Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Students
are the end users of many production/ distribution systems, from the bricks
in their walls to the paper on their desks. They are also a beginning point
of community consumption that creates waste and the need for waste disposal
systems.
An environment, be it a school or a city, can be studied by comparing the quantity, direction, and rate of flow of its various systems, and by noticing how alterations in the design of an environment change the systems.
When the number of people increases, the need for support systems also grows. Natural resources are used up at a more rapid rate, and waste products grow proportionately. When the population of an environment exceeds the capacity of its production/distribution/waste-disposal systems, an imbalance occurs that can lead to the destruction of that environment.
The newest addition to Albuquerque's public schools are the useful but unattractive, portable, steel barracks. Set up and moved quite easily, they accommodate changing enrollment patterns while meeting required economic and safety standards. Aesthetic considerations are not top priority.
The permanent school buildings, one or two stories, are mixtures of territorial adobe and modern. The older schools are usually characterized by high ceilings, many windows (now being replaced with more durable plastic), too few electrical outlets, and the heating/cooling problems generally associated with older buildings.
For climatic and economic reasons, the newer schools have fewer windows, are concrete and metal (sometimes fashioned to represent adobe), and contain less visible wood. Carpets lend texture to the floors, and brightly painted walls are common.
Since most school roofs are flat, runoff drainage areas are often planting spaces for shrubs (in order to take advantage of the scarce rainwater). One pitched roof at the Outdoor Education Center is clear, ridged plastic that allows the attic to collect solar-heated air, which is then pushed into the museum by fan. In this case, as throughout the system, materials were chosen for strength, safety, aesthetics, utility, and of course, economy.
Sewage is the used water supply of a community, consisting not only of domestic, water-borne wastes such as human excrement, ground garbage, and wash waters, but also industrial wastes: acids, oils, grease, and animal and vegetable matter.
As a potential carrier of pathogenic microorganisms and dangerous chemicals, water may endanger health and life.
Some Albuquerque schools have their own septic tanks with underground drainage fields where natural waste water treatment (microbial digestion and filtration) takes place. However, the waste from most schools enters the Albuquerque sewage system, which delivers waste water to the city's treatment plants located (in order to utilize gravity flow) south of the city. Pretreatment consists of initial removal of solids such as cans, rags, gravel, and coffee grounds. Solids removed through pretreatment are disposed of at the sanitary landfill.
Primary clarifiers serve to remove settle-able solids, which fall to the bottom and are then routed to the anaerobic digesters. Liquid sewage is then treated biologically at the trickling filters, where it is sprayed over algae-covered rocks in an open tank. Here, in the presence of sunlight and abundant oxygen, algae and other microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) utilize the organic matter for food, causing physical, chemical, and biological changes in the solids remaining. Secondary clarifiers remove solids created at the trickling filters. An activated-sludge process then vigorously aerates the sewage, resulting in a biological floc that is precipitated.
Solid organics taken from the various treatments are routed to the anaerobic digesters, where anaerobic conditions allow other microorganisms to further "digest" the sewage. Pumped to open sludge beds, the sludge is dried by the sun and eventually used to fertilize city park lands.
A by-product of the anaerobic process, methane gas, is recycled and burned to produce part of the energy needed by the plant. The almost 20 million gallons per day of effluent, disinfected by chlorine and discharged to the Rio Grande, is credited to the city's water rights.
The 6,000 tons of solid waste produced yearly by the schools in the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) system join the tons produced by the entire city at the city and county sanitary landfills. There the waste is compacted and covered with dirt, and eventually the site may become suitable for construction.
The APS trash bins are usually located near a school's main garbage source, the cafeteria. The bins are filled with paper, food scraps, and playground litter, and are emptied routinely into the APS-owned garbage trucks. Since the solid wastes are not separated, recycling is not economically feasible at present. Given the present number of trucks and drivers, the number of schools and their widespread locations, collecting separate categories of trash would be prohibitively expensive.
Sorting and composting of each school's own wastes is possible, as most school waste is biodegradable and could furnish rich soil for sorely needed grassed or garden areas at the schools. (Bernalillo County Agricultural Extension Service has information on composting.)
Electricity use by APS represents about 15 percent of Albuquerque's total commercial consumption of electricity; in 1994-95 this consumption was approximately 77.8 million kilowatt-hours, at a cost of $7.35 million. The electricity used in Albuquerque is generated mainly at two gas-fired plants within the city and at the large, coal-fired plants in northwestern New Mexico--the San Juan and Four Corners Generating Stations.
Albuquerque's stations use relatively non-polluting natural gas. The exclusively coal-fired San Juan and Four Corners plant are equipped with extensive pollution-control devices. Pollution-control equipment known as electrostatic precipitators are used to remove more than 99% of the airborne particles such as fly ash. In fact the generating plant produces less airborne particulates than a car traveling 40 miles per hour on a nearby dirt road. A chemical process is used to remove up to 90 percent of the sulfur dioxide in order to comply with stringent federal and state air standards.
Each plant has its own surface coal mines on site. The coal is brought to the plants by truck and is pulverized for greater burning efficiency. Within a few years after the coal is mined, the land is refilled, contoured, reseeded, and watered for several years.
The fuel supply for your school is probably natural gas used to produce hot air or steam heat. In the mid-nineties, APS spends about $2.5 million per school year for natural gas heat.
To aid your school in reducing its energy consumption, all school principals have available a fuel-use report. Students might find this report of value when examining their school environment, or when comparing their school with others.
APS uses over 515 million gallons of water yearly, partly to irrigate over 300 acres of turf. Schools located within the city limits obtain their water from wells drilled within the Santa Fe Formation, none of which is less than 150 feet, to eliminate the possibility of surface contamination. Some APS schools have their own wells. Automated electric pumps draw the water up to the surface where it is chlorinated and stored in above-ground tanks. Booster pumps serve to keep all reservoirs supplied and water pressure adequate. Reservoirs are located uphill from water users, utilizing gravity to maintain the flow to the school.
Located in a semi-desert area with considerable variation in surface water volume, Albuquerque is dependent on underground supplies, fed from New Mexico and Colorado mountain runoff. Water is mined from approximately 80 municipal wells, and numerous irrigation, domestic, and stock wells. (Specific information about water supply for a particular school can be obtained by calling APS Maintenance Operations, 765-5950, ext. 275.)
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One of the systems supporting your school deals with instructional supplies, the materials labeled "consumable." Listed under 32 categories, which include arts and crafts, physical education, welding gases, and miscellaneous, are the papers, pencils, glues, games, and music that teachers and students work with daily.
Ordered through the APS warehouse, these materials cost more than $4 million per year, an amount to keep in mind when talking with your class about conservation, producers, and consumers, or consumer economics.
Textbooks, with new adoptions every few years, are budgeted for over $2 million, while instructional support supplies and materials total another $2 million. These supplies include audio-visual materials, library books, and bilingual materials. (Your school principal will have a copy of the budget available in which you may find information pertaining to your school.)
(Up to Section IV, Back to A Cultural Profile, On to The School Environment as a Learning Tool)