civil Rights?
Retrieved from http://kunm.org/post/do-albuquerques-air-pollution-policies-violate-civil-rights

Lyman. A. (2016, August 9). EPA investigating alleged discrimination by air quality board.
Retrieved from http://nmpoliticalreport.com/87719/epa-investigating-alleged-discrimination-by-
air-quality-board/

http://publichealthnm.org/2017/01/09/groups-want-gasoline-plants-permit-yanked/
http://www.freeabq.com/2015/06/30/pollution-fight-in-valley/
http://nmenvirolaw.org/images/pdf/160719_EPA_notice_of_acceptance_Title_VI_Complaint.pd
f