by Amanda Wheelock
This story was first featured in the spring 2018 issue of CDT Passages, a magazine published exclusively for CDTC members. To receive Passages in your inbox three times a year, become a member of CDTC today.
Just over 40 miles west of Taos, completely surrounded by the Carson National Forest, lies the small unincorporated community of Vallecitos, New Mexico. On June 3, 2017, a lightning strike started a wildfire about eight miles north of Vallecitos in an area known as Bonita Canyon. Dry, windy conditions caused the Bonita Canyon fire to spread, and it ultimately covered almost 7500 acres before wildland firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service were able to contain and extinguish the fire.
For the people of Vallecitos, however, the true devastation came with the rain that fell on July 8. By this time, the Bonita Canyon fire had been fully contained, but recovery work had not yet begun on the burned areas. The steep slopes of the canyon had little to no remaining plant cover holding the soil in place, which created conditions like those that led to last year’s deadly mudslides in southern California. A flood of ash and debris flowed from the canyon into the Rio Vallecitos, the primary source of drinking water for the small community that sits just downstream. The village was not notified of the intensity of the burn and the resulting degradation that rainfall would mean for its water quality until it was too late to shut off the water intake systems.
The antiquated water treatment plant in Vallecitos was unable to handle the high levels of sediment, and residents with shallow wells along the river found them inundated with muck. The people of Vallecitos suddenly found themselves without the basic, life-giving necessity of drinking water.
Mary Steuver is the Chama District Forester for New Mexico State Forestry and the co-coordinator of a program called “After Wildfire New Mexico,” which helps communities and individuals impacted by fire. Marlene Fahey, a volunteer firefighter from Vallecitos, reached out to Mary to let her know that the people of Vallecitos were struggling to procure clean drinking water, and Mary immediately thought back to a recent backpacking trip she had taken with a friend on the CDT. Her friend had brought a convenient, effective water filter produced by Sawyer to purify the water they pulled from the very same river that was too dirty for the water treatment plant in Vallecitos to handle. Could that filter, or one like it, be used to help the people of Vallecitos?
Luckily, Mary’s friend was Teresa Martinez, Executive Director of the CDTC, and Mary knew that Teresa and CDTC had a connection to Sawyer. Mary reached out to Teresa, who reached out in turn to Kelsey Myers at Sawyer to see if they could help. Before they knew it, Sawyer had donated 10 Point ONE filters and 5-gallon bucket adapter kits, enabling 10 Vallecitos families to produce potable water. The filters arrived in Vallecitos in late December, and recipients called them “miraculous.”
“We wish to offer our sincere thanks to Sawyer,” said Fahey. “There has been no government assistance available to us, [and] we are still unable to produce potable water.” Vallecitos residents expect their new water treatment plant to be completed later this spring, but until then, they continue to rely on their Sawyer filters to keep them healthy and hydrated.
Amanda Wheelock is CDTC’s Marketing & Communications Specialist. Originally hailing from north Georgia, she fell in love with long trails when she worked on an Appalachian Trail maintaining crew in college. Since then, she’s dedicated her career to introducing others to the inspiration and awe she finds every time she visits our public lands.
