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The Alamo Sierran Newsletter of the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club

Explore, enjoy and protect the planet

January, 2017

Comments from the Chair

PoliticsIn San Antonio we have a major oppor-

tunity to influence local Government in upcoming Spring elections. It appears that there will be open seats in districts 6, 8, 9, and 10, presenting an opportunity for new Council representation that is more respon-sive to community and environment.

The Texas Legislature will be meeting, and considering issues important for our environment: 1) Local control. There will be efforts again to block our heritage tree protection ordinance so developers can more easily bulldoze these down. There will be efforts to prevent cities from banning single use plastic bags that contaminate our land-scape and do so much damage to our storm drains, waterways, wildlife, livestock, as well as esthetics. There will be efforts by our Lyle Larson to build a water grid (see below).

Alamo and Lone Star Sierra Club Elec-tions: Karen Weehler, Lili Gonzalez and Wendell Fuqua have been elected to serve on our Alamo ExCom for a three year term. I thank them for their willingness to serve. Lone Star results are pending at this time.

Nationally, the next Administration is shaping up through projected appointments to be the most aggressively anti-environ-mental Administration in U.S. history. En-vironmental groups and concerned citizens will have to work in overdrive to keep watch on proposals and attempt to stop these actions.

WaterSAWS rates go up almost 7% on average

January 1, 2017 for all residential custom-ers. This includes thousands of former Bexar Met customers who have had no represen-tation in this rate approval process. These customers may consider a rate challenge to the Texas Public Utility Commission.

The Vista Ridge Pipeline Project may be a first important link in Mr. Larson’s plan for a State wide “water grid”, a plan for pipelines carrying water throughout Texas,

Jammin’ Jams Fruit Tree Adoption

The San Antonio Parks Department in conjunction with the Alamo Forest Partner-ship will be giving away approximately 1200 fruit and nut trees on Saturday, January 28, at the Pearl Brewery, between Hwy. 281 and the farmers market. Jammin’ Jams, has become an annual event and is so called because jam can be made from the fruit of many of the trees that are adopted out.

A variety of trees will be offered this year, including citrus, fig, pecan, persimmon, and apricot. The trees will be given out starting at 8 am, one to a household, and only to those over 18 years of age. Recipients will be instructed on how and where to plant their trees and asked to provide good main-tenance with frequent watering especially during the first two critical years of the trees’ lives.

between different river basins, watersheds and urban and rural areas. Such a pipeline project would be a great boon to construc-tion companies, and risk environmental havoc with interbasin transfers of invasive species and severe alterations of river flows and estuary inflows, and spur development in many areas that normally lack water. California has abeen there, done that, and is now moving far away from this model.

San Antonio Bond Proposals for May voting include over $140 million for flood

Solar Energy and Grid Optimization

CPS Energy will be celebrating its 75th year as a municipal utility in 2017 and 157th year as a utility. For our January General Meeting, Kim Stoker and Todd Horsman will be on hand to tell us about CPS’s solar and efficiency programs.

Tuesday, January 17th 6:30 p.m. William R. Sinkin Eco Centro, 1802 North Main Avenue MapSince the late 1970’s, CPS Energy has

had a diverse generation portfolio, but over the past few years has further diversified with solar energy. CPS Energy is a leader in solar energy in Texas with over 500 MW. Additionally, CPS Energy’s Grid Optimiza-tion project will support the integration of renewables, energy storage, electric vehicles, and LED street lighting.

Kim R. Stoker, REM, P.G., Sr. Director, Environmental & Sustainability at CPS Energy directs and provides leadership for utility-wide environmental compliance pro-grams, water supply planning, environmental policy, sustainabili-ty initiatives and for the development of corporate environmental metrics-designed to support the mission of CPS Energy. Ms. Stoker represents the interests of CPS Energy on several regional air, water and sustainability planning stakeholder commit-tees. Ms. Stoker leads a team responsible for environmental strategy, permitting and reporting, in meeting compliance require-ments and implementing sustainable business practices. She is a Registered Environmental Manager and a Professional Geologist in Texas.

Mr. Horsman has many years of utility experience both domestically and interna-

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Seen This One? Petrified For-est National Park

Petrified Forest National Park is #2 in a Nature.com (Nature Conservancy) article, 10 Great National Parks You’ve Never Heard Of. It is located in northeastern Arizona, 60

mi east of Flagstaff, with the closest town being Holbrook, just west. Many of us in Texas may have heard of or visited this park, though more likely not people in the eastern US. The Wikipedia page has extensive

background.The park was made a national monument

in 1906 and a national park in 1962.There are grand vistas everywhere across

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Looking north-northeast from Painted Desert Inn. The 2nd picture below was taken from the light-col-ored low area just left of upper center, about 2.5 miles away. Feb 12th 2016; yes that’s a spot of snow

lower right.

Looking south-southeast from the Painted Desert, at the Onyx Bridge, a largely intact petrified tree exposed by recent erosion.. The Painted Desert Inn, where the 1st picture above was taken from, is barely

distinguishable on the horizon, a low rounded hump right of center..

the colorful eroded hills of mud- and siltstones and bentonite clay. Off the main park road are several areas with pre-historic ruins and petroglyphs; see the park map. There are some short trails through fields of enormous petrified logs with smaller pieces everywhere.

The park boundaries have been greatly extended several times in the recent past by acquisition and transfer of adjacent BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands. Here’s the park web page on the expansion. Partic-

ularly in the recently added areas, the park has documented unsigned routes of special

San Antonio Needs Strong Stormwater PoliciesEditors note: this op-ed was published in the Express-News, Sunday, December 18, 2016

Your recent two-part stormwater runoff series by Vianna Davila and Brendon Gib-bons is outstanding. (“With building boom comes higher flood risk,” Nov. 27, and “Changes in landscapes and buildings could help fight flooding,” Nov. 28.)

The information in these articles raises a big question: How long will San Antonio residents be required to subsidize the city’s developers at the cost of our own safety, health and pocketbooks?

Except for a few visionaries, our city representatives and staff continue to be appallingly shortsighted and reactionary, supporting policies that lead to flooding and health hazards, and amount to welfare for developers. It’s high time to implement the proven policies of water management, outlined in the Davila-Gibbons articles, that promote flood control, clean waterways and a sustainable water supply appropriate for a drought-prone city.

We need strong ordinances — not just voluntary efforts — to enforce these poli-cies.

We don’t need the city’s continued over-reliance on concrete water channels to divert runoff. Instead, we need lots more rainwater-capture: cisterns, rain gardens and bioswales to allow water to percolate into the soil, and constructed wetlands to purify stormwater for reuse (e.g., for irrigation). We need city water policies aimed at retain-ing and wisely reusing our precious inter-mittent rainfall.

We do not need a city water project — the Vista Ridge pipeline — that drains someone else’s aquifer to provide short-term water that encourages rampant development over our own aquifer.

How does San Antonio subsidize devel-opers? Just a few examples:

For new developments, builders must pay impact fees. Those fees are supposed to pay for the extra infrastructure the city must install to support urban expansion. Impact fees are kept artificially low, not nearly covering the costs. Current residents pay the rest.

San Antonio has plenty of water for cur-rent residents’ needs. Projects such as Vista

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control projects that largely fund the same old concrete ditches and culverts we see around our city. We see very little here of the newer, science based ideas of low impact development, and storm water management by “slow down, spread out and sink in” this water. We need to change this now and start using these methods; as it is, more sprawl leads to more flooding, leads to more expensive concrete ditches, leads to more Vista Ridge pipelines, leads to more sprawl, leads to more flooding…. Enough already!!

Climate change and air qualitySome of our leaders believe that we no

longer need to worry about EPA rules post election. They may be correct. We will still push for corrective actions to our air quality, with or without federal regulatory requirements. Our air quality is a serious local health issue, and for that reason alone should be improved. We do not accept the premise of Mr. Krier that we cannot provide clean air and a healthy economy.

Our air quality is tied in with our trans-portation problems, and there are multiple studies and projects in our area dealing with transportation. Plans are examining possi-ble double decker highways into San Anto-nio at I35/1604/I-410, Hwy 281/1604, and I-10/1604. Interchange redesign projects are under review for 281/I-410, I-35 down-town, etc. Even rail service remains under review from San Antonio to Austin, and

Says San Antonio City Arborist and Alamo Forest Partnership Chair Mark Bird, “The trees are provided to the public to add diversity to our tree canopy and to make available an alternative food source that can be available where there may be food scarcity.”

Attendees at this popular event have been known to begin lining up as early as 5 am. The event will continue until all the trees are gone.

Alamo Forest Partnership is a non-prof-it organization devoted to the planting and protection of trees in the Greater San Antonio area. Its mission is the raising of community awareness of the value and proper care of trees. Visit the organization’s website for more information.by Loretta Van Coppenolle, Sierra Club Repre-sentative for Alamo Forest Partnership.

Comments from the Chair (cont.)

Jammin’ Jams (cont.)

Solar Energy and Grid Optimization(cont.)

possibly even within San Antonio. Unless these projects move strongly away from a primary focus on single occupancy passen-ger vehicles, our transportation, and our air quality, will continue to deteriorate.

Climate change is a major strategic concern for the U.S. military, but not for our Congressman Lamar Smith, one of Congress’s most anti-science members. San Antonio needs to move forward like many cities and plan for climate change now, to enhance our resiliency later.

Southern Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan (SEP-HCP)

San Antonio is planning to join Bexar County in administering this plan, worked out with National Fish & Wildlife Service, to protect habitat for endangered golden cheek warbler, black capped vireo and a dozen cave dwelling invertebrates. The approved HCP allows “incidental taking” of habitat for these species, as long as other areas are protected. The net effect will be continued loss of habitat in the Southern Edwards Plateau, with protected areas creat-ed in areas of Bexar and surrounding coun-ties that are more distant from the outward sprawl of San Antonio. Even with this HCP, Mr. Krier recently voiced his opinion that economic factors should take precedence over the existence of these species. This is especially important because some of the in-vertebrates are not known to exist in farther away areas, and so the SEP-HCP may be the last major barrier to development in some local areas. The incidental benefit of these protections for local invertebrate cave dwell-ers could be enhanced protection for our Edwards Aquifer. This benefit rarely seems, however, to show up in economic consider-ations of Mr. Krier and his Chamber allies.

HolidaysAlamo SC had a successful and enjoyable

holiday gathering at EcoCentro on Tuesday 12/13/16. There was good food and fel-lowship with a very good turn out. I thank all who made this possible, and especially EcoCentro for continuing to host our meet-ings and events, and Loretta and Barbara for doing the organizing work to make this hap-pen. I hope 2017 will be good to all of usby Terry Burns, M.D., Alamo Group Chair

Poetry for the Earth

RecipesAugust eggplant and okra organic from the garden: slice, season, lightly oil, roast. Then sauté shrimp with garlic− add spicy tomato sauce. Toss the vegetables and shrimp sauce into whole wheat pasta. Delicious with chianti!Inspired by the universe mix all of our energies to organize good people. Communicate the hard facts with compassion, humor, and sincere idealism:“We are courting extinction. Let’s restore Earth’s harmony!”August, 2016, by Darby Riley, Executive Committee member

tionally with leadership roles that span from product development to operations. He has recently joined CPS Energy as the Senior Director of Strategy and Product Devel-opment where he leads corporate strategy and new product development. Prior to CPS Energy he was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Landis+Gyr where he lead all regulato-ry development at the ISO, State and Federal level for solu-tions that optimize distribution grids and distributed resources. He served as Vice Chair for the Advance Energy Management Alliance which advocates for consumers and solutions that enhance demand side management.

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A unique spot on the Red Basin/Clam Beds route, north side of that loop. I’ve named this very unusual vista the Forest of Standing Pebbles. These rocks are 1”-4” size, with the colorful ones being chert. Local-ized strong winds must have removed the loose soil around these rocks, which are much harder than the

mudstone and clays comprising the bluffs.

Petrified Forest NP (cont.)

Ridge are for new development. Current residents are forced to pay for most of this pipeline and water, subsidizing developers.

Poorly regulated development causes greatly increased runoff. When runoff causes severe flooding, the city needs additional flood control. Money to pay for those bond issues comes from residents’ pockets, not developers.’

Developers use extensive impervious sur-faces for malls and industrial parks. The city allows those businesses huge reductions in their stormwater fees, residents’ fees making up the difference.

Instead of subsidizing uncontrolled development, why don’t we adopt enlight-

ened policies already in place in cities such as Tucson and Los Angeles? These cities treat stormwater as a valuable resource in a drought-prone region — especially in the face of climate change.

A recent Los Angeles Times article states, “Los Angeles is betting that stormwater can help ease California’s drought. The city has become too dependent upon huge pipelines that brought water from hundreds of miles away; now, that water is undependable (or legally cut off, like Owens Lake).”

On average, San Antonio receives three times as much rain as Los Angeles, so why aren’t we capturing the water that falls right here? For a fraction of what would be spent on Vista Ridge, San Antonio could be investing in local rainwater and stormwater harvesting projects.

Could it be that San Antonio’s develop-ers, who contribute heavily to our council and mayoral campaigns, and whose interests dominate city planning and zoning commis-sions, like the profitable uncontrolled old ways better?

What should we do? First, we need to elect council members and a mayor who represent “we the people” — not put devel-opers first. Remember that goal when you cast your ballot in our upcoming election and bond referendum.by Terry Burns, M.D., Alamo Group Chair

To become resilient in the face of cli-mate change, San Antonio and the entire Alamo Area need a stormwater master-plan and integrated water management collaborative like those of the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Terry’s points (above) about stormwater are valuable clues to what San Antonio must do to keep our city resilient in the face of Climate Change.

Take a look at this video. I’ll bet you know of several neighborhoods in San Antonio that need that kind of wonderful transformation. [And if you like that video, take a peek at this one].

It links climate change (with droughts, floods, increased heat, threat of wildfires, etc.) to city water policies that San Antonio could adopt instead of Vista Ridge and the current Bond issues proposed (including not only bonds for stormwater drainage, but also the bonds for paving streets and sidewalks and fixing other infrastructure, for parks and recreation, too).

Stormwater Policies (cont.)

interest called Off the Beaten Path hikes. The 2nd picture (on page 2) is from the Off the Beaten Path hike in the Painted Desert to Onyx Bridge, an unusually large petrified tree. The 1st picture is looking across the Painted Desert towards the spot where the 2nd was taken. The 3rd picture (below)

was taken on the Off the Beaten Path Red Basin/Clam Beds route.

VisitingThe park averages 5400’ elevation, so the

temperature makes for good hiking most of the year. Rainfall averages only 11” annually.

The park is open daytimes-only to protect the land and artifacts, check out the website for details. Be sure not to collect anything; your vehicle may be inspected upon exit. There are shops at the visitor centers and south of the park if you wish to purchase some petrified wood.

If you do try some of the Off the Beaten Path hikes be very aware of your route and where you left your car. Be sure you can be out of the park by closing time. A map-ping app can record your route but watch your phone battery; best to have a backup and a compass and map. There is a limited number of backcountry permits available for multi-day hikes in the Painted Desert but you have to take all your water.

There is no camping in the park. Check out Homolovi State Park, not far west near Winslow, which has pretty interesting ruins and trails and a nice campground with hot

showers. Canyon de Chelly National Mon-ument is not far northeast. El Morro and El Malpais National Monuments are a couple hours drive east in New Mexico. These all have campgrounds.

Other national parks “you’ve never heard of”

Further to the Nature article mentioned

above, in the September issue of this news-letter an article covered #1, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. For #6, Cap-itol Reef National Park, see August 2016. #7, Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, was in February 2016 and #8, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, in November 2015.by Kevin Hartley, Outing Leader

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Executive CommitteeGroup Chair Terry BurnsVice Chair/Trea-surer

Dave Wells

Secretary Gay WrightStephen Colley Lili Gonzales

Alan Montemayor Darby Riley Russel Smith

Enrique Valdivia

The Alamo Sierran NewsletterRichard Alles, Editor Published by The Alamo Group of the Sierra Club, P.O. Box 6443, San Antonio, TX 78209, AlamoSierraClub.org. The Alamo Group is one of 13 regional groups within the Lone Star (Texas) Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Keep your email address current!Send updates to Loyd Cortez, providing your name, address and membership number (if known).

Changed your mailing address?Have you moved? Let us know by sending your old address, your new address and your member number (look on the upper left corner of your mailing label) to: address.chang-es@sierraclub.org.

Go online for the latest news and events

The kind of integrated water management that Melbourne and, now, Los Angeles are employing results in greatly increased water supply, reduced water pollution, improved tree canopy and green spaces, better soil quality and air quality (ecosystem services!), and -- as the new L.A. Master Plan for Integrated Stormwater Management points out, the whole thing costs a lot less than the mega-pipelines L.A. used to count on, re-duces waste and redundant agency projects, cost-sharing among water-related agencies, and creating lots of jobs that focus on green infrastructure.

Want to learn more? Take a look at this article on L.A.’s water strategy -- it’s for the Greater L.A. area. We need the Greater S.A. area to adopt a collaboratively designed, integrated water management plan.

Best of all, lots of projects build commu-nity. What’s not to like?by Meredith McGuire, Conservation Commit-tee Co-Chair

Fox In the Henhouse: Pruitt for Head of EPA

President-elect Donald Trump has nom-inated Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. `As state attorney general, Pruitt led the fight against climate action and the

Stormwater Policies (cont.) Clean Power Plan, did the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, and opposed life-saving protections for our air and water. He has cast himself as a sworn en-emy of the very agen-cy he would oversee. “Putting Scott Pruitt in charge of the EPA is like putting Darth Vader in charge of the Rebel Alliance,” says Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. Read more about this and urge your senators to oppose Pruitt’s appointment.

And Equally Frightening...Donald Trump’s nomination of Exxon-

Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson to serve as the United States’ top diplomat is dangerous and irresponsible. Appointing an oil executive with zero government experi-ence to be Secretary of State undermines U.S. foreign relations and leadership in addressing climate change and human rights violations around the world. Tillerson’s nomination cements the fact that clean air, clean water, and a safe climate are all endan-gered in Trump’s America.

Send a message to your senators now, urging them to oppose Tillerson’s nomina-

tion for Secretary of State.

Outings: Prime Hiking Weather Beckons

Visit the Alamo Sierra Club Outings page on Meetup for detailed information about all of our upcoming Sierra Club Outings.

Pull the Plug on the PipelineLast week the Obama administration

decided to heed the concerns of the Stand-ing Rock Sioux, their tribal allies, and the millions of Americans who have stood with them, when it announced that it would deny the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline and instead require an envi-ronmental review. The Standing Rock Sioux may now be able to finish off the pipeline if big financial institutions like Citibank and Wells Fargo that are bankrolling the project listen to the public and pull the plug on this boondoggle. Urge the big banks to stand on the right side of history and divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline.