Perry R. Wilkes Jr. has been quietly working to
change Albuquerque’s water policies for 25 years. An aeronautical
engineer, Wilkes may lack formal training in water, but he reads,
goes to meetings and in the last year, he’s gotten organized. He
and his wife, Bette, founded the nonprofit Citizens for a Rational
Water Policy. What most piques Wilkes is Albuquerque’s open-sewer
system of concrete ditches, which he calls “Band-Aid,” and “very,
very expensive.” The ditches consume tax dollars and create death
traps when people are swept down them during summer storms. What’s
more, Wilkes says, the ditches prevent rainfall from helping to
recharge the city’s aquifer, which has dropped 140 feet in some
places over the past three decades and as much as 40 feet between
1989 and 1992 (HCN, 12/26/94). So far, he’s having trouble getting
developers and engineers to listen. “I’m really up against the
Cadillac Desert mentality here in Albuquerque,” he says, referring
to Marc Reisner’s book about Western water. Even though he’s
printed 3,000 brochures about the problem, most of his fellow
citizens seem unconcerned. “We can have a meeting on water and we
might attract 100 people. On the other side of town we might have
20,000 people watching a guy bounce a ball.” His organization was
born of frustration, he says, and a growing sense of urgency. “I’m
78, and this is my swan song. If the younger folks don’t take up on
it, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
For
more information, contact Citizens for a Rational Water Policy,
5147 Jennie Road SW, Albuquerque, NM 87121 (505/873-3239), or
e-mail: betwlk@juno.com.
*Karen
Mockler
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Water crusader wants allies.
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