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8 Friends oF red rock canyon

Conejos Clean Water By Justin Garoutte

Environmental Justice in Colorado’s Conejos Land Grant Region

The mission of Conejos Clean Water is to build public awareness and en-
courage advocacy and education around environmental, social, economic,
and food justice issues in the Conejos Land Grant Region.

t’s another morning in southern Colorado’s provides water and life for our people. We won
I Conejos Land Grant Region, a region that has that battle, and today we continue to build public
seen more sweat and tears than I will ever know, a awareness and encourage advocacy and education
region with so much promise, resiliency and aspira- around environmental, social, economic and food
tions for a brighter future. justice issues throughout the Conejos Land Grant
Region.

Seven years
later, I find myself
charged with
leading Conejos
Clean Water into
the future. My
roots run deep, as
Volunteers dedicated to the preservation of Red Rock Canyon
I was born here
26 years ago, and
the Jaramillos
and Archuletas,
my family, have
called this place
Photo by Irene Owsley home for over six
generations. That
I walk the aching streets of Antonito, and the being said, I recognize and honor those who lived
warm Colorado sun spreads its blessings upon the in harmony with this fertile land, with our mother,
adobe houses, houses that were once homes, some for over 12,000 years. The layers of oppression
that still are, holding on in a town whose heart beats are stacked high here, often rendering me helpless
slow and steady, keeping a watchful, caring eye on as I attempt to do everything I can in the name of
its people, our culture and the land, air and water justice, in the name of ensuring that my people are
that give us life. protected from environmental and health hazards
and have healthy environments in which they can
If you walk around town long enough, you’ll live, work, play and learn.
eventually stumble upon River Street and Conejos
Clean Water, a small, grassroots organization, now One of our current environmental justice cam-
it its seventh year. Conejos Clean Water came about paigns focuses on the permanent protection of
in 2010 through a struggle for environmental justice our heritage as it pertains to around 66,000 acres
when radioactive, hazardous and toxic nuclear of timeless, pristine federal public lands here in
waste was to be transferred at a site just south of Conejos County. Over the past two years, we have
town, right next to the gentle San Antonio River that gone door-to-door cultivating conversations with
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the Rock - Volume 7 Issue 2