MAILBOX

Water is very big issue in area,

don’t allow power plants here

Editor:

Water is more precious than oil! Why? Demand has outstripped supply!

1. Sandoval County, Bernalillo County, Valencia County and Socorro County are using over 70,000 acre feet per year (more) than the watershed can produce!

2. Developers have pushed uncontrolled growth.

3. Drought has caused the water table to drop by one foot in the past three years and the water level in Elephant Butte Reservoir to drop by 45 feet (55 percent of normal).

And now: Three power companies want to build electric generation plants in the Belen area.

These plants would use up to 30,000 acre feet of water per year, contaminate our atmosphere, sell all of the generated energy out of state, not pay any taxes and require us taxpayers to support them by providing new and/or improved roads, upgrading of railroad crossings (to support the weight of those huge generators) and fire protection.

There will be a “share the water” meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 12 at the Fred Luna Senior Center, 315 Don Pasquale in Los Lunas. An air quality meeting is set for April 8, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., technical input and 6 p.m. for public comments at Belen City Hall.

The Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly and the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments will hold their annual assembly at the UNM Anthropology Hall on 6 April 2002.

William Dean

Los Chavez

Share signs with candidates

Editor:

Now that the Belen elections are over, let’s get back to running our city. Now that the mud-slinging is over, let the elected move forward and continue to make our city the greatest.

… I would urge all the candidates to donate their signs to candidates that will be running for office in the county elections. It will clean up our city and give other candidates free material to continue their campaigns.

The only disappointment I personally had was that I’ve been in business for 12 years in the city, doing signs and screenprinting.

Only a very few candidates even came by to place orders; the rest went outside Belen to get their campaign material printed or done. Let’s all support our local businesses and help our community grow and prosper. To Ronnie Torres, ‘nuf said, now, go, Ronnie, go!

Larry Copeland

T.C. Toucan Graphics

Belen