U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury emphasized the power of youth engagement as she spoke about climate change and water with Manzano High School students on Monday in Albuquerque.
The students asked Stansbury, a Democrat who represents New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, about how corporate interests impact the ability to pass meaningful climate legislation and various questions about water quality. Students also had questions about tribal water resources.
After hearing from the youth, Stansbury told NM Political Report “our future is bright in New Mexico.”
“We have a lot of amazing students who really understand climate change and water issues,” she said, adding that she is excited to see what the students do in the future.
Conservation Voters New Mexico arranged Stansbury’s visit to Manzano High School.
Molly Taylor, a community organizer with Conservation Voters New Mexico who lives in the Manzano area, spoke to the students about the importance of water.
“The health of our environment impacts all of us and all of our community,” she said. “This could be from the water you drink from your faucet at home to the waters that feed the farms that grow our food and green chile…Even our state’s green chile is also really vulnerable to drought and to heat, so when we have less water to go around, our green chile crops don’t do as well.”
She said that decisions made today will impact the water that people will enjoy in the future.
Stansbury started her discussion by telling the students about her first forays into environmental science, which occurred while she was participating in science fairs in elementary school and middle school.
Stansbury’s interest in the environment and water was sparked by the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred when an oil tanker ran aground in 1989 in Alaska.
“For literally weeks, we watched as oil poured into the ocean in Alaska,” she told the students. “And that’s how I first got interested in the environment.”
Stansbury was in fourth grade at the time and did an experiment where she poured oil on her mother’s house plants to prove that it was bad for the environment. She entered the experiment in the science fair.
Later, in eighth grade, she and one of her family friends took water samples of water flowing into the Rio Grande in Corrales. These samples showed that a wastewater treatment plant was “actually breaking the law,” she said.
Stansbury said she entered that experiment in the science fair as well.
“That actually ended up kind of launching my science career,” she said.
Later, Stansbury told the students that youth advocates played a critical role in getting the Inflation Reduction Act passed, which is the most significant piece of climate legislation in the country’s history.
Water issues in and around Albuquerque
After telling the students about how she got involved in science and then in politics, Stansbury spoke about the water issues in Albuquerque and surrounding areas.
About a third of the students there raised their hands when asked if they lived in the East Mountains.
“The reason why I asked that is that we are in the middle of a historic transformation happening literally right now in our backyard here in the Sandias and it’s being caused by climate change,” she said. “And probably some of you, especially [those] who live in the East Mountains, hear about water issues a lot.”
She said climate change has led to less snow in the winter in the mountains outside of Albuquerque. That has made it so that the aquifer is not recharging, which has led to communities like Carnuel, Tijeras and Edgewood running out of water. Stansbury said wells are running dry in the East Mountains.
While Albuquerque itself benefits from having both wells and river water, Stansbury said the city is not immune from the impacts of climate change.
“We’re also experiencing the impacts of lessening water because of climate change,” she said.
Then she told the youth that they will likely be working to find ways to solve the climate crisis in the future.
“This is the work that we’re going to have to spend our adult lives working on, and it’s because it impacts everything we do,” she said.
When asked by the students about what can be done to protect water quality, Stansbury talked about the impacts of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett vs. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which removed Clean Water Act protections from ephemeral and intermittent waterways. This has placed an estimated 90 percent of waterways in New Mexico at risk.
“Congress has to fix the law because the judiciary broke it,” she said.
At the same time, she said that New Mexico can take steps to protect its waters and she told the students that they can go to the state legislature during the upcoming session and provide input into potential future laws that might protect water quality.
Homelessness
Stansbury didn’t limit the questions to water. One student asked about what she is doing to address homelessness in Albuquerque.
This is an important question in the Manzano High School area because, as Stansbury pointed out, Manzano has one of the highest levels of homelessness among its students.
She said her office is pushing to expand affordable housing opportunities.
“We have congressional earmarks and we’re helping to build homeless shelters all over the city,” she continued.
Stansbury highlighted a new shelter for young adults ages 18 to 25.