The Proposed Paseo del Norte Limited Access Highway through the Petroglyph National Monument:  Gully Erosion Rates, the Impact of Dirt Roads, Proposed Watershed Sensitive Guidelines, and the Native American Viewpoint on this Road

Full Document (PDF: 11MB/182 pages)

Executive Summary

The Piedras Marcadas Watershed covers approximately 6 square miles west of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Paseo del Norte transportation corridor lies within its watershed boundary. During the time period of August 26 through November 17 of 1998, eleven erosion pins and bridges were placed in arroyos and slopes respectively to record the sediment eroded off or aggraded onto the watershed below the basalt escarpment. The erosion pins recorded erosion in a range of 0.05 to 4-mm erosion and aggradation of 2 to 10 mm. The erosion bridges recorded erosion in a range of 3 to 9 mm and 1.5 to 10.7 mm of aggradation. Two variations of the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) were applied and contrasted to predict sediment loss for this watershed. The first equation (Modified Soil Loss Equation, MSLE) values ranged from 0.5 to 17.5 tons per acre per year sediment loss and the second equation (Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation, MUSLE) values ranged from 0.01 to 1.35 tons per acre per storm event per averaged storm year. Rollins, (1981) contends erosion past 1 ton per acre per year is unsustainable for this rangeland. The US Soil Conservation Service defines the acceptable erosion rate as between 2 to 5 tons per acre per year for this rangeland.

The Petroglyph National Monument with respect to the major roads of the 
West Side of Albuquerque, NM (National Park Service Map, 1999).

The air photographs, dated 1935 to the 1996, show the development of this watershed from two windmills to two well-established urban communities. This dramatic shift of land use has affected the arroyos by creating concrete-lined trapezoidal canals in portions of the south, middle, and north branches of the Piedras Marcadas Watershed. The Piedras Marcadas dam site, which is now the last stopping point for watershed flow, is 130 feet topographically higher than the Rio Grande. This topographic change has taken the arroyo out of its previous balance to a new balance. Watersheds out of balance in length, as the Piedras Marcadas is from the dam building, traditionally incise to bring the watershed system back into a hydraulic balance. Dirt roads were bladed on top of the mesa in the late 1960’s and are still present. These dirt roads create a preferred pathway for water flow. The resulting eroded soil material is available for transport by wind and water flow within the watershed.

The report Procedure of Community-Based Transportation Research describes how to use key interviews to gather information and gain trust in transportation community research. The key interview technique was successfully used with eight tribal participants out of twenty-three in this research. Having eight of the twenty-three, or 28.75% of tribal leaders or their designee participate in the telephone interview study indicates a low response. Telephone key interview methods conducted in late January to early February, 2000 are not effective in reaching tribal leaders to elicit responses on the Paseo del Norte issue. Variables that may have effected the participant response are: (1) Timing of the calls; January traditionally ushers in new tribal leaders. (2) Female gender of the principal investigator; the Petroglyph National Monument is the domain of men in the Puebloan cultural viewpoint. (3) Sacred beliefs are traditionally not shared with outsiders; the principal investigator is a non-Indian.

The qualitative key interviews and past US Congressional testimony content analysis finds the following: the Native American perspective on this road extension is do not build a road across, under, or over the West Mesa Escarpment, commonly known as the Petroglyph National Monument.

Born from a sense of frustration and history of inter-governmental relations that has been decidedly a mix of success and failure, the Four Corners Institute for Tribal/State Relations of 2002 was created to be an interactive process in which the participants, decision-makers from state, federal, and tribal governments and enterprises, were asked to discuss the barriers to and opportunities for creating a new model of working cooperatively on a government-to-government basis.  The short-term goal of the gathering was to produce white papers from discussions as a whole and in breakout groups.  The long-term goal of the Institute was to explore ways to improve relations between state governments and tribal governments in meaningful ways that would serve all parties.  The Institute is a concept that was generated by those dedicated to better government and service to its citizens.

• Tribal and State Sovereignty: Development of Government-to-Government Relationship.

• Inter-Governmental Funding: Maximizing the State, Federal, and Tribal Dollar.

• Contracts, Memorandum of Understanding, and Other Legal Agreements: Integrating Multi-State, Multi-Tribal Governmental Efforts for Common Goals.

• Rights-of-Way and Economic Development: Balancing Tribal, Federal, and State Requirements and Concerns.

• Effective Government Needs Revenue: Rational Approaches to Tribal and State Taxation Authority.

Building on a Common Desire for Better Tribal/State Governmental Relationships:  The 2002 Four Corners Institute for Tribal/State Relations,
(PDF: 61KB/9 pages) presented at the 82nd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, January 2003.  Accepted for publication in the 2003 Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board.

Transportation Research Board Circular:  Conference on Transportation Improvements: Experiences Among Tribal, Local, State, and Federal Governments (PDF: 4.915MB/112 pages)

Summary of Proceedings (PDF: 50KB/12 pages)

Summit Video - A video of the first hour of the New Mexico Tribal/State Transportation Summit held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on October 14-15, 1999, is now available. The first hour includes the introduction of the participants, welcomes from the U.S. Delegation, and opening remarks. The speakers’ names are captioned. To obtain a copy, contact the ATR Institute at 505 246-6410.

The ATR Institute provided research and facilitated a government-to-government Pre-Summit and Summit between the tribal leadership in New Mexico and the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department (NMSHTD).  An August 1999 Pre-Summit meeting focused on collecting both the tribal and NMSHTD perspectives on barriers to mutual transportation issues. The Pre-Summit attendees identified five groups of transportation concerns:

• Jurisdiction/Sovereignty,
• Communication/Consultation/Participation,
• Environment/Quality of Life,
• Funding,
• Safety.

The ATR Institute researched these mutual concerns and detailed the source of specific problems in a white paper format, entitled Stepping Stones: A Process Toward Communication and Cooperation, Summary Document of the New Mexico Tribal /State Transportation Summit and Pre-Summit

The NMSHTD Planning Division drafted six Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) that initiated government-to-government relationships based on the mutual concerns defined in the Pre-Summit. The October 1999 Summit brought together tribal leaders (governors, presidents, and chairmen) with the NMSHTD leadership and the Office of the Governor. The Summit leaders reviewed the MOA and made their edits. The Summit leaders also made welcoming statements and began the journey of government-to-government interactions.

All parties signed one memorandum. The parties involved are 19 Pueblos, 2 Apache Tribes, the Navajo Nation, the NMSHTD, the Office of the Governor, and the Office of the Attorney General. This memorandum is entitled Joint Agreement on Continuing Study and Action and states that the NMSHTD and the tribal governments of New Mexico will establish an Action Group or groups to work towards the resolution of issues and problems not satisfactorily addressed by the 1999 Tribal/State Transportation Summit. The summit leadership established an action group, currently called the Executive Planning Committee to continue the process of editing and bringing the remaining MOA to a signing point.

The action group then established a government-to-government annual process. This process is a Spring Workshop and a Fall Signing Summit. The Spring Workshop will identify two to four mutual transportation problems for research. The Action group will continue to research and report on what is required to remove barriers. The Fall Signing Summit will bring together the leadership to sign the MOA and to establish the new transportation direction with problems for resolution for the next spring research.

On-Going Native American Transportation Research

The Executive Planning Committee meets regularly to continue bringing the proposed Summit Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) to the signing stage. Three of the original Summit MOA are consolidated into one MOA entitled Joint Agreement On Principles Of Consultation And Cooperation In Transportation Matters. This MOA is in the editing process. Another MOA entitled Agreement for Transportation Safety and Emergency Preparedness Principles and Policy is also in the editing stages.

TRB Native American Transportation Issues Conference

ATR Institute was one of many sponsors for the conference, Transportation Improvements: Experiences Among Tribal, Local, State, and Federal Governments, held in Albuquerque on October 18-21, 2000.  Look for a TRB Circular of the conference proceedings in Spring 2001.

This conference explored best practices, research innovation, and personal examples of how all transportation professionals, Indian and non-Indian, can do a better job of interacting with one another.  Speakers on a variety of local, state and federal projects presented projects developed on tribal lands.  An afternoon session was devoted to workshops and the group’s observations and recommendations were a strong research component of this conference.  The research suggestions from these workshop discussions will be compiled and presented along with the speaker’s papers in a Transportation Research Board (TRB) Circular. This Circular will be mailed to attendees and will be available from TRB for interested researchers.