Environmental Health and Protection Adventures

 

By

 

Larry J. Gordon, Visiting Professor

School of Public Administration

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico

 

With Contributions by Environmental Officials

 

Thomas E. Baca

Russell F. Rhoades

Cubia L. Clayton

Sarah B. Kotchian

 

 

 

FOREWORD

by

Cubia L. Clayton

Former Deputy Director,

New Mexico Environmental Improvement Division

 

            This is a story of one man's experiences while managing and improving the environment of New Mexico during one of the most interesting, exciting and tumultuous periods in our state's history.  It may be read with benefit and pleasure as a history at the local and state levels of our nation's attempt to deal with the effects of industrial revolution and unbridled western expansion.

 

            Larry Gordon was deeply involved with the development of national environ­mental control programs as both advocate and consultant from the earliest days of an emerging national awareness of the need for them.  In a multitude of situations, his programs and ideas implemented at the local level served as a national labora­tory.  It is difficult to estimate how many of the environmental health programs across the country owe at least part of their structure and implementation to his ideas, but I suspect that a thoughtful and perceptive reader anywhere in the country may see some of the ideas at work locally.

 

            This is also a story which could and should be read by students prepar­ing for a career in the environ­mental health field.  Although he may not have intended this as a text for emerging environmental program directors, all who have aspirations toward a profession in the field would benefit from a study of the principles and program elements which are so carefully enunciated.  They are as valid today as when Larry first brought them together in a cohesive whole.

 

            There is a perspective, however, which seems to me to be lacking in the story, and that is the more deeply personal and human side of Larry Gordon.  It is an aspect which Larry, who is usually a very private person does not often show, but it is as much a part of him and his story as any other.  Since I was a member of Larry's staff beginning in October, 1961 in Albuquerque, it may be appropriate for me to fill in some of the gaps.

 

            Larry notes that his first job out of college was teaching.  One might get the impres­sion that was but a short detour on the way to his true career field, but nothing could be further from the truth.  A new employee in the Albuquerque Environmental Health Depart­ment spent the first six weeks reading and studying with occasional trips to the field in the company of one of the more senior people to observe the solution to problems he had been studying. 

 

            Larry was constantly busy, one of the busiest persons I've ever known, but he always had time during the day to discuss the things I was studying and answer the questions that inevitably arose.  At such times, he never gave the impression that my questions were in any way an imposition.  He was always careful and thorough in his answers and seemingly willing to devote whatever time I wanted to discuss­ing and explaining.  In short, Larry was a private tutor for his new employ­ees, and one of the finest teachers I've ever known.

 

            Nor did his teaching stop when people progressed to full-time field work.  He required people to set aside at least one hour a day for reading various professional journals in order to remain current with progress in our area.  I can remember many long and fruitful discussions in the office which arose as a result of something I had read.  Again, Larry always seemed to have whatever time one wanted to participate, explain and teach.

 

            I must confess that it was many years later that I came to a full appreciation of the lessons I had learned over my years of association with Larry.  One day in the late seventies, I was reviewing some of the letters of resignation I had gotten from various employees and was suddenly struck by the fact that almost without exception they thanked me for the things I had taught them while I was serving as their supervisor.  I realized with one of those rare flashes of insight one sometimes gets that I was only emulating Larry, my own teacher.  Although teaching is only mentioned in passing in his book, I will always think of Larry personally as my first and most important teacher in the field of environmental health.

 

            Larry also possesses the rare ability to match program needs with personnel aptitudes and interest.  Many times over the years I have seen him promote people into jobs which required a specialized knowledge they didn't have fully developed at the time of promotion.  In almost every case, with Larry's help and guidance and a lot of extra hours in hard study, those same people became in fact what Larry pronounced them to be, the department's experts. 

 

            Early in my career, Larry designated me the department's expert in swim­ming pool sanita­tion and safety, and later expanded the task later to include water supply and sewage disposal systems.  If a question concern­ing these areas came up, Larry always deferred to me as "the department's expert."  I was not yet experienced enough or mature enough to appreciate that his knowl­edge and experience in the field was far ahead of mine and that the true expert was himself. 

 

            When he developed a local swimming pool ordinance based on a U.S. Public Health Service recommend code, he involved me at every step and incorpo­rated many of my suggestions.  I was immensely flattered and secure that I was the expert he proclaimed me to be.  That lasted until the first City Commission meeting to consider the ordinance.  Although Larry was to make the formal presentation of to the Commission, he asked that I attend as his backup and resource person.  

 

            While discussing the proposal, one of the Commis­sioners asked Larry what pH was.  Larry explained that it was an indication of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution.  But sensing the Commissioner wanted something more, he said that techni­cally it was defined as the log of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concen­tration.  This came from the man who always professed to have no great knowl­edge about the science of swimming pools!  The Commissioner was satisfied and I was suddenly enlightened.  Never again would I make the mistake of underestimat­ing Larry's knowledge in any area, and never again would I make the mistake of thinking I was necessarily the most knowledgeable person in the office in all areas of any program.

 

            I hope the reader will see from these examples that Larry is far more than a bureau­crat who understood the needs of his state and nation for programs to address and correct the problems of environmental deterioration.  He has the ability to manage people and surmount the almost overwhelming obstacles confronting one who tries to change things for the better, and he possesses both in about equal proportions.  I shall always cherish the years I had the privilege and opportu­nity of working with and learning from Larry Gordon.  He was and is my leader, teacher and friend.

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

            Larry Gordon is Visiting Professor, School of Public Administration, Univer­sity of New Mexico.  In l988, he retired as New Mexico Cabinet Secretary for Health and Environ­ment, after serving in various environmental health and protection, and public health positions for 38 years. 

 

            Mr.  Gordon started his career as a County Sanitarian in 1950 in Silver City, New Mexico after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and receiving his B.S. in biology and chemistry from the University of New Mexico.  He received his M.S. in biology with a major emphasis in ecology from UNM in l951, and earned his Master of Public Health from the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health in 1954.

 

            Mr.  Gordon envisioned and designed, gained statutory authorization to create, and was the first Director of the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency, and the New Mexico Scientific Laboratory System.  He also recommended creation of the New Mexico Public Health Division (initially termed the State Health Agency), and was instrumental in the planning and design of the New Mexico Health and Environment Department, which he headed as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Environment prior to his retirement from state government in 1988.

 

            Larry Gordon served as President of the 55,000 member American Public Health Association, the world's largest association of public health professionals, in 1980-81. 

 

            As a Navy Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service Reserve, he also fulfilled federal environmental health and protection responsibilities. 

 

            Mr.  Gordon and his wife, Nedra Gordon, live in Albuquerque.  Their daughter, Debra Dunlap, Executive Director of the Albuquerque Subcontractors Association, is married to businessman Rick Dunlap; they have two daughters, Dana and Kim.  Nedra and Larry's older son Kent Gordon owns and manages a marketing research organization, and lives in California with his wife Elli and daughter, Bianca.  Larry and Nedra's youngest son, Gary Gordon, is a partner in an Albuquer­que law firm.  Gary and his wife, Terri and daughter Celine, live in Placitas. 

 

            Larry Gordon is the recipient of numerous state and national professional honors and awards.  He is also listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the West.

 

 

 

ABOUT THE TITLE

 

            My brother, Ladd S. Gordon, was with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish from the time he graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1949 until his retirement from state government in 1975.  He subsequently held key professional positions with the National Rifle Association and Ducks Unlimited before he fully retired in 1985.

 

            During his tenure as New Mexico Game and Fish Director from 1962 through 1975, he had an exemplary record and moved the department into the era of modern game and fish management.  His record was one of professionalism and disdain of attempts to inject political sleaze into the department.  The New Mexico Game and Fish Department received international recognition during his tenure as Director.

 

            Ladd Gordon passed away prematurely in 1991 at age 66, one of the fifty Americans who die by slow suicide each hour from the slow, creeping, insidious, toxic, mostly irreversible and ultimately fatal effects of that uniquely perilous legal product called tobacco.

 

            Ladd planned to write a book dealing with his conservation and wildlife management experiences.  He planned to title it, A New Mexico Adventure.  I have partially plagiarized his planned title, but not the content.

 

 

Larry J. Gordon

Albuquerque, New Mexico

March 1, 1994

 

 

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

 

            This book is about environmental health and protection as well as other public health issues, experiences, principles and many of the key players involved in them in New Mexico from 1950 until 1994. 

 

            Larry Gordon was directly involved in nearly every major issue relating to the organization of environmental health and protection, and public health programs and agencies in New Mexico from 1950 through 1988, as well as the development and implementation of most environmental health and protection statutes, ordinances and policies during that period of dramatic change.  He took special pride in recruiting, developing and mentoring profes­sionals for leadership positions in environmental health and protection, and public health agencies.

 

            This book deals with numerous environmental and public health organizational, statutory, budgetary, programmatic, policies and political issues which occurred in New Mexico from 1950 through 1988.  Relevant involvement of governors, legislators, lobbyists, city commissioners, county commissioners and mayors is chronicled, as well as Larry Gordon's recommendations regarding creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the confirmation process involving former USPHS Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

 

            This book also contains a number of Mr.  Gordon's professional publications, letters and presenta­tions.  As he gained higher responsibilities in larger organizations, Mr.  Gordon found it essential to write and publish to the end that personnel in his organizations, as well as the public, would understand his vision, philosophy and organizational goals.

 

            Larry Gordon is the author of more than 185 publications dealing with local, state, and national environmental protection and public health policy. 

 

 

 

ABOUT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

            I wish to express appreciation to my wife Nedra and children Debra, Kent and Gary for their continuing support and their belief that I was accomplishing something important during my 38 year career in public service.  This support was particularly important during times of stress and controversy.  On a number of occasions, my wife encouraged me to remain in New Mexico during difficult times, rather than accept more lucrative professional offers elsewhere.  Additionally, all members of my family spent many hours reviewing and editing the manuscript for this book.

 

            My career and accomplishments would have been impossible without the support of dozens of outstanding professional protégés, supervisors and colleagues, many of whom are mentioned in this book.  Management is truly the art of getting things done with and through other people.  Many of my long time associates were also essential in reviewing, editing, and suggesting improvements in the contents of this book.

 

            It is important that I note the positive influence of my parents, Andrew J. and Deweylee S. Gordon, who inculcated me with a value system which included an absolute understanding of the necessity of ethical behavior.

 

            And finally, I thank the many citizens, civic and political leaders, and media reporters and editors who were supportive of progressive recommendations and actions.  Change is not possible in the absence of public support and understanding.

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.  DAWN OF A CAREER...............................................................................................................   1

 

2.  THE SEVENTH DISTRICT HEALTH DEPARTMENT...................................................................   2

 

3.  THE DIVISION OF SANITARY ENGINEERING AND SANITATION...............................................   3

 

4.  THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH...............................................   4

 

5.  REVISITING SANITARY ENGINEERING AND SANITATION ........................................................   5

 

6.  THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE..................................................................................................   6

            A.  In the Beginning ----......................................................................................................   6

            B.  An Era of Change..........................................................................................................   7

            C.  Food Protection in Albuquerque...................................................................................   9

            D.  Radiation in Nevada..................................................................................................... 12

            E.  Radiation Exposure in Albuquerque............................................................................. 13

            F.  Housing Conservation and Rehabilitation..................................................................... 14

            G.  Water and Sewage Related Issues.............................................................................. 15

            H.  Air Pollution in Albuquerque and New Mexico............................................................... 16

            I.  Valley Annexation.......................................................................................................... 20

            J.  The Municipal Health Act............................................................................................... 24

            K.  The Nation's First Environmental Health Department................................................... 25

            L.  Solid Waste Experiences.............................................................................................. 27

            M.  Animal Control............................................................................................................. 30

            N.  Achievement Recognition............................................................................................. 32

 

7.  RETURN TO SANTA FE — A NEW CHALLENGE..................................................................... 36

            A.  The Environmental Services Division........................................................................... 36

            B.  Outrage over a Paper Mill............................................................................................ 41

            C.  The Great DDT Fiasco................................................................................................. 42

            D.  A Statement on the Quality Of Our Environment.......................................................... 43

            E.  Regulating Land Use.................................................................................................... 45

            F.  Unification Needed for Environmental Management..................................................... 46

            G.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency................................................................. 49

            H.  The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency.................................................. 51

            I.  The Agent Orange Caper.............................................................................................. 57

            J.  1971 Environmental Improvement Agency Position Paper............................................ 58

            K.  Occupational Health and Safety................................................................................... 60

            L.  A Potpourri of Environmental Management Methods.................................................... 62

            M.  Mercury Hysteria.......................................................................................................... 66

            N.  Do Wildlife Have Rights?.............................................................................................. 68

            O.  The New Mexico Council on Environmental Quality...................................................... 70

            P.  Command-and-Control or Performance?..................................................................... 72

            Q.  Consumer Protection versus Special Interests............................................................. 73

 

8.  THE NEW MEXICO SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY SYSTEM........................................................ 76

            A.  The Public Health Laboratory....................................................................................... 76

            B.  The Environmental Laboratory..................................................................................... 77

            C.  The Scientific Laboratory System................................................................................. 78

            D.  A Regional Laboratory?............................................................................................... 82

            E.  A Pound-And-A-Half Won't Hurt You!........................................................................... 83

            F.  Slow Suicide and Slow Homicide................................................................................... 84

 

9.  THE NEW MEXICO PUBLIC HEALTH DIVISION......................................................................... 85

            A.  Recommending the Agency.......................................................................................... 85

            B.  Health Bill of Rights...................................................................................................... 87

 

10.  STATE HEALTH OFFICER..................................................................................................... 89

 

11.  THE HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT................................................................ 92

            A.  The Apodaca Years..................................................................................................... 92

            B.  The Bokum Incident...................................................................................................... 93

            C.  Bruce King Returns...................................................................................................... 94

            D.  Does New Mexico Have An Inferiority Complex?........................................................... 95

 

12.  PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION........................................ 97

            A.  Description of APHA..................................................................................................... 97

            B.  Testimony..................................................................................................................... 98

            C.  Comments on an Annual Meeting................................................................................ 99

            D.  The Ronald Reagan Administration............................................................................ 101

            E.  Ronald Reagan's EPA................................................................................................. 103

            F.  The EPA in Transition................................................................................................. 104

            G.  The Awful Truth about Our Earth................................................................................ 106

            H.  A National, Rational Energy Policy.............................................................................. 108

 

13.  RETURN TO CAMELOT?...................................................................................................... 110

            A.  Leaving the Health and Environment Department....................................................... 110

            B.  The Kinney Administration........................................................................................... 111

            C.  More Albuquerque Accomplishments.......................................................................... 113

            D.  Hazardous Waste Testimony....................................................................................... 115

            E.  Other Professional Opportunities................................................................................ 117

            F.  The USSR, A Land Of No Problems............................................................................ 118

            G.  The Schultz Administration.......................................................................................... 120

            H.  Regulator or Professional?.......................................................................................... 121

 

14.  THE ANAYA ADMINISTRATION.............................................................................................. 125

 

15.  RETURN TO THE HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT.......................................... 126

            A.  Appointment as Cabinet Secretary.............................................................................. 126

            B.  Guidance for HED Personnel...................................................................................... 128

            C.  The Carruthers Administration.................................................................................... 131

            D.  New Mexico Public Health Association Address........................................................... 132

            E.  The Legislature........................................................................................................... 135

            F.  The Road to Solid Waste Management....................................................................... 137

            G.  The Negative News Media........................................................................................... 138

            H.  More Professional Recognition.................................................................................... 140

            I.  Parting Thoughts.......................................................................................................... 141

 

16.  A REWARDING "RETIREMENT"............................................................................................ 143

            A.  The Zimmerman Award................................................................................................ 146

            B.  Public Health:  A Blurred Vision................................................................................... 149

 

17.  LADD S. GORDON:  CHAMPION OF WILDLIFE .................................................................... 155

 

18.  THE FUTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND PROTECTION....................................... 159

 

19.  THOMAS E. BACA COMMENTS:........................................................................................... 171

 

20.  RUSSELL F. RHOADES COMMENTS:................................................................................... 173

 

21.  SARAH B. KOTCHIAN COMMENTS:...................................................................................... 177

 

 

 

 

1.         DAWN OF A CAREER

 

"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune:  Omitted, all the voyage of their lives is bound in shallows and in miseries.  On such a full sea we are now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures."  Shakespeare.

 

The first light of dawn was barely touching the fir and spruce atop the Black Range between Hillsboro and Silver City as I drove to my first job with the New Mexico Department of Public Health.  That was in May of l950.

 

I had spent the previous night at my parents' farm-ranch which we called Amber Acres, near La Joya, New Mexico.  My parents had purchased several hundred acres of land near La Joya and donated it to the New Mexico Boys Ranch which they had planned, established and managed, as well as serving as Ranch Father and Mother.  Later, we moved to our own farm and ranch nearby.  After graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1949, I taught high school science at La Joya Independent School District in 1949-50.  In 1950, I had not yet completed my orals for the degree of Master of Science in biology with a primary emphasis in ecology.

 

As I crossed the Black Range in the early glow of dawn, I wondered about my new job as a "sanitarian" with the Seventh District Health Department in Silver City.  I had seen the posted position announcement, been interviewed and hired by District Health Officer John C. Mitchell, M.D., M.P.H.  But I still knew little about the duties.  The job required a degree in science, and was to pay $225 per month, 6¢ per mile for official mileage using my still-to-be-paid-for 1949 Hudson, and $6 a day per diem when I had to be away from Silver City overnight on business.  I would be receiving the $225 through seven checks each month:  one each from Grant, Luna, and Hidalgo Counties; Silver City, Deming, and Lordsburg; and the State of New Mexico.

 

 

 

2.         THE SEVENTH DISTRICT HEALTH DEPARTMENT

 

The Grant County headquarters of the Seventh District Health Department, as was typical of many health offices of that era, was located in the basement of the court house.  The district also had offices in the court houses in Deming and Lordsburg. 

 

My programmatic responsibilities included food protection, milk sanitation, industrial hygiene, solid wastes, plague surveillance, insect and rodent control, nuisances, municipal sewage treatment plants, water supplies, swimming pools, and hotels and motels for the counties of Grant, Luna and Hidalgo, plus all the dairy farms shipping into that district from the lower Rio Grande Valley.  Throughout my career, I valued and professionally profited from those early experiences, which involved personal relations, public relations, enforce­ment, prioritization, risk assessment, epidemiology, risk communication, sampling, surveil­lance, laboratory analysis, and data analysis and interpretation.  What a way to begin my career!

 

In later years, I often wondered if I would have developed a career in the field of public and environmental health had it not been for the constant mentoring and support offered by Dr.  Mitchell.  He had been educated in public health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and he took a great deal of time to instruct me in the principles and practices of public health.  He went out of his way to see that I attended appropriate professional meetings to expand my knowledge and horizons.  And he supported me locally to ensure that I was successful and effective.  Prior to my first court case he took me to see the Judge, told the Judge that he wanted me to be effective, and admonished the Judge to render a supportive decision. 

 

The Judge did just that!

 

On August 26th, 1950, Nedra Callender and I were married in A1buquerque, and moved to Silver City to make our first home.  Transportation problems made it impractical to utilize the New Mexico Public Health Laboratory in Albuquerque for water, milk and food work, so Dr.  Mitchell sent hired Nedra and sent her to be further trained under the tutelage of State Public Health Laborato­ry Director Myrtle Greenfield.  This greatly enhanced Nedra's laboratory skills, ensured compliance with Standard Methods, and she became the laboratory technician for the District Health Department.  Nedra's degree from UNM was in biology and her previous experience had been in microbi­ology.  The extra money from the laboratory work was a welcome addition to my $225 salary.  I also frequently worked as night manager at a Silver City theater, and slept in my car when away from home overnight to help live within our income.

 

It was a very enjoyable and educational stage of my career!

 

 

 

3.         THE DIVISION OF SANITARY ENGINEERING AND SANITATION

 

In the spring of 1951, I was invited to accept a transfer and a promotion to the State office effective August 1, 1951.  James R. Scott, M.D., Ph.D., was State Health Officer; Charles G.  Caldwell, M.S., was Division Director; and Carl E. Henderson, M.S., was my division supervisor.  I was assigned as the state sanitarian, with Carl Henderson as my boss.  Other division supervisors with whom I was privileged to work, included James Doughty, Carl Jensen and Robert P. Lowe.  Again, I was very fortunate to have outstanding professionals as mentors.  My duties were statewide ensuring quality control and training for field staff.  The training involved all aspects of the duties of local environmental health personnel throughout the state.

 

State Health Officer Scott was particularly proud of the personnel in the Division of Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation.  One morning in the spring of 1953, I was privileged to accompany the senior Division personnel to an informal meeting with Dr.  Scott.  At one point, Dr.  Scott chose to commence praising "his boys", as he termed us.  He indicated his pride in the graduate professional degrees of each person present, but completely ignored me.  I finally spoke up to remind him that I had a Master's degree in biology with an emphasis in ecology.  He looked at me rather condescendingly and said, "Son, we've got to get you off to school!"

 

(Our adorable daughter, Debra Gordon, was born in Albuquerque August 27, 1951, and I was actually home!)

 

I had already determined that earning the degree of Master of Public Health was essential for my further professional development and career advancement.  I investigated a number of schools of public health and chose to apply to the University of Michigan School Of Public Health due to its academic and professional strengths, as well as the fact that the environmental health program had close ties to the National Sanitation Foundation housed within the School of Public Health.

 

 

 

4.         THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

 

(Our adorable son, Kent Gordon, was born in Santa Fe, September 16, 1953, the first night after I left home by train enroute the University of Michigan.)

 

Michigan was among the older and more prestigious schools of public health.  All faculty had excelled as practitioners prior to academic appointment, and all students were required to have a minimum of three years field experience before qualifying for admission.  These two factors made the school distinctly practitioner oriented.  In later years, I repeated­ly observed that Michigan School of Public Health Alumni disproportionately held key leadership roles in federal, state and local agencies as well as in professional groups such as the American Public Health Association.

 

My time spent at Michigan was academically, professionally and personally gratify­ing, and consistently proved to be among the "keys to the kingdom" for an extremely rewarding career in public and environmental health.  For some years after graduating, I felt that I should have been taught more specific facts and techniques.  Over a longer period of time, however, I have been increasingly thankful for the orientation to public and environ­mental health philosophy, concepts and practices.

 

 

 

5.         REVISITING SANITARY ENGINEERING AND SANITATION

 

I hoped that earning the MPH would provide an opportunity for a promotion within the Division.  I was eager to utilize my newly acquired knowledge.  But I did not reckon with the ways of a bureaucracy.  I found myself performing the same duties, and additionally being assigned local responsibilities within the First District Health Department headquartered in Santa Fe.  That was acceptable, but the attitude of District Health Officer Marion Hotopp was not.  I was trained to be effective and ensure compliance with applicable requirements.  To me, that was the ethical way of serving the public and earning my salary (by now $325 per month).  After failing to gain compliance through warnings, written notices and bluff, I commenced legal action against a number of individuals and businesses in the First District.  Upon learning of these actions, Dr.  Hotopp shook her finger in my face and admonished, "Don't you ever, don't you ever, take legal action in my District, for to do so is to admit failure through health education."

 

I immediately requested that the First District duties be reassigned, and I returned to my statewide training and quality control role.

 

Shortly after that, I was invited to accept the position of chief sanitarian with the Health Department of the city of Albuquerque at $450 per month.  Big bucks!  When I informed Charles G.  Caldwell that I was resigning, he said, "We can meet that salary."  I could only respond that he should have said that yesterday, and that I was already committed.

 

 

 

6.         THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE

 

A.  In the Beginning —

 

The Albuquerque Health Department provided a challenging experience as well as a career opportunity.  Programmatic scope was very limited.  No other personnel in the department had any formal education in public or environmental health, or even had a degree of any type.  The director, Wayne Stell, devoted most of his time to the interests of his church, his commercial "help-yourself" laundry, and his coin-operated "ponies" in front of markets.  Most of the personnel would meet each morning for coffee and small-talk in the old Hilton Hotel Coffee Shop, and then retire to their other interests that included a dog kennel, a small farm, home chores, or reading at the Albuquerque Public Library for the day.  After observing this for a few weeks, I suggested to the director that all personnel (including the director) at least check back into the office at the end of the day.  Stell said that he did not want the troops to do anything he didn't want to do.

 

I also found that a few personnel would not even bother to appear at the morning coffee sessions for a few weeks prior to the city election as they tried to insure election of their favorite candidates to the city commission.  Others would visit dairies, food establish­ments and slaughterhouses occasionally to recommend the purchase of Lindane vaporizers (later outlawed) prior to returning after hours to sell the vaporizers.

 

I learned that some personnel would visit businesses to collect fees-for-service as required by city ordinance, and that the fees collected never reached the city treasurer.

 

City employees were being paid 5¢ per mile plus gasoline from the city pumps for the use of their private vehicles, there being no city vehicles furnished.  There was a long line of personal vehicles lined up at the city gasoline pumps each Friday afternoon as city personnel prepared for their weekend trips on personal business, or emptied their tanks on the mesa to make it appear they had driven more miles in order to qualify for higher mileage reimburse­ment.

 

About this time, Howell G.  "Bud" Ervien was hired as Assistant City Manager.  One of his first acts was to develop a fleet of city vehicles and a car pool for employees previously driving on mileage.  Total miles reported as traveled by city employees were miraculously cut in half!

 

I obviously had a problem on my hands.  The department director reluctantly agreed that I could require personnel to attend all-day training courses every Friday.  This served to infuriate a number of personnel to the end that they resigned.

 

B.  An Era of Change

 

During this period, something really positive occurred.  I was able to hire Peter O. Griego!  Peter, a biology graduate of UNM, was qualified, motivated, goal-oriented, ethical and loyal.  He provided a breach in the otherwise unified wall of opposition and corruption.  Other personnel attempted to get him to play their game, join their ranks, and told him he was making them look bad.  Having Peter Griego on staff led to further resignations, and we were able to hire a few more qualified personnel.  Position descriptions were modernized, job titles were improved, salary scales were upgraded, and professionalism enhanced.  We persuaded all employees to wear coats and ties, unless involved in milk sanitation or meat inspection duties.

 

One morning I looked out my fifth floor office window and observed one of our personnel gunning the engine of his official vehicle and almost covering the area with black exhaust.  Previously, I had not had sufficient cause to get rid of him.  I knew him to be an alcoholic, and his work was slip-shod.  I asked Peter Griego to get his personal vehicle.  We followed the individual all day as he went to Belen and back without doing any work.  I asked him into my office late that afternoon and told him what I had observed.  I inquired if he preferred to resign immediately, or be dismissed.  He glared at me and retorted:  "You son of a bitch, I'll resign."  He was the last of the incompetents whom I had inherited.

 

I should note that Lester Stevenson, one of the original crew, had always attempted to do his job, difficult though it was under the conditions.  As the department was professionalized and Les found he was being supported, he became a key force in administering pure food control efforts upgrading the operations of all city food processing establishments, as well as those shipping food or food products into the city from elsewhere in the state. 

 

With the addition of a number of qualified personnel, program effectiveness and the reputation of the department began to significantly improve.  A number of the new personnel became career professionals, and I was privileged to work with them for the remainder of my career.  Among these were: 

 

Pat Kneafsey, later to be a division chief, earn his MPH, become Special Projects Manager in the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency (EIA), and Director of the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department

 

Thomas E. Baca, later to earn his MPH, become Manager of the EIA Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, EIA Field Services Manager, Director of the Environmen­tal Improvement Division from 1977 until 1981, Santa Fe City Manager, University of Arizona Vice President, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment for the U.S. Department of Defense in 1990, and Director of Environmental Management for Los Alamos National Laboratories in 1994.

 

Russell F. Rhoades, later to earn his MPH, become EIA OSHA Manager, Environ­mental Improvement Division (EID) Field Services Manager, EID Director from 1981 until 1983, and Director of Environmental Services for U.S. EPA Region VI in 1984, Director of the Arizona Environmental Quality Department, and Director of Environmental Management for Public Service Co.  of New Mexico. 

 

Cubia L. Clayton, who later headed water and sewage control efforts for the Albu­quer­que Environmental Health Department, earned his MPH, and became Deputy EID Director in 1977, and Air Quality Bureau Chief in 1987; and an Environmental Consultant upon his retirement from state government in 1989.

 

John Cordova, who was later selected to head the Albuquerque Model Cities Program, then directed the Joint Projects Office in Washington for all U.S. Senators and Representative form New Mexico, and performed in a variety of important roles as a consultant. 

 

Harold Eitzen, who earned his DrPH and became a well known industrial hygienist and epidemiologist working primarily in the private sector.

 

Richard Brusuelas, who earned his MPH, became environmental health planner for the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department, Dade County (Florida) environmental health planner, Director of the New Mexico Health Systems Agency, a health services consultant, and Bernalillo County Environmental Health Director in 1992.

 

            A number of other significant changes also occurred in Albuquerque.  Wayne Stell resigned, and I was appointed director in November, 1957.  With the complete involvement and support of these new professionals, all departmental functions were improved.  We established excellent working relationships with the State Division of Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation, the U.S. Public Health Service, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the State Public Health Laboratory in Albuquerque.  I had become a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Reserve which led to several opportunities for further training and active duty assignment and experience.  The public, the news media, and the city commission were amazingly supportive.

 

            The following discussion of the city food protection program is a typical example of changes that occurred. 

                                                                             

C.  Food Protection in Albuquerque

 

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, than to initiate a new order of things.  For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order.  Machiavelli

 

In 1955, a U.S. Public Health Service evaluation of the food program indicated it was among the worst in the state and the nation in terms of compliance as well as administration.  We commenced routine, thorough inspections; continuing training classes for food service employees and managers; proper administration of state laws (local ordinances were still antiquated); and worked with the news media to keep the public informed of the problems and department activities and needs.

 

Scores of establishments were downgraded, many voluntarily closed rather than be downgraded and subjected to publicity by the news media, and the compliance ratings began to dramatically improve. 

 

Peter O. Griego once asked me how I was able to close so many substandard establish­ments without taking legal action.  I pointed out that I merely gave them their choice of being downgraded and subjected to an article in the newspapers, or closing voluntarily until standards were met.  They usually chose the voluntary route.

 

Peter discovered that the method worked.  We didn't have to resort to a single court case!

 

But a number of somewhat recalcitrant owners and operators were feeling the pressure, and were reluctant to comply.  I was invited to a meeting of such operators in a private dining room at Lobo Joe's Restaurant on East Central, and was advised that my continued employment with the city would be in jeopardy if we continued our aggressive efforts.

 

On Christmas Eve of my first year as Director, a number of Christmas goodies such as a frozen turkey, a smoked ham and an ice cream cake were delivered to my home courtesy of some of the larger businesses which we regulated.  I returned all of them and advised the business managers and owners that such practices were no longer appropriate.  I also learned that some of our other personnel had been accepting such gifts.  Anyway, the practice was stopped once and for all.

 

On one occasion, Peter O. Griego inspected the state's largest convention hotel, the Western Skies, indicated that he planned to downgrade the food establishment, and asked to see the manager.  The manager sent back word that he would meet Peter in the bar, as "he had always found elsewhere that such downgrading could be averted."  By the time the manager came down to meet Peter, he found the red grade "C" on the front door, while Peter had gone on to other duties.

 

We continued despite such adventures.

 

We also vigorously enforced the state and city pure food acts which covered sanita­tion, wholesomeness, adulteration, packaging and labeling of food and food products.  We applied the requirements to all food processors in New Mexico which shipped into the City of Albuquerque.

 

One specific example:  When I first visited the facilities of the Albuquerque Ice Company, I was shocked.  Delivery truck drivers were walking over the freezing vats in their street shoes and clothes.  The water supply was unsafe.  Ice was delivered in canvas bags which were never washed.  The canvas bags were frequently dragged across sidewalks during delivery.  When we insisted on the necessary changes, the contract truck drivers all descended on my office to convince me the changes were unworkable and would drive them out of business. 

 

We implemented the requirements, and the company was able to comply and thrive!

 

We conducted routine six-hour food service training courses for food service employees, and sponsored seminars for food service managers.  The seminars were co-sponsored by the University of New Mexico, the USPHS, the New Mexico Restaurant Association, and the National Sanitation Foundation.

 

Within two years both Peter O. Griego and I were awarded Honorary Life Member­ships in the New Mexico Restaurant Association for our efforts in making it "Safe to Eat Out."

 

In 1959, the Albuquerque Health Department was the proud recipient of the National Samuel J. Crumbine Certificate of Merit for "development of a Comprehensive Program of Environmental Sanitation and the Eating and Drinking component thereof".  The Samuel J. Crumbine Awards Jury requested information about any gains accruing from participation in the awards program.  Here are some excerpts from our reply:

 

1.      Our entire staff cooperated in completing the application forms.  This created considerable comment as it brought to everyone's attention all the items that must be considered in a comprehensive program.  Since that time, we have attempted to remedy many of the shortcomings which were noted.

 

2.      The Award created a great deal of pride and a considerable degree of self confi­dence among all the members of our staff. 

 

3.      The local newspapers and TV stations were most generous in their releases dealing with the Award, increasing the prestige of this department and the effectiveness of our programs.  This enhanced our position with the city commissioners and with other departments and agencies.

 

4.      The Albuquerque National Bank is devoting its entire September-October issue of Albuquerque Progress (14 pages) to the personnel and programs of the department.  Some twelve to fourteen thousand copies will be distributed.  Such a publication would cost close to $10,000 if we had this done as a public relations venture.

 

In l961, the department was awarded the highest national Crumbine Award for the excellence of the food sanitation program protection program in Albuquerque.

 

I had been appointed a Special Consultant to the U.S. Public Health Service and served on the USPHS Food Sanitation Advisory Committee, which developed a new Recommended Food Service Ordinance and Code.  With the support of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, Albuquerque became first in the nation to adopt the new food service ordinance.

 

When the new USPHS Recommended Ordinance and Code were recommended for local adoption by the city commission in 1962, the New Mexico Restaurant Association wrote:

 

The organized food service industry is proud of the cooperative relationship that has been developed with the Albuquerque Health Department, and we realize the desir­ability of promoting modern uniform public health legislation.  This cooperation and understanding has resulted in a high level of food sanitation standards and practices in this area, which has caused the sanitation program in Albuquerque to be recog­nized nationally.  Albuquerque restaurateurs are proud of the improvements achieved in food sanitation in the last few years.  This has been economically healthy for the industry, as our citizens now know that it's "safe to eat out".  Our customers have faith in our restaurants and our health department.  We understand the desir­ability of further improving food sanitation practices throughout the country.

 

Your favorable consideration will be appreciated.

 

(Our adorable son, Gary Gordon, was born in Albuquerque, May 23, 1961.  I was in town, but left later that day for a presentation at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.  But my fee more than paid for all health care expenses.  That was prior to the era of everyone having, or believing they were entitled to, health care insurance.  We still thought we had a responsibility to look after ourselves!)

 

D.  Radiation in Nevada

 

I always valued and professionally profited from my consulting and other relationships with various national official and voluntary agencies and associations.  Prominent among these was my status as a commissioned reserve officer in the U.S. Public Health Service.  I was initially commissioned in 1955 shortly after joining the Albuquerque Health Department.  Over the years, I was promoted to the rank of USPHS Captain, equivalent to a Navy Captain.  On two occasions, my commission was activated to serve in conjunction with nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site.  This provided invaluable training and experience, which, over the years, enabled me to better understand both radiation and risk assessment. 

 

On one such assignment, I served for three months as a team leader in Mesquite, Nevada and Cedar City, Utah, during an era when federal concern and leadership regarding nuclear testing was sloppy at best.  Time has proven that some of the "shots" (rather than explosions) during the fifties and early sixties created unacceptably dangerous levels of radioactive exposure from nuclear fallout.  Most of the off-site fallout occurred in southern Nevada and southern Utah, although some occurred world-wide.  This eventually led to a ban on surface testing of the "devices".  We were instructed to call them "devices," rather than bombs.  We were also instructed to refrain from utilizing such terms as "hot" in relation to high levels of radioactive fallout.  A responsible attitude on the part of the Congress and administration was not evident, and this resulted in litigation in later years. 

 

While I was responsible for monitoring the fallout from numerous "shots," the most awesome shot, titled "Hood," was detonated in the early morning hours of darkness in July, 1968.  I was probably about 100 miles from ground-zero.  The illumination from the fire ball created by Hood was so brilliant that I could have read a newspaper for a short period of time.  Hood proved to be the largest nuclear device ever detonated in the continental United States.  This experience gave me an understanding of the awesome damage which would be caused by a nuclear war.

 

During this era of atomic testing and weapons development, the government issued blithe assurances that there was no reason to fear nuclear experiments -- even as their secret and classified documents suggested there was reason to fear.  The government seemed to be determined to indicate that radiation doses were not large enough to harm human beings. 

 

U.S. Atomic Energy Commissioner Willard Libby stated, "People have got to learn to live with the facts of life, and part of the facts of life are fallout."  A.E.C Commissioner Thomas Murray stated, "We must not let anything interfere with this series of tests -- nothing." 

 

Many years later, I requested information regarding radiation exposure which I received during my tour of duty.  In my case, my total exposure was extremely low, probably insignificant, despite the fact that I spent several months measuring fallout. 

 

E.  Radiation Exposure in Albuquerque

 

Prior to 1957, serious radiation exposure from shoe-fitting fluoroscopes was common­place.  Most major shoe stores used them.  None of the machines met proper standards in their design or use, and they constituted a definite public health hazard.  Many delivered more than 10 times as much radiation per minute as a medical fluoroscope.  Children received overlong exposures while a clerk, parent or friend took turns looking at the foot bones.  This process was often repeated at several stores.

 

Although I did not have specific regulatory authority, I issued a letter to the stores requesting that the use of all such devices be discontinued immediately, and gained 100% cooperation.

 

In conjunction with representatives of the U.S. Public Health Service and the New Mexico Department of Public Health, we also surveyed all dental X -ray and fluoroscope machines in the city.  Recommendations for safety were issued to all dental practitioners.

 

Radiation protection efforts were the first step in our development of a city industrial hygiene program in 1960. 

 

Solutions were frequently simpler in those days.  We were able to solve many problems through administrative decision and action without going through the process of gaining passage of a new ordinance, regulation or statute.

 

F.  Housing Conservation and Rehabilitation

 

In l958, we conducted a community housing survey, using the standards and proce­dures developed by the American Public Health Association.  Community support for improving the sanitation and safety of dwellings in Albuquerque was strong.  We continued the process of working with community groups, churches, businesses and various govern­mental organizations for more than a year before recommending an ordinance similar to one developed and recommended by the American Public Health Association.  The ordinance was designed to cover maintenance, occupancy, and supplied facilities of existing dwellings, rather than new construction.

 

Albuquerque Journal reporter Marianne Johnson wrote a series of feature articles which included pictures of some of the conditions.  The Board of Realtors was particularly supportive, as was the Albuquerque Home Builders Association after some early differences.

 

The city commission unanimously adopted the proposed ordinance in 1959.  Improve­ments were striking.  The program was based not only on enforcement, but on the coopera­tive efforts of all the agencies and groups we had worked with earlier.  Businesses gave special prices to those attempting to comply.  Welfare workers, churches and community groups helped.  The efforts of such city departments as Refuse, Public Works, Buildings and Inspections, and Fire were effective and essential.  In cooperation with dozens of other agencies and groups, we sponsored city-wide "Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up" campaigns.

 

The program focused on specific neighborhoods, and helped create improved community pride.

 

This successful venture led to the Albuquerque Health Department initiating and spawning the City Urban Renewal program and the low rent, leased housing program.

 

Commencing in 1961, the Albuquerque Health Department became part of a team effort to inspect scores of dilapidated downtown commercial buildings.  Other departments were Fire and the Building and Inspections Department.  A.P.Garland, Superintendent of the Building and Inspections Department, was the team leader.  This team effort led to wide­spread improvements, as well as condemning and razing a number of unsafe structures.

 

G.  Water and Sewage Related Issues

 

Until 1959, there had been no effective regulation of water supplies, on-site sewage disposal, and subdivision lot sizes within the city and its five mile planning jurisdiction.  The Albuquerque Health Department developed standards for water supplies and sewage disposal, and the City Health Advisory Board developed a policy regarding minimum lot sizes, and stated preference for extending city water and sewer lines.  The City Planning Department subsequently recognized and adopted the standards and policy.  The city commission backed the department on the first appeal.  That support set the tone, and water and sewage control efforts continued to be effective.

 

To further insure safe drinking water, Albuquerque Health Department personnel also commenced efforts to rid the city of dangerous plumbing arrangements known as cross-connections and inter-connections in businesses which they visited.  We even found them commonplace in mortuaries.

 

There had been little, if any, control of the sanitation and safety of swimming pools.  A modern ordinance was developed and approved by the city commission, resulting in an upgrading of pools. 

 

During commission deliberation on the proposed swimming pool ordinance, Commis­sioner William Atkinson asked me what "pH" was.  I simply replied that it was the recipro­cal of the log of the hydrogen ion concentration.  There were no further questions.  Sixteen pools were closed in 1959. 

 

H.  Air Pollution in Albuquerque and New Mexico

 

Live dangerously, breathe deeply!

 

While still with the Division of Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation in 1954, I met with Albuquerque city commissioners regarding emerging concern over air pollution.

 

Air pollution in Albuquerque was nothing new.  In the early days, residents relied primarily on wood-burning as sources of heat.  When my father, Andrew J. Gordon, was Forest Ranger on the Tijeras District in the early 1930s, I recall the time he spent issuing wood permits.  Old U.S. Highway 66 from Tijeras to Albuquerque had a steady stream of trucks and horse-drawn wagons supplying wood for homes and businesses in the valley.  Wood-burning, coupled with the topography and meteorology, had long made Albuquerque a natural for air pollution, particularly in winter months.

 

By 1954, commissioners had become concerned about a number of point sources, particularly the sawmill area of the north valley.  In 1955, the commission adopted an ordinance designed primarily to deal with a few such point sources.  Responsibility for administering the ordinance was delegated to the Building and Inspections Department, but no resources for equipment, analyses, or personnel were allocated.  The ordinance was on the books, but was never energetically enforced.

 

In 1958, I developed an arrangement with the U.S. Public Health Service to continu­ously sample air for particulates, including their chemical composition.  The USPHS furnished the monitoring equipment and analyzed samples.  The news media cooperated by portraying the results.  I frequently met with various community and professional groups to discuss the problem and indicate the need for controls.  City Planning Director Harry B. Coblentz was particularly supportive of the need to develop an effective program and transfer administrative responsibility to the Albuquerque Health Department.  Several local physicians were also enthusiastic about the need for a new and effective ordinance.

 

By l962, point sources were still common, and open-burning of wastes, refuse, weeds, and agricultural stubble was widespread.

 

In 1962, Albuquerque Tribune reporter Moises Sandoval wrote a series of front page feature articles which accurately discussed the problem and the need for an effective approach.  Enforcement responsibility for the l955 ordinance was transferred to the Albuquer­que Health Department, and we commenced developing a new ordinance.  Led by County Commissioner Harry Kinney (later to be a city commissioner and two-term Albuquerque mayor), the county commission also became interested in developing an ordinance.

 

While we were developing the new ordinances, we commenced enforcement of the existing ordinance where it could be useful, particularly against open-burning, sand and gravel operations, and asphalt mix plants.

 

Following extensive public information, we scheduled a public hearing on the proposed ordinance in October, 1962.  We had a large, but practically empty room.  Those in attendance included Albuquerque Tribune reporter Moises Sandoval, one TV cameraman, and two of us from the Albuquerque Health Department.  We proceeded with preliminary efforts to schedule the proposed ordinance for commission action. 

 

And then the sky fell in!

 

I was invited by representatives of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the Albuquerque Industrial Development Service to attend a closed-door session.  They wanted me to back off, and told me that to even talk about air pollution in Albuquerque would ruin the economy and drive industry out of the area.  One even suggested that I should be "tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail."

 

It was not a pleasant experience!

 

We went ahead and scheduled the ordinance for action by the city and county commissions.  The county commission slightly altered its ordinance, but both were adopted within a few months.

 

(How attitudes and times changed.  The Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and economic development officials became foremost proponents of environmental health and environmental quality in Albuquerque.  They understood that we can't have a healthy economy without a healthy environment.  Environmental activists have been slower to recognize that the converse is also true, and that the environment and the economy are closely interdigitated.)

 

The previous City Health Advisory Board later became a city-county board and was given the additional responsibilities of providing advice on air pollution issues.

 

Bernalillo County did not provide funding for the city-county program, but having a city-county program enabled us to receive three-to-one USPHS matching funds instead of the fifty-fifty awarded a single governmental unit.  The USPHS recognized the need for area-wide controls and uniformity.

 

And we did, too!

 

We worked with the state Division of Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation to develop a State law.  The first bill was introduced by a Bernalillo County Representative in 1963.  He caught so much pressure from polluter interests that he dropped sponsorship, and the bill was never reported out of committee.

 

In the next session of the legislature, Senator Austin Roberts from San Juan County introduced the bill again, but dropped sponsorship due to the concerns of energy interests in San Juan County.

 

Next, Senator Sterling Black of Los Alamos sponsored a bill, and it actually moved to a hearing before the Senate Conservation Committee.  At this hearing, Senator Harold Runnels said they thought air pollution was green (the color of money) in Lea County.  The hearing rapidly deteriorated as other senators guffawed us out of the room. 

 

I was not sure if there was a formal "do not pass" vote, or if they just reported out the laughter!

 

(It was paradoxical that the state building in Santa Fe, which housed the Health and Environment Department, was named the Runnels Building.  Harold Runnels, later a U.S. Representative, was not a role model or positive force for health or environment.)

 

By l967, it was becoming apparent that there would soon be federal air quality legislation, and that states would be mandated to enact legislation.  A group of industry officials developed a draft bill, which was extremely weak and polluter oriented.  They submitted it to the State Board of Public Health for review and endorsement.  Board members were apparently so pleased that the bill provided for enforcement by the New Mexico Department of Public Health that they failed to notice all its weaknesses.  The Board unanimously endorsed the draft bill.  That inappropriate action precluded the Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation professional staff from opposing or attempting to improve the measure.

 

That endorsement by the State Board of Health also meant that Albuquerque Health Department personnel were the only advocates having the freedom to push for a stronger and more effective measure.

 

In the 1967 legislature, I requested Senator Robert Jones of Bernalillo County to introduce a measure which the city drafted and supported.  It passed the Senate with little opposition.  But the groups opposing it had decided to deal with it when it moved to the House.  A committee substitute was passed out of the first house committee.  Assistant City Attorney D. Pete Rask was extremely helpful in developing a number of amendments to improve the bill.  City Commission Chairman Ralph Trigg spent many hours on the phone attempting to gain support from the financial institutions which backed many of the interests opposing the bill. 

 

But the pollution interests showed their muscle.  At one hearing, the chair said he needed to leave the room for a few minutes and would just turn things over to the industry lobbyist (who was an excellent, effective lobbyist and a respected adversary).  At a joint House-Senate Committee hearing, an environmental activist (the first I had come across) from Los Alamos, said that he would rather live in a cave and use candles than tolerate the Four Corners Power Plant.  That statement certainly didn't help our cause, and created a huge smile on the face of Max Llewelyn, President of the Neanderthal-minded Arizona Public Service Company.

 

In the final analysis, the legislative process worked, a good bill was developed, and was signed into law.

 

I was also involved in the development and passage of the New Mexico Water Pollution Control Act during the same 1967 session.  My brother Ladd S. Gordon, Director of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, was more directly involved with the water act.  However, the intrigue was basically the same as it was for the air act.  The final products were both good legislation, although both were subsequently amended and some­times weakened later.

 

The new state air act repealed the existing Albuquerque and Bernalillo County air ordinances.  The Albuquerque Health Department Advisory Board became the City-County Air Quality Control Board and was vested with powers in accordance with the provision of the new state law.  We commenced public hearings to develop new and more comprehensive and effective board regulations.

 

In 1968, I commenced the same process at the state level, thus getting the state into the action for the first time.

 

"We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship; dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and I will say, the love we give our fragile craft."  Adlai Stevenson.

 

I.  Valley Annexation

 

Albuquerque City Manager Edmund Engel was a planner and a visionary.  He tried to view things the way they should be.  He was not a politician, but was able to serve as City Manager from the early fifties to the mid-sixties through the terms of many different commissioners.  He didn't socialize or belong to community groups, but was all business.  Previously, Engel had been a U.S. Navy officer, as well as a city planner in Long Beach, California before being brought to Albuquerque when the reform-minded Citizens Committee took power in the early 1950s.

 

When Ed Engel was finally dismissed, he didn't complain or hold a press conference.  He simply packed his personal belongings, carried them across the street to his car, and went home.  Only three of us later took a gift of appreciation to his home.  These three were Parks and Recreation Director Bob Burgan, City Attorney Frank Horan and I.  Engel helped move city government from the spoils system to a progressive and enlightened form of government.  Shortly after his dismissal, he was appointed Assistant to the President of New Mexico State University.

 

In 1964, Edmund Engel recognized that the Albuquerque metropolitan area would benefit from a wide variety of city services.  Instead of attempting city-county consolidation, he had a different approach.  He asked me to prepare a comprehensive report on the water and sewer problems in the Albuquerque valley.  This report, and some from other City departments, was submitted to the city planning commission and the city commission as part of Engel's case for annexation and extension of city services and utilities.  Engel developed a proposal that the commission accomplish the annexation by first annexing a strip by volun­tary annexation around the entire valley area, from Sandia Pueblo on the North to Isleta Pueblo on the South.  State law provided that a municipality could annex an area already encircled by the city.  The city commission subsequently annexed the entire valley area, primarily to remedy the already obvious problems of water pollution and contamination of water supplies.

 

Alfred Schwartzman, owner of Schwartzman Packing in the south valley, opposed annexation of his large plant and property holdings even though solid and liquid wastes from his operation posed one of the most significant contamination, pollution, insect, and odor problems in the Albuquerque metropolitan area.  Al Schwartzman took his case to district court.  The city brought in expert witnesses, and based its case on pollution problems, good planning and the greatest good for the entire community.  The judge ruled in Schwartzman's favor and admonished the city to the effect that "you can't just throw a lasso around an area and annex it."

 

The planning, the goal and the action had been excellent, but the judge didn't buy the legality. 

 

Environmental problems in the valley area outside the city limits continued to be re-discovered, re-studied, re-discussed, and new proposals made for some sort of solution.  Had the city prevailed in 1964, city services and utilities would have been available throughout the valley, and the water and sewage problems would have been solved.

 

Over the years, the ground-water problems became worse, and the community did not muster the collective community and political will to do what was essential to solve the problem.  Specifically, to provide public water and sewer services to the entire valley area, either by extending the city system, or authorizing an area-wide water, sewer and waste district to provide services from Bernalillo to Belen.  Without a public, area-wide approach, the problems only became worse. 

 

In 1983, I was requested to attend a south valley community meeting to discuss the problem of groundwater contamination.  I read my statement, and it was well received.  I then noted that it was the same statement I had developed for the Albuquerque Planning Commission in 1964, and the problem had only become more serious, complex and expen­sive to solve. 

 

That 1964 letter to the Albuquerque Planning Commission stated, in part:

 

As far back as 1954, the City and State Health Departments were cognizant of the water and sewage problems in the valley area, and both agencies made recom­mendations for stop-gap or temporary control measures.  This included a recommen­dation to the City Planning Commission that subdivisions within the five-mile zone not be approved unless public water and sewage facilities were available to the lots.....Septic tanks were never intended or designed to be used in densely populated areas or subdivisions on a mass basis, but were intended for use for relatively isolated homes such as farms and ranches.  There is absolutely no doubt that the use of individual sewage disposal methods such as septic tanks, cesspools, and privies in congested areas has proven to be a health problem, a nuisance, and uneconomical.

 

Residents of the Albuquerque metropolitan area are now faced with a potential health problem due to the over use and continued use of improperly located and constructed private water supplies; and septic tanks, cesspools and privies.  We conservatively estimate that there are at least 15,000 private water supplies and sewage disposal systems in the Albuquerque valley area.  In many areas of the valley, the water table is only 5 to 10 feet beneath the surface of the ground.  When one considers the limited geographic area involved, thousands of homes each having a hole penetrated in the ground to obtain water with a nearby hole in the ground to dispose of sewage, it is obvious that there will be an increasingly serious problem of underground water pollution.  Tests made by the Albuquerque Health Department and the U.S. Geological Survey have indicated that the underground water table in the Albuquerque valley area has been contaminated for many years.  The contaminants involve both foreign chemicals and bacteria.  Chemical contaminants in our drinking water may have chronic, long-term effects which are not well understood or docu­mented......

 

Experience elsewhere has indicated that in the absence of good, long-range environmental health planning, the health problems associated with the use of individual water supplies and sewage disposal units have quickly gotten out of hand and have been extremely time consuming and expensive to remedy.....

 

The Albuquerque Health Department believes that it is essential that immediate steps be taken to commence providing safe, municipal water and sewage facilities to the densely settled Albuquerque metropolitan area.... 

 

Lack of community and political will and leadership!

 

An interesting sidelight to the valley water and sewage issue occurred with regard to water contamination at the Lee Acres School in the north valley.  I had reason to suspect that the school's water supply was being contaminated by the school's septic tank.  But the school was not within the Albuquerque city limits, so I had no legal jurisdiction.  The Bernalillo County Health Officer was a typical physician who had not training or experience in environmental health.  He and his staff professed that the school had no problem.  Chief Sanitarian Peter O. Griego of my staff lived within the city limits in the north valley.  I asked Peter to take a water sample at the school, but utilized his home address for the sample.  Obviously unethical, but good public health investigation.  The sample was reported positive for coliform bacteria by the State Public Health Laboratory.  I told the County Health Officer about the sampling, and this resulted in a significant interchange.  On December 4, 1963, he wrote the Albuquerque Journal that:

 

The suggestion that the city decide to annex adjoining county areas to safe­guard the health of the population is utterly baseless.  Wild and irresponsible  statements made on the purity of the water supplies from shallow wells in the South Valley are open to question and completely unjustifiable......

 

The situation as its exists at the moment shows no cause for alarm and the city authorities may rest assured that no public health hazard exists.  There is no reason to suspect that the situation will worsen in the future.

 

To condemn the use of shallow well off-hand on the grounds that waters are subject to pollution is unjustifiable, and such statements should not be made without evidence of support.  The fact that privies and individual sewage disposal systems do exist in the vicinity of wells is no reason to conclude that water-borne diseases will occur now or in the future....

 

It is, therefore, obvious that the statements made in the article have no basis in fact.  To condemn shallow wells is quite unnecessary and South Valley residents may rest assured that on the whole their underground water supplies are quite safe.  The County Health Department will continue to safeguard these supplies as far as is humanly possible, but it is up to the owners of wells to insure that they have their water tested at reasonable short intervals in order to make certain no pollution takes place.

 

The gentleman had little knowledge of public health, environmental health concepts and standards, or the fact that public health is synonymous with prevention.  He resigned shortly after his outburst of ignorance!

 

I was reminded of a statement made by my friend, Professor Mort Hilbert, when I attended the University of Michigan School of Public Health.  Mort said, "People will wade through their own sewage to go to the polls and vote against a bond issue designed to solve the problem!"

 

            City Manager Edmund Engel made a visionary annexation proposal whose time had not yet come.

 

            Edmund Engel was a visionary!

 

Human events ever resemble those of preceding times (because) they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever will be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same result.  Machiavelli

                                                                             

J.  The Municipal Health Act

 

            Prior to 1965, New Mexico law specified that "municipalities and school districts may employ their own health or sanitation personnel, but they shall report to, and render such reports to the District Health Officer as he may deem necessary.  Basically, we were ignoring this provision as all our funding was from the city, and the department was part of city government just as certainly as were all other city departments, which were not required to report to state government.

 

            But this 1935 state law was creating problems for a series of district health officers (DHOs) who believed in tradition, and thought they should supervise the city's environmental health functions even though none of them had any education or experience in environmental health.  One of them even went so far as to attempt to enlist the support of the American Public Health Association to gain his ends.  Each of these DHOs ended their New Mexico careers by resigning in frustration.  I was not their favorite lackey.

 

            It was time for a statutory remedy!

 

            I developed a suggested bill which was drafted into legal form by the Legislative Council Service and introduced by Representative Walker Bryan of Carlsbad.  The bill moved through the legislative process with no apparent opposition until State Health Officer Dr.  Stanley J. Leland decided it was a serious threat to his turf.  Earlier, after having too many drinks at a dinner in Old Town, he had smilingly stated, "Larry, I'm going to pull the rug out from under you!"  The municipal health bill provided him this opportunity.  He managed to have the bill recalled by a committee in order to bury it.  I contacted a number of influential people including Edith Schulmeister, a local dairy farmer and a leader in agricultural circles.  The dairy farmers were supportive due to the effective and ethical manner in which we administered the milk sanitation program.  With the support of Ms.  Schulmeister and others, the bill was voted out of committee again, enacted by the Legislature and signed by Governor David Cargo. 

 

            Dr.  Leland subsequently submitted nine questions to the Attorney General, seeking to elicit interpretations which would weaken the Act.  The AG's responses were all favorable to the interests of municipal government.

 

            The Municipal Health Act specifies the responsibilities and jurisdiction of a depart­ment and the qualifications of a municipal health director.  The latter has insured profession­al leadership for the department since enactment.  The act requires that the Director have the degree of Master of Public Health from a school accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.

 

K.  The Nation's First Environmental Health Department

 

            1965 was long before the public developed interest in environmental issues.  Seemingly, the only significant interest was that of environmental health professionals.  I appointed a blue ribbon, seven-member city health advisory committee, later gained enactment of an advisory board ordinance, and did not have a single request or nomination for someone to serve on the board!  Therefore, the city manager appointed those recommended by the department.  (Later, with the passage of the New Mexico Air Quality Control Act, the Board also became the City-County Air Quality Control Board.)

 

            This was prior to Earth Day, public awakening, the creation of EPA, and the passage of major Federal and State environmental legislation. 

 

            But we were moving ahead in Albuquerque! 

 

            Working with Bernalillo County Commissioner Gerald Goodman and County Manager Dick Heim, I developed a proposal to have the county contract with the city for all environmental health services.  The contract was submitted as a joint powers agreement

and approved by the Bernalillo County Commission, the city commission, the state board of health and the state board of finance. 

 

            The result was the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department — the first such entity in the nation! 

 

            Earlier, I developed many new environmental health ordinances for the city.  For the county, I developed the Bernalillo County Environmental Health Code, which was a comprehensive document encompassing such issues as subdivision requirements, water and sewage standards, swimming pool sanitation and safety, milk sanitation, food protection, air pollution control, and meat inspection.

 

            The city-county arrangement worked well and afforded county residents the same level of services as those received by city residents.  This city-county arrangement lasted until l975 when the county, presumably for more patronage positions, opted to cancel the agreement.

 

            Since dissolution of the city-county agreement, none of the county environmental health personnel had requisite training, degrees, or appropriate education except for the former Director who had an MPH — not in environmental health, but in health education.  The services in the county deteriorated, causing the New Mexico Environmental Improve­ment Division to assume some of the responsibilities, and the county's scope of services was reduced.

 

            Hopefully, however, there are good forebodings for the future.  As of February, 1992, Richard Brusuelas was appointed to the position of Director, Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department.  I was privileged to serve on the search committee.

 

            Richard had a major challenge!

 

            Certain city-county services continued to be provided by the city Environmental Health Department, including air pollution control, insect and rodent control, plague surveillance, residential hazardous waste collection, and vehicle emissions inspection and control. 

                                                                             

L.  Solid Waste Experiences

 

            Pollution, our growing national resource.

 

            G.B. Robertson became City Manager in 1966.  Robbie, as he was known to his many friends, was a practicing politician who had worked his way through the ranks of City government from an entrance grade position to Director of Maintenance and Services, which included refuse, streets and city maintenance functions.  He was an active and effective member of Alcoholics Anonymous.  I once heard him lecture the County Manager that, "Son, I've spilled more booze trying to get a drink down in the morning than you've ever seen."  He made this pronouncement while shaving in his office.

 

            Robbie had a warm personality and was well liked.  I had an excellent relationship with him.  He was friendly and jocular, at least with those he liked.  We had worked well together while he was administering the refuse department.  Robbie had a lot to do with controlling city elections, and was not one to be ignored regarding statewide elections.  He had worked for the old Mayor Clyde Tingley regime, and asserted that he had been Tingley's "bag-man".  He once told Tribune reporter Carroll Cagle and me that he would see that voters were ostensibly moved into the city in advance of city elections to vote for the Tingley slate, and that he and others would alter other ballots after the polls were closed.

 

            The laborers who worked in Robbie's department would generally vote as he dictated.  They had many relatives, and knew they provided the swing vote in city elections.  They usually had a grand victory party after the election results were in.  Robbie was a Democrat, but could also be a king-maker for Republicans.  He was influential when his friend Pete Domenici first ran for the City Commission, and later when Domenici successfully ran for the United States Senate. 

 

            G.B. Robertson was city manager until l968, and very different from Edmund Engel.  Engel practiced full delegation of authority and responsibility, which provided a professional bonanza for department directors who were self-starters and had ideas of their own to pursue.  Robbie was more inclined to become involved in processes, at least if the processes might have political implications.

 

            Robbie never intended to be a long-term city manager, and repeatedly encouraged me to become assistant city manager so that I would be in line to be his successor.  However, I had been educated as a professional in public and environmental health, and was not interested in such a career diversion. 

 

            But Robbie did me other "favors", at least one of which I could have survived without.  He and the commissioners thought the Environmental Health Department was doing such an excellent job, that they transferred the Refuse Department to Environmental Health.  I never believed that Environmental Health should administer such direct services, but it was a memorable experience in many ways.

 

            One of the experiences was another idea whose time had not arrived.  In 1966, I contacted every unit of local government, every school district, and the pueblos from Bernalillo to Belen regarding area-wide solid waste management problems, and developed an area-wide solid waste management plan.  I contacted the solid waste management people in the U.S. Public Health Service and described our proposal.  They professed to be eager to fund such an area-wide program as a demonstration project for other areas of the Nation.

 

            The USPHS had already utilized our department for other demonstration projects, including development of their methodology and resultant publication for community environmental health planning.  Working with the USPHS, I had also directed the nation's First Governor's Conference on Environmental Health Planning under the sponsorship of Governor Jack Campbell.

 

            Our plan involved creating a solid waste management district, with initial financial contributions from the afore-listed local governments, and with the vast bulk of funding to be received from the USPHS in accordance with an oral commitment.  Solid waste transporta­tion was based on using the railroad tracks from Bernalillo to Belen, with refuse trucks feeding into this system.

 

            I convened a meeting of local government officials at the old city convention Center.  All signed an initial agreement to participate financially.  (This took place prior to creation of the Mid-Rio Grande Council of Governments.)  Local enthusiasm was high.  Commission Chairman Ralph Trigg referred to the plan as the Tri-County "Trashportation" System.  I again contacted the USPHS solid waste management officials, as we were ready to go.  But by then, there had been some change in federal resolve or priorities, and they declined to fulfill their earlier commitment.

 

            An excellent idea, good planning and excellent local support, but withdrawal of the promised federal support resulted in no further area-wide solid waste management efforts.

 

            A regional approach to solid and hazardous wastes as well as water supply and liquid wastes continued to be essential.  But lack of local action continued to be another example of turf protection and lack of political resolve!

 

            The city refuse department also provided other challenges and experiences.  The personnel were politically formidable, and to a significant extent controlled their own operations.  They had a long-standing and effective "buddy" system which protected them from unwanted interference.  I found that the crews of the large and expensive-to-operate refuse vehicles would complete their routes early in the day and spend the rest of the working day driving around town appearing to be busy.  On one occasion, I observed a crew parked on a side street drinking beer.  These practices not only resulted in exorbitant personnel costs, but in high mileage costs.  I started transferring crew members to different crews, and changing some day crews to night work.  I paid for this by repeatedly receiving anonymous calls threatening to kill me, injure my family members and rape my wife!

 

            And the results of our changes were short-lived.  When I later accepted the invitation to become Director of the Environmental Services Division of the New Mexico Health and Social Services Department, I was told that the entire system and assignments reverted to their previous arrangement within a week after I returned to Santa Fe.  I learned that results were comparable to sticking my hand in a bucket of water and then withdrawing it.  The water level did not permanently change!

                                                                             

M.  Animal Control

 

            A fairly broad definition of environmental health is necessary if animal control is to be included, but it does involve managing environmental factors which impact human health and safety.  Animal control functions are commonly administered by public or environmental health agencies.

 

            Albuquerque animal control functions were transferred to the Albuquerque Health Department in the mid-sixties.  Fortunately, retired Colonel Eugene Hughey was the manager.  Gene was energetic, and a self-starter.  By 1965, we had gained approval for a modern animal shelter to replace the unprotected dirt runs which were in existence when the city had acquired the "facility" from the Humane Association some years earlier.

 

            As animal control functions became better organized and more effective, we received a plethora of emotional and hysterical criticism from individuals who believed that their animals could do no wrong, or that people should be allowed to live in a dwelling ankle-deep in feces from several dozen dogs or cats.  Solving these problems also resulted in anonymous obscene phone calls, as well as some negative publicity from the Albuquerque Tribune whose editor, otherwise highly supportive of our department, was critical of our animal control efforts.  At one point, I referred to our animal control critics as "irrational nuts."  That accurate, but inopportune comment was applauded by some, but certainly didn't help to cool the debate!

 

            But it was all part of early efforts to establish what became an excellent facility and operation in later years.

 

            A little humor always helps.  The following was published in The Pony Express column of the Albuquerque Tribune.

                                                                             

                                             The City Hall Reporter vs. Larry Gordon

 

                                         The doggies are cold, their footsies are freezin'

                                       One even was heard to be coughin' and sneezin'!

                                                                             

                                         So it would seem it is time the reporter with pad,

                                            Get out his pencil and make Larry look bad.

 

                                           The people who take these writings to heart,

                                            Are crackpots and nuts by the largest part.

 

                                    They never presume that some truths may be hidden,

                              The facts printed clearly must have somehow been forbidden.

 

                                   Our Director of Health has been honored far and wide,

                                    And most of us point to him with a great deal of pride!

 

                                      Now, regarding these features to boost circulation,

                                 Why not "The Child With Cold Feet In Our Population??"

 

                                       Most of us wish you'd get off Larry Gordon's back,

                                    At least dig to the bottom, and come up with the facts!

 

                                                                  Nelda L. Kregle

                                       _______________________________________

                                                                             

                                        Mr.  Boyer hunts facts with the nose of a beagle.

                                          He'd be glad to get help from Nelda L. Kregle.

 

The Editor"

                                                                             

N.  Achievement Recognition

 

            Environmental health achievements and progress in the years 1955-68 would have been impossible without the continuing interest and support of the print and broadcast media.  Seldom did a week go by without several articles appearing in the press, as well as radio and television interviews and announcements.  The media were positive and constructive in their support, and this was a major factor enabling the Environmental Health Department to achieve, be creative and have a feeling of broad-based community support.

 

            In 1959, The Albuquerque National Bank devoted an entire issue of the publication Albuquerque Progress to the Albuquerque Health Department, distributed it to those on their mailing list, and provided an additional 10,000 copies to the Albuquerque Health Department for further local and national distribution. 

 

            The quality of programs also gained the department extensive national recognition.  A number of Department professionals were asked to serve on various national professional and policy committees.  The USPHS repeatedly paid expenses for me to speak at, and participate in, various state and national public and environmental health training courses and meetings.  These opportunities to meet with professional peers also constituted an on-going training course for our department to keep current, learn of new advances and maintain enthusiasm. 

 

            Departmental awards during this period included:

 

1959- Samuel J. Crumbine Award for "Outstanding Development of a Comprehensive Program for Environmental Sanitation"

 

1965- Samuel J. Crumbine Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Developing a Comprehensive Program of Environmental Health"

(This Award recognition ceremony was sponsored by the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.)

 

            Personal recognition included:

 

1961- Walter S. Mangold Award by National Environmental Health Association for "Meritorious Contributions to Sanitation and Public Health"

 

1962- John J. Sippy Memorial Award from Western Branch, American Public Health Association for "Meritorious Service to Western Public Health"

 

1962- "Sanitarian's Distinguished Service Award" from International Association of Milk, Food, and Environmental Sanitarians

 

1967- New Mexico Association of Public Health Sanitarians Award for "Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Sanitation"

 

Consultant, USPHS Health Programs System Center

Commissioned Officer, USPHS

Guest Lecturer, USPHS Centers for Disease Control

Director, First Governor's Conference on Environmental Health Planning

Lecturer, UNM Peace Corps Training Center

Consultant to Sandia Corporation

Consultant, Professional Examination Service, New York

Clinical Associate, UNM School of Medicine

Consultant, Comprehensive Health Planning, USPHS

Consultant, National Sanitation Foundation

Special Consultant, USPHS

Chair, National Conference of Local Environmental Health Administrators

President, New Mexico Public Health Association

President, New Mexico Environmental Health Association

President, Rocky Mountain Association of Milk and Food Sanitarians

Committee on Environment, American Public Health Association

Founder, American Academy of Sanitarians

 

            But even more rewarding were the scores of complimentary letters received by the department over the years.  We were able to attain significant improvements without more than a half-dozen court cases.  The following excerpt from a 1965 letter from Steve Vidal, an industry consultant, is instructive:

 

It is most refreshing in today's world of constant legal proceedings, that administration of a complex and vital department such as yours can be accomplished without the hard-nosed approach.

 

I personally feel the key is effective communications.  Your department has done an outstanding job in this respect; people know what to expect and when; they are treated fairly, but expected to comply.  This is much more conducive to compli­ance than a spotty hit and miss enforcement.

 

            The "At City Hall" column in a July 1969 edition of the Albuquerque Journal stated, in part:

 

Although the word had leaked down from Santa Fe to a few big ears in City Hall, most employees there were surprised at the news of Health Dept.  Director Larry Gordon's resignation to take a similar job with the state.  It was even sort of a shock to City Manager G.B. Robertson, who thought that Gordon would stay with the city when all was said and done.

 

But Gordon's move was no sudden decision even though he had turned down plenty of other job opportunities in recent years.  One of those opportunities came more than a year ago when Robertson asked him how he'd like to become assistant city manager.

 

But Gordon is STRICTLY an environmental health man and the idea of switching careers at age 40 didn't appeal to him.

 

Gordon is well respected by Robertson, fellow department heads and those city commissioners who know of his department's growth and most of the rank and file within his own office to whom he seems somewhat distant.

 

Unlike some department heads who are willing to delegate responsibility but hold tight to authority, he is willing to delegate with the result that his chief subordi­nates make major decisions on their own as Gordon believes they should.

 

And unlike some others, he is not particularly hurt if he does not get his name in the paper.  The fact of the matter is that Gordon's name appears less frequently than the names of some of his staff.

 

For all of this, Gordon is a proud man and people who don't know him might call him a pompous one on hearing him relate the multitude of societies he belongs to and the awards he has garnered in bringing the health department up from one which used to confine itself to perfunctory restaurant inspections, to a professional outfit that carries at least 15 separate responsibilities.

 

Professionalism is Gordon's by-word as everyone who works for him knows and Gordon believes the city's prestige has grown greatly through his department's efforts in the environmental health field.

 

Gordon sometimes indicates, however, that he wonders if anyone else knows.  At $15,000 a year, he makes less than many department heads, several of them recent additions to the city staff.

 

He makes $1,000 more than Don Peterson, the city's assistant planning director, who in turn makes plenty more than Gordon's top assistants.

 

Perhaps it can be argued that planners should cost more than health depart­ment sanitarians.

 

And perhaps it can't and no attempt to present either position will be made here.

 

But no one will argue with the proposition that the city will lose no dud when it loses Larry Gordon. 

             

            When I left the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department in 1968, we had developed a highly respected, nationally recognized, professional city-county department.  During my tenure, we had increased personnel from 17 to over 300.  Activities included food sanitation, pure food control for all plants within New Mexico which shipped into Albuquerque, milk sanitation covering all dairies and plants in New Mexico which shipped into Albuquerque, safe drinking water, liquid waste disposal, air pollution control, cross-connection control, swimming pool safety and sanitation, accidental injury prevention, housing conservation and rehabilitation, low-rent leased housing, animal control, subdivision control, meat and slaughterhouse inspection, radiation protection, industrial hygiene, insect and rodent control, and the City Refuse Division.  We had also promoted, designed and spawned the City Urban Renewal program and had been significantly involved in developing the City Model Cities program. 

 

Those were years of progress and satisfaction!

 

 

7.         RETURN TO SANTA FE — A NEW CHALLENGE

 

                                           A.  The Environmental Services Division

 

            In 1968, John Jasper, Executive Director of the New Mexico Health and Social Services Department (HSSD), requested that I be a candidate for the position of Director, Environmental Services Division.

 

            Perhaps, after thirteen years in Albuquerque, I needed a new challenge.  Or perhaps I was a masochist and needed to be subjected to the commute to Santa Fe.  It certainly wasn't for any enhanced remuneration.  Or perhaps it was because every profes­sional should be re-potted every few years to keep from becoming root-bound, as many do!

 

            At any rate, I accepted the position and was appointed in August, l968.

 

            Governor David Cargo had merged the New Mexico Department of Public Health and the New Mexico Department of Public Welfare in 1967, thereby creating the Health and Social Services Department.  He did this under 1955 statutory authority, and the Legislature confirmed the action in 1968.  This organizational arrangement didn't make sense on an organizational or programmatic relationship basis, but was another move by many states to follow the federal model, which didn't make sense either.  Functionally, it is difficult to develop a working relationship between health and welfare, and even more difficult to imagine a programmatic relationship between environmental health and welfare.

 

            However, the quality of personnel and services is more important than the type of organizational model.

 

            New Mexico's health and welfare functions had been confused before, and the organizational arrangements for each continue to undergo a constant and sometimes inappro­priate reorganization every few years.  Reorganizations usually don't make any of the programs more effective, but may make them more visible or politically sensitive.  The Legislature created the New Mexico Department of Public Health in 1919, made it a Bureau of the Department of Welfare in l921, re-created the Department of Public Health in l935, authorized merger into the Health and Social Services Department in 1955, accomplished merger in 1967, and separated health and welfare again in 1977 when the Health and Environment Department was created by lumping the Health and Environmental Programs (which I headed) and the Department of Hospitals and Institutions (DHI) together, and separated Health and Environment by creating the Department of Health and the Department of Environment in 1991.

 

            I guess that what goes around comes around.

 

            Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

 

            Until that time, every state director of environmental services (or whatever the positions were titled) had been an engineer.  That had been the tradition, the practice, and the USPHS requirement for federal funding.  Therefore, New Mexico officials had to request an exception through the regional PHS office in Dallas.  My long-time friend and associate Ed Ruppert (an engineer) was the person to contact regarding such an exception.  I was on an extension when Ed was phoned and the request made.  He approved the request, laughed, and jokingly added, "I guess that'll show those sons-of-bitches!"

 

            But tradition is powerful.  The official organization for state directors was known as the Conference of State Sanitary Engineers.  They didn't know what to do with me, so they offered me an associate rather than a full membership.  I advised them that I didn't need to be a member, and would only join as a full member.  After a few months of silence, I became a full member of CSSE.

 

            Eugene Mariani, HSSD's Director of programs and my new boss, told me that the Environmental Services Division was "dead-in-the-water", they were not sure of its budget, and they didn't have its programs defined!  Personnel complained that they were understaffed and didn't have enough time to accomplish their work, so I helped them out by scheduling newly-instigated, routine staff meetings at 7:00 A.M., so they wouldn't interfere with other responsibilities.  This was a distinct shock to the Santa Fe culture of bureaucrats, but I assumed that if I could drive from Albuquerque for a 7:00 A.M. meeting, certainly the Santa Fe bureaucrats could be there.

 

            I started developing a program guide to describe every program, specify program goals, state the need for the programs, state annual objectives, indicate legal authority, specify program methods, discuss program evaluation methods, list programmatic relation­ships and sources of assistance, and suggest literature references for each program.  The document also discussed staff training, development of standards and regulations, improve­ment of program methods, legal advice, public information, enforcement guidelines, and coordination with other agencies.

 

            Developing the program guide was a monumental task, but was essential to the proper functioning of the division.  It was the first such environmental health and protection document in the nation and became a model for many other states and communities.

 

            A December 7, 1970 letter from the EPA Office of the Administrator stated that:

           

You seem to have brought together a wealth of useful information which should prove of great value to the environmental services planners and practitioners of your State.  The emphasis on a systematic approach to environmental control, including the setting of goals and objectives, the development of alternatives, and evaluation, should ultimately have a very beneficial effect on your overall environmen­tal effort.  A notable accomplishment consists of the comprehensiveness of your coverage; I have not seen anywhere a more complete detailing of the subject areas that go to make up a total environmental control program -- and as you know we have long needed a clearer definition of this kind.

 

What you have provided in the present volume---- is light years ahead of anything I have seen from other states.  (emphasis added).

 

            While the New Mexico air quality statute had been enacted in 1967, the division had not scheduled public hearings to develop standards and regulations.  These were scheduled in the fall of 1968.  That was when we learned with delight that the public had finally heard the word "environment", and that they were concerned.  People arrived by the bus-load, and we had to schedule a much larger auditorium for the hearings.  The hearings lasted several days, and resulted in the Health and Social Services Board adopting air quality standards and regulations.

 

            The New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission, which I chaired, was also scheduling hearings to adopt water quality standards and regulations. 

 

            And we emphasized developing leadership!

 

Thomas E. Baca returned from graduate environmental health education and joined our staff, as did Russell F. Rhoades, Cubia L. Clayton, and Pat Kneafsey (all mentioned earlier).

 

Aaron Bond, later to be Director of the Environmental Improvement Agency from 1973 until 1977, Director of the Scientific Laboratory System from 1977 until 1982, had returned from graduate environmental health education, and was promoted to direct the state's fledgling air pollution control program.

 

Mike Burkhart, earned his MPH and worked in several key positions prior to being Director of the Health Services Division from 1977 until 1983, Director of the Environmental Improvement Division from 1987 until 1988, Deputy HED Secretary from 1988 until 1991, and Cabinet Secretary for Health commencing in 1991. 

 

William C. Bennett, who had earned his graduate degree in science at UNM, was hired to work in our plague research program at Roswell, promoted into the state office where he did excellent work in several different programs, named EID Regional Manager in Albuquerque, and I again hired him in 1983 to be Environmen­tal Services Division Manager for the Albuquerque Environmental Health Depart­ment.  In 1992, Bill retired and entered the private sector as Environmental Protection Coordinator for the Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Institute.

 

Jon Thompson joined our staff.  Jon had also earned his MPH in environmental health, and would later be an EIA regional manager, and EID Deputy Director for Field Services.

 

Roy McKeag returned to school to earn his MPH in environmental health, was appointed regional manager for the Las Cruces area, and later became EID Director of Field Services, Health Services Division Director of Field Services, and Public Health Division Director from 1988 until 1991.

 

John Guinn, an environmental health classmate of mine at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Chief of Environmental Health in Wyoming, joined the Consumer Protection Division and was subsequently named Regional Manager for the Roswell Area.

 

Dale Patrick Curtis accepted an environmental health position for Curry County, was promoted to a position in the state office, earned a graduate degree in environmental health, became manager of the Special Projects Division, was appointed Director of Health Policy and Planning for the Health and Environment Department, and is now a partner in CERL Environmental Consultants.

 

Mike Curtis was hired as an environmentalist for Rio Arriba County, earned his graduate degree in environmental health, was appointed Manager of the Occupational Safety and Health Bureau, and later became the senior partner in CERL Environmen­tal Consultants.

 

Joe Harris, another MPH in environmental health graduate, was appointed regional manager for the Santa Fe area.

 

Carl E. Henderson, my former boss and an outstanding, experienced graduate sanitary engineer, continued with us for many more productive years.

 

Bryan Miller, another MPH in environmental health, was an expert in plague and vector control, as well as toxic chemicals.  Bryan later became Director of Environ­mental Health for Boulder County, Colorado.  (Bryan was one of the principals in Tony Hillerman's The Plague Hunters.)

 

John Wright, a graduate sanitary engineer, continued with the program for several years.  John was the primary force in gaining legislative approval for matching funds for local sewerage projects. 

 

Richard Mitzlefelt, already experienced in environmental health, was recruited.  Richard returned to school to earn his graduate degree in environmental health, held several key positions, was Environmental Improvement Division Director from 1988 until 1991, and Manager of the consumer Protection Division of the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department commencing in 1992.

 

Joe Pierce joined our staff, earned a graduate degree in environmental health, and subsequently became EID District Manager in Albuquerque, and later Water Pollution Control Division Manager.

 

            As indicated above, we developed the pattern of having a regional manager for each field district.  All the key personnel in the state office had previous local experience, and every district manager had served in the central office.  Every section chief and regional environmental manager had been through graduate environmental health or science education.  All were knowledgeable, effective professionals.

 

            Basically, we created what was later termed the New Mexico Environmental Improve­ment Agency and subsequently the New Mexico Environment Department.

 

            We were ready to move into the future!

                                                                             

B.  Outrage over a Paper Mill

                                                                             

            The first indication of widespread public concern regarding the quality of the environment in New Mexico developed in reaction to an announcement in 1968 that a large national corporation planned to locate a Kraft paper mill along the Rio Grande a few miles upstream from Albuquerque.  Anyone who has ever struggled for a breath of fresh air in the vicinity of a paper mill immediately understood what this would mean for the greater Albuquerque area.  Further, the liquid effluent from a paper mill causes the receiving water to turn a light coffee brown color.

 

            At this time, we had not completed development of air and water standards to regulate air and water emissions from a paper mill.  Company representatives promised to meet the then highly touted Washington-Oregon standards, but we thought they were much too lenient.  The company promised to meet a standard of 7 pounds per ton of dried Kraft pulp.  Dick Burgard, our air pollution representative suggested a level of .4 instead of 7 —, quite a difference.  The company then countered with an offer of 4 pounds, still a factor of ten difference.

 

            During this time, my brother Ladd S. Gordon, New Mexico Game and Fish Director, noted that construction of the Cochiti Dam would result in clear, cold tailings water below the dam and a premier fishing area.  The paper mill would have destroyed that resource, and the public didn't like that idea either.

 

            Company officials were understandably confused.  They had never experienced such an outpouring of opposition.  In other areas, local officials had welcomed them and their payroll and inquired where the company wanted an airport located, and how they wanted the roads improved!

 

            The company finally agreed to meet our target figure for air pollution control.  But about the same time, the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously against allowing the paper mill to locate in the Albuquerque area.

 

            What a change in attitude from a few years earlier when the Albuquerque Industrial Development Service had suggested that I be "tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail" for even having the audacity to talk about air pollution in Albuquerque.

 

            That action by the Chamber of Commerce was the final nail in the coffin for the mill! 

                                                                             

C.  The Great DDT Fiasco

 

            New Mexico had the highest rate of human bubonic plague in the nation.  Occasionally, some self-serving public health official made it such an issue that the public might believe that it was the major public health problem in the state.  Exaggerated statements coupled with public hysteria created problems affecting tourism and, possibly, economic development.  Plague was endemic in New Mexico, and was an important public and environmental health issue, but should not have been misrepresented out of proportion to its importance and priority.

 

            In the late sixties, plague was reported in the Jemez Valley.  As usual, numerous officials converged on the area to investigate the matter, properly alert the public and health care personnel, and develop control measures as indicated.  Dr.  Bruce Hudson from the Fort Collins Plague Research Field Station of the USPHS Centers for Disease Control was among the personnel studying the Jemez Valley reports.  He finally met with me, and insisted that we apply DDT throughout the Jemez area.  He obviously had no concern for water pollution, possible toxic effects of DDT, or the impact of DDT on the biota in the area.  I refused, and he recommended that CDC place New Mexico on the International Quarantine List. 

 

            A pretty powerful remedy!

 

            I wrote to Dr.  David Sencer, CDC Director, requesting that he countermand Hudson's recommendation.  The International Quarantine order was stopped, and Dr.  Sencer wrote me a letter of apology.

 

            We didn't bathe the area in DDT, and I don't believe there has been a human case in that area since then.

 

            Predicting the time and place of the next case of bubonic plague is much like predicting the time and place of the next bolt of lightning.

                                                                             

D.  A Statement on the Quality of Our Environment

 

            I delivered the following opening statement at the Second New Mexico Governor's Conference on Environmental Health Planning in Santa Fe, January 15, 1969.  It was published in the July-August 1969 issue of New Mexico Wildlife.  It was useful in providing a sense of vision and direction for Environmental Services Division personnel, and others.

 

We believe that citizens demand and deserve a quality environment, including clean air and water, for reasons of health, safety, and economic and social well-being.

 

We believe that New Mexico's air, water, and land resources must not be allowed to be further polluted, and, in some cases, such environmental quality must be improved.

 

We believe that technological means exist to control air, water, land, and other pollutants.

 

We believe that we cannot, and should not, delay taking obvious action until every final shred of damage is known.

 

We believe that promulgation of air quality standards and regulations on a statewide basis is long overdue, due to budgetary and personnel limitations. 

 

We believe that the Environmental Services Division does not have sufficient budget to conduct a comprehensive or reasonably effective environmental services effort.  The Environmental Services Division has no state funds for air quality management, and a completely unsatisfactory level of water quality manage­ment.  Additionally, the State's financial base for receipt of federal matching funds is so inadequate that, without substantial improvement, federal funding for water pollution control and municipal construction grants will be revoked.

 

We believe that New Mexico, on the whole, still has a quality environment which is of very significant economic value in terms of tourism, recreation, and attracting clean industry.

 

We believe that the indiscriminate clamor for industry may produce results which are not in the best economic, social, governmental, or health interests of the majority of citizens of the State.  Further, a degraded environment may actually prove to be detrimental to tourism, attraction of clean industry, and the State's total economy.

 

We believe that the cost of controlling pollution is passed on to citizens and tourists who are the eventual beneficiaries and consumers of clean clear air, water, or other quality environmental factors.

 

We believe that high-level control measures must be instigated now to prevent environmental degradation, and to provide standards and regulations for designing new or additional pollution control facilities.

 

We believe that any further delay of effective control measures will, in the final analysis, cause greater expenditures for polluters as well as consumers.

 

We believe that new industry has a right to be advised of pollution control standards and requirements prior to location, construction, and operation.

 

We believe that any and all significant sources of pollution must be controlled even though they may offer minimal contribution to the total pollution problem, in order to: 

            be equitable

            be effective

            be preventive

            be thorough and comprehensive

            recognize that small quantities of some pollutants may be more detrimental than larger quantities of other pollutants.

 

We believe that New Mexico has the responsibility and obligation to fund environmental services programs at such a level as will insure an environment that will, in the greatest possible measure, confer optimal health, safety, comfort, and well-being on its inhabitants; will protect this generation, as well as those yet unborn, from threats posed by the environment; and will maximize the economic and cultural benefits of a healthy people.

 

We believe that, in some areas, New Mexico does have a responsibility to provide conservation of clean air and water for conservation's sake.  Such a policy will provide a resource, a blessing, a unique area, a retreat for future generations who will be thankful for this foresight and gift.  This policy would produce more benefit for the greatest number over the longest period of time than an irresponsible attitude of judging human need in terms of the momentary and fleeting opportunity for financial self-gain and environmental destruction.

 

We believe that a quality environment, once destroyed or degraded, may never be returned to a satisfactory quality.

 

We believe that most pollution control programs throughout the world have come too little and too late, as a result of hindsight being better than foresight.

 

New Mexico has the advantage of learning from mistakes made elsewhere!

                                                                             

E.  Regulating Land Use

 

            In the late 60s, there was considerable public concern over the massive and unneces­sary land developments in New Mexico and throughout the western United States.  Many of them were simply swindles, designed to sell worthless land to an unsuspecting easterner wanting a little blue sky and fresh air.  There was also concern over the way in which land was being platted and subdivided, as well as its proposed use.

 

            During this period of time, there was also serious discussion of federal mandates for land-use standards and controls, but these did not reach fruition. 

 

            The use of our lands is particularly important in New Mexico, where development has taken place in our valleys and removed these areas from agricultural and wildlife productivity.

 

            Land use is also an important consideration in preventing air pollution and contamina­tion of water supplies, as well as in managing liquid, solid and hazardous wastes. 

 

            I believed that the Health and Social Services Board had adequate statutory authority to promulgate land-use regulations, and my belief was supported by the HSSD legal staff and members of the Board with whom I discussed the possibility.

 

            I requested that the Special Projects Office of the Environmental Services Division  work with the legal staff and develop draft regulations for review, comment, and public hearing.  This move, however, was certainly not popular with the development, ranching and real estate power structure.  It soon became apparent that while such regulations were legally possible, they were not politically feasible.

 

            But discussion continued regarding the subdivision control component of our proposal.  Shortly thereafter, the legislature developed a Subdivision Control Act.  The act was a significant improvement over the previous situation, but was also weak.  All authority was given to counties to develop local subdivision regulations with review and comment by a number of State agencies.  Some counties developed meaningful regulations, while others went through the motions.

 

            But our proposal had provided the spark to enact the subdivision control require­ments.  We were proud of our role in defining the problem and instigating discussion and action!

                                                                             

F.  Unification Needed for Environmental Management

 

            In 1970, I presented the following paper at an environmental conference in Alaska.  It was useful not only in New Mexico, but was referenced and copied a number of times at other national conferences and workshops dealing with environmental health and protection.  It was published in the September/August, 1970, issue of The Journal of Environmental Health. 

 

The question of consumer protection and public service vs special interests also merits discussion when considering a delivery system.  Many jurisdictions have assigned environmental management functions to agencies which promote or protect a special industry or other narrow segment of society.  Food and pesticide control functions have been assigned to agriculturally oriented agencies, radiation protection functions to radiation producing interests, water quality programs to environmental development and utilization agencies, and occupational health programs to labor departments.  All such environmental protection functions should be handled by an agency having a prime mission of public service, consumer protection, and environ­mental protection rather than promotion and protection of any special interest. 

 

This leads to the question of unified effort versus fragmented effort.  For purposes of economy, effectiveness, and public service, all environmental protection regulatory functions must be administered within one agency.  These problems are ecologically inter-dependent, and unified effort is necessary to prevent confusion; duplication of facilities, personnel, effort and travel; program gaps; controversy; program imbalance, and haphazard priorities. 

 

The system should be action-oriented, not problem-oriented.  Some environ­mental protection agencies and personnel are so involved identifying the reasons something can't be done that they become ineffective.

 

The system must be so organized as to insure visibility, ease and speed of action, adequate funding, coordination with other involved agencies and groups, reaction to public and environmental needs, and multiple objective programming (health, safety, comfort, and well-being.)

 

In developing programs for a comprehensive environmental management system, we should not blindly follow tradition in terms of programs and program methods that have been followed elsewhere.  Problems should be identified, goals and objectives established, priorities developed, program methods specified, and programs established on the basis of achieving the stated goals and objectives.  After all, a program is a logical grouping of activities designed to achieve a specified end result.  Many traditional programs have been less than successful, making re-evaluation and re-grouping appropriate.

 

Program methods include:

 

1.      Research — and obligation and responsibility of all individuals and groups involved in environmental management and consumer protection.

 

2.      Demonstration — to determine the effectiveness of a given program, method, facility, or equipment.

 

3.      Standards promulgation — a specific statement of environmental quality desired, so that regulations may be developed to address them.

 

4.      Promulgation of regulations — enforceable action of a legally constituted legislative body stating the means of achieving a standard or other environmental objective.

 

5.      Enforcement — a wide array of administrative and legal methods to insuring the effectiveness of a legal requirement.  Basic to any program of environmental and consumer protection.

 

6.      Planning — includes a number of necessary program methods including problem identification, goal setting, stating objectives, determining priorities, evaluation, cost-benefit studies and budget projections.  Each component of the planning process is vital, and arrangements must be made for their inclusionin any environmental management system.

 

7.      Public information — to keep the public continuously advised of problems,needs, goals, objectives, solutions, and program gaps.

 

8.      Training — for staff and certain target groups involved in environmental and consumer protection.

 

9.      Management information — a vital, but frequently overlooked component of the system.  Basic to planning, programming, and program execution.  Includes data to delineate action, activity, needs, and environmental conditions.

 

10.  Environmental surveillance and analysis — to assess contaminant levels and the impact of environmental problems on man's health, safety, comfort, and well-being.

 

11.  Coordination — with other agencies and groups to insure exchange of information and coordination.  Cannot be left to chance or good-will.  Equals cannot coordinate equals!

 

12.  Legislation — designed to be effective and serve the public, not to create procedural delays.

 

13.  Fiscal commitment — basic to all the foregoing.  

 

14.  Developing a constituency — perhaps the most important.  This is an outstanding example of long-term, continued failure on the part of health agencies and public health professionals.  Conservation groups may well afford the best constituency at this time in history.

 

While this discussion is primarily oriented to official agencies, do not under-estimate the critical importance of such agencies and groups as:

 

1.      Industry — which must cooperate, comply, or be forced to adhere to the will of the majority of the total public.

 

2.      Consumers — who must eventually pay for environmental quality or the lack thereof.

 

3.      Educational institutions — not only to educate environmental managers, but also to research and provide unbiased information to the public.

 

4.      Citizen advisory groups — critical to the effectiveness and success of an environmental agency.

 

5.      Citizen groups — to provide mechanisms for interested citizens to become constructively involved in the struggle for a quality environment.

 

Those involved in developing an environmental management system should reassess and question the needs for traditional types of environmental management personnel.  These types have not always had a track record to be proud of.  Change should not be made for the sake of change, but for improved environmental manage­ment.

                                                                             

G.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

 

            By 1970, the public and some political leaders were becoming increasingly concerned about the rapid deterioration of the environment.  The federal focus for environmental programs was primarily in the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service of the U.S. Public Health Service, except that water pollution control was in the Department of Interior, pesticide regulation was in the Department of Agriculture, and food protection was in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

 

            The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (known as the Muskie Committee and chaired by Senator Edmund Muskie) held lengthy hearings regarding environmental problems and organizational approaches.  The committee was concerned that the USPHS seemed to be more interested in research than rapid action to address the nation's environmental problems.

 

            I was Chair of the American Public Health Association Section on Environment at the time.  I scheduled a meeting with the staff of the President's Advisory Council on Executive Reorganization (usually known as the Ashe Committee and chaired by Roy Ashe).  On behalf of the American Public Health Association, I testified in part as follows:

 

We are concerned not only with program effectiveness at the federal level, but also with the ultimate effect that federal organizational patterns have on state and local governments.  In arriving at federal organizational patterns, we strongly recommend that the environmental organization:

 

1.      Have a mission of environmental protection rather than environmental utilization and development (as in Interior).  The missions of protection vs.  development create a serious conflict of interests within the same department.

 

2.      Have multiple program objectives of health, safety, comfort, and well-being in arriving at its overall goal of protecting man in his environment.

 

3.      Be consumer protection oriented.

 

4.      Be truly comprehensive and include not only the currently popular air-land-water programs, but also the closely interdigitated programs of food protection, pesticide control, noise pollution, water supply, population dynamics, space, liquid wastes, insect and rodent control, radiation protection, environmental injury control, solid waste management, land-use, and occupational health.

 

5.      Maintain the necessary balance between urban and rural environmental programs.

 

            When President Richard Nixon created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by Executive Order, many of the foregoing recommendations were heeded, but it was not as broad in programmatic scope as we had recommended.

 

            The failure to include food protection was a serious omission.  Environmental contamination of the food supply is a threat to the continued existence of many plant and animal communities of various ecosystems, and frequently threatens the health of humans.  Every chemical released into the ecosystem has the potential of getting into the human food chain, and it may be the major exposure route for most of the known toxic contaminants in the environment.

 

            Fortunately for New Mexicans, environmental programs in New Mexico were more comprehensive than those in EPA, and include food protection as a full partner.  In 1990, however, EPA Administrator William Reilly highlighted food protection as a serious environmental problem.

 

            EPA is a health agency, no matter what the title is.  Few of its programs would be authorized were it not for their public health basis.  EPA would not be successful in regulating and litigating, except for health effects.  A 1990 EPA publication, Reducing Risk,  developed by EPA's Science Advisory Board states, in part, that:

 

…for the past 20 years and especially over the past decade, --- The Agency has considered protection of the public health to be its primary mission —-.

                                                                             

H.  The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency

 

            By 1970, the public throughout the nation was becoming alarmed about deterioration of the environment.  Instant activists, sometimes called "Tang Ecologists", literally came out of the woodwork.  They were sometimes supportive, sometimes disruptive, sometimes knowledgeable, and sometimes woefully misinformed.  But they did provide a balance to the efforts and power of the polluters.  Sometimes they made our efforts easier, often more difficult.  But in balance, they helped change public opinion and improve governmental environmental efforts, particularly at the federal level.  In New Mexico, John Bartlit, a Los Alamos Engineer, was most effective and consistently based his opinions, recommendations, and actions on the best available data rather than hysteria.  

 

            And the activists quickly became a political force to be reckoned with.

 

            Until this time, organization of environmental health services had not been an issue of concern to the public.  Public and political clamor throughout the nation helped instigate a widespread re-evaluation of environmental problems, program goals, program scope, program methodology and effectiveness, fiscal support and legislation, as well as program organization and institutional arrangements.  Frequently, without much real study or understanding, programs in many states were shifted to new and/or different agencies for a variety of reasons--- some valid, some questionable and some irrational.

 

            Sometimes it was change for the sake of change.  Eager citizen groups sometimes confused change with progress.  In many states, environmental health program officials exhibited a high degree of territorial defense, and a relatively low titer of organizational and program management knowledge.  Powerful polluter lobbyists delighted in the opportunity to retard and confuse environmental health progress through repeated reorganizations, and to place environmental health personnel and agencies in positions of greater "political respon­siveness."

 

            The U.S. EPA was erroneously touted as a model for states, and this in turn led to further undesirable program fragmentation in those states imbued with the naive desire to follow the federal "model."  It was interesting to note that while the Congress approved the Presidential Executive Order establishing the U.S. EPA, practically all Congressional hearings criticized the proposal on the basis that it was not truly comprehensive.

 

            Unfortunately, many citizen leaders mistakenly identified air, water, and wastes as "the environment."  While air, water and wastes are all significant environmental factors, they are only a portion of the total factors to be controlled and should not be fragmented from other environmental program issues.  Such fragmented programs and organizations typically result in program gaps or duplication, confusing competition over the environmental health program dollars, public confusion regarding the roles and responsibilities of the various agencies, program inefficiency and ineffectiveness, and a general disservice to the public and the environment.

 

            But in New Mexico, we were able to take a more rational and comprehensive approach for a number of reasons.  One reason was that the Environmental Services Division was in place and functioning.  Another was the division's professional staff.  And another was that we chose to be positive and assertive, rather than defensive regarding the status quo.

 

            And, Bruce King was elected Governor in early November, 1970.  During the campaign, he had promised to support creation of a New Mexico Environmental Protection Agency.  However, he had not offered any specifics.  (I held key appointed positions in state government during Bruce King's first two terms.  King seldom held staff meetings, preferring to deal with his personnel on a one-on-one basis.  He seldom became involved in details, and was good at delegating and leaving people to their own devices.  This worked fine for self starters, and I enjoyed working in his administration.  During this time, I gained approval for creating the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency, the New Mexico Scientific Laboratory System, and the New Mexico State Health Agency, as well as numerous key environmental health and protection statutes and regulations.)

 

            On November 23, 1970, I wrote Governor elect King as follows:

 

We environmentalists were quite interested in the environmental issues raised during the last gubernatorial campaign, and repeatedly noticed that you came out strongly in favor of retaining New Mexico's environmental quality and insuring the necessary environmental programs to that end.  It is heartening to note that the public throughout the Nation now identifies problems of environmental and consumer protection among the major issues of this decade.  We all realize that New Mexico's environment is a prime asset to the state's citizens and the state's economy, and that it is one of the few remaining areas in the United States where we still have options open for retaining or regaining the necessary quality environment.  The last year or so has been a time of renewed emphasis and effectiveness for environmental services programs such as this.  Throughout the nation, various levels of government have devoted huge new sums of money attempting to solve the nation's environmental crisis.  Fortunately, New Mexico can still act in terms of preventing environmental deterioration and degradation to a large extent. 

 

I, of course, do not know what your organizational concepts are for programs of environmental and consumer protection.  I have been involved in such organiza­tional matters for many years, and would like to specifically mention a few such items. 

 

I was in the fortunate position of being able to plan, promote and gain acceptance for creating the nation's first department of environmental health in Albuquerque.  This department received national recognition and awards on a number of occasions. 

 

Last year, I was privileged to participate as the environmental expert in making recommendations for reorganizing the nation's largest local health depart­ment, the Los Angeles County Health Department.

 

Last spring, as Chair of the Section on Environment of the American Public Health Association, I chaired a small delegation which met with the Presidential Advisory Council on Executive Reorganization, and made meaningful recommenda­tions pertaining to the organization, scope, mission and objectives of environmental and consumer protection programs at the federal level. 

 

I have also been privileged to deliver papers on this general subject such as the enclosed presented at a conference on ‘Man's Health in a Changing Arctic Environment‘.

 

From the point of view of program effectiveness, it is really not particularly important whether such programs are structured within a department such as the Health and Social Services Department, or in a separate environmental and consumer protection agency.  There are, however, some over-riding basic principles which must be attained, no matter what the institutional arrangement is.  These include such basic considerations as:

 

adequate budget

professional staffing

laboratory facilities

organizational visibility

freedom of regulatory action

ease of inter-agency communication and cooperation

reasonable shielding from vested interest and political intervention

appropriate mission and goals, and

sound legislative base designed for results instead of procedural delays.

 

As you know, the President and the Congress have recently created a new Environmental Protection Agency in order to bring together some of the fragmented programs from Health, Education and Welfare; Agriculture; Atomic Energy Commis­sion; Interior; and Transportation.  (Fortunately, we have not had to witness or endure this type of fragmentation in New Mexico, and most of the basic environmental and consumer protection programs are still lodged in this division.)

 

It is interesting to note that while the Congress concurred in the Presidential proclamation establishing the EPA, that practically all witnesses at the congressional hearings criticized the proposal on the basis that it is not truly comprehensive.  In other words, it really does not include the scope of environmental and consumer protection programs presently lodged in this Division.  For example, numerous U.S. Representatives testifying at the hearings indicated that the concept of centralizing all environmental programs was desirable, but that the new EPA does not, in fact, meet this challenge.  I hope we can profit from this criticism in New Mexico.

 

Regrettably, many have mistakenly identified air, water, and wastes, as "the environment".  This is certainly not the case, and this concept has led to further fragmentation of programs and effectiveness of governmental effort.  (The attached chart on Environmental Services Program Components depicts comprehensive environmental health problems and the interdigitation of all program components.)

 

A number of states have recently created separate environmental control departments.  These include New York, Illinois, and Washington.  Thus far, these particular new departments have resulted in confusion and bickering, inasmuch as they have been primarily departments of air, water and wastes.  The personnel in these new departments are already fighting with their former friends and peers in other agencies over program responsibility and budgets, indicating that the states did not have the foresight to create true environmental and consumer protection depart­ments containing all the necessary environmental program components.  The State of Pennsylvania is currently holding hearings to consider an environmental protection department, but to date, the state of Pennsylvania is showing enviable foresight on a bill designed to include all environmental programs in one environmental agency. 

 

Some New Mexico legislative leaders who have considered proposing a separate agency for environmental and consumer protection have vastly over simpli­fied the matter and have not looked at the total problem.  Suffice it to say that any such separate agency would have to include not only all of our professional, technical and secretarial staff, but also our supporting staff services such as finance, legal, personnel, public information and data processing.  Additionally, such a system would have to transfer all local (county, district, and regional) environmental health personnel which are currently listed in separate budgets. 

 

Any such effort would also have to include a well-functioning environmental or ecological laboratory designed not only to serve this agency, but also other agencies involved in related ecological considerations such as forestry, game and fish, parks and recreation, etc. 

 

Any environmental effort must allow for program methods of surveillance, research, promulgating standards and regulations, public information, analyses, data processing and enforcement. 

 

Any effort to provide a focal point for environmental and consumer protection programs should address itself to all the environmental problems of water pollution, water supply, air quality, radiation protection, environmental chemicals, environmen­tal injuries, food protection, environmental chemicals, waste management, insect and rodent control, congestion, and land use.  These problem areas are then converted into appropriate programs.  This Division is currently responsible for administering approximately thirty such environmental and consumer protection programs.

 

If the decision is made to create a separate environmental and consumer protection agency, I take this opportunity to apply for the position of Directing of the new agency.

 

            In the 1971 New Mexico Legislature, Governor King requested Representative Jamie Koch to sponsor a bill to create a New Mexico Environmental Protection Agency.  Jamie contacted me to discuss the nature, programs, organization, mission, goals, and budget for the proposed agency.  He decided to rely heavily on the Environmental Services Program Guide which we had previously developed, and worked with me and the Legislative Council Service to draft a bill.  Previously, the Health and Social Services Board had responsibility for developing standards and regulations.  The new bill proposed creation of an environmen­tal protection board having no administrative control over the agency.  As in the program guide, the agency was to have multiple goals of health, comfort, safety and well-being.

 

            Even though it was 1971, there was no environmental activist involvement or testimony regarding the bill.  It was referred to two committees in the House, and two committees in the Senate.  There was very little opposition.  We had already reached agreement on a proposed budget with the Legislative Finance Committee budget analyst, Waldo Anton.  But every time Waldo added the figures on blackboards before the various committees, the total was $300,000 more than the subtotals.  I noticed the discrepancy immediately; but they were his numbers, not mine.  Who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth? None of the legislators caught the error.  The three-hundred thousand dollar error was big bucks in 1971, and enabled us to enhance professional staffing by some 20 positions.

 

            The bill also included a small amount for the new agency to develop an environmental chemicals laboratory.  We had long been dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of services provided by the State Public Health Laboratory, particularly in the area of chemical analyses.  The mercury level in fish in the State's reservoirs was one analytical issue of concern at the moment.  My brother, Ladd S.Gordon, Director of the Game and Fish Department, provided a portion of a Game and Fish Department warehouse on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe for the first Environmental Laboratory.

 

            At one point in the deliberations, Representative Merrill Taylor of San Juan County said he wanted to improve, rather than protect the environment.  He successfully moved that the name of the agency be the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency.  Merrill, later to be a member of the EIA Board, certainly couldn't be accused of being an environ­mental advocate, but the name change didn't make any substantive changes in the powers and duties of the proposed Agency.  In fact, the change was useful in that it kept the State agency from being confused with the federal EPA. 

 

            Governor King signed the bill into law, and concurred with Dick Heim in his decision to appoint me as Director of the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency.  For a number of reasons, the Agency was administratively attached to the Health and Social Services Department.  This allowed HSSD to continue providing such essential staff services as epidemiology, biostatistics, auditing, budgeting, payroll, personnel, data processing, purchasing, etc., without having to duplicate these costs in EIA.

 

            The statute we developed to create the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency provided, in effect, that the EIA be the most comprehensive environmental agency in the nation.  Statutory authorization was provided for programs dealing with air pollution, water pollution, food protection, milk sanitation, insect and rodent control, occupational health and safety, injury prevention, radiation protection, safe drinking water, community noise pollution, swimming pool safety and sanitation, solid waste management, environmental chemicals, housing, recreational environmental management, institutional environmental management, hazardous substances and product safety, and the Sanitary Project Act under which the agency constructed water supplies for small rural communities.  The agency was also the designated agency for administering federal construction funds for sewage treatment facilities.

 

            Dick Heim had been appointed HSSD Executive Director in January, 1971, and was my new boss.  We had previously worked together when I was Director of the Albuquerque Health Department while Dick was city Personnel Director, and while I was Director of the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Environmental Health Department and Dick was County Manager.  I had also worked with Dick when he was an aide to U.S, Senator Clinton P. Anderson.  We continued to work well together.

 

            Dick also had a top-notch deputy named David Farrell, whom I grew to admire for his managerial skills.  But both Dick Heim and Dave Farrell were required to be so deeply involved in the difficult issues of welfare, Medicaid cost-control and social services, that I was essentially left alone to manage the EIA.  I once joked to Dave that I had little supervi­sion compared with other HSSD elements, and Dave replied that I wasn't creating budgetary problems!

 

            During this period of time, the Environmental Improvement Agency also played a key role in developing the state's health planning efforts.  These efforts on the part of EIA staff were led by Mike Burkhart, who developed the health planning process and structure based on the model we had already developed for EIA.  This resulted in enhancing the planning efforts of the entire Health and Social Services Department. 

                                                                             

I.  The Agent Orange Caper

 

            Is our environment a treasure or a dumping ground?

 

            Following the Vietnam War, the Department of Defense (DOD) was desperately looking for a place to dispose of huge quantities of the defoliant Agent Orange.  At that point in time, the military didn't have a great deal of environmental or public health sensitivity.  It just wasn't its prime mission. 

 

            The DOD made contact and conducted investigations in New Mexico.  After all, New Mexico may have appeared to be an unpopulated desert to someone sitting in a cubicle on the banks of the Potomac.  DOD finally decided that all of its Agent Orange could be injected into deep wells in the area southeast of Roswell on the caprock.  This idea was discussed by the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (which I chaired), but no action was taken.  Bryan Miller and I both tried to dissuade DOD from pursuing their proposal, despite the fact that legal authority resided in the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission.  Agent Orange contains dioxins, and we could just imagine the dioxins getting into the underground petroleum, and ultimately being spewed into the atmosphere from combustion of gasoline in transportation vehicles. 

 

            (Until about 1991, dioxins were widely reputed to be highly dangerous carcinogens.  More recently, this belief was being re-evaluated.  But environmental health and protection professionals must frequently act on what they know at the moment and what appears to be compelling rather than incontrovertible evidence, not always having the luxury of waiting for conclusive research.)

 

            Finally, a Colonel from the Pentagon called me to advise me that DOD was going to implement the plan.  I told him we would take steps to require DOD to develop an Environmental Impact Statement if they proceeded. 

 

            We never heard from them again. 

 

            Later, State Engineer Steve Reynolds inquired if I had taken unilateral action without the approval of the Water Quality Control Commission.  I assured him that I had, but he didn't approve of my action and said he would put the matter in the record.

 

            I suppose I acted without authority, but New Mexico didn't get the Agent Orange!

                                                                             

J.  1971 Environmental Improvement Agency Position Paper

 

            At the request of the New Mexico Department of Development, I prepared the following position paper in December 1971 on behalf of the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency.  The paper was widely distributed in environmental circles, and was published in the June, 1972 issue of the New Mexico Academy of Sciences Bulletin, and in the May/June issue of a national trade publication, Environment News Digest.

 

New Mexico's quality environment is its prime asset.

 

New Mexico is one of the few areas of the nation which still has options open to determine its own future and the type of environment which is desired by this and future generations of New Mexicans.

 

New Mexico and the southwestern United States in general have a very delicate ecological balance.  It may be very difficult, if not impossible, to restore a given environmental situation once it is damaged or degraded.  Therefore, regulations adopted for the purpose of environmental control must be preventive in nature.

 

All New Mexicans should strive to create a viable economy and jobs for New Mexicans without harming our prime asset, our environment.

 

Environmental quality is more than the currently popular air-water-waste syndrome, and reaches additionally to such matters as congestion, transportation, visibility, open spaces, and pressure on recreational facilities and areas.

 

We know of no studies which indicate that increases in population and attraction of more and more industry lead to an improved economy and quality of living.  To the contrary, we have only to look at the problems of the populous industrialized areas of the nation to observe that growth leads to a decreased quality of life, increased cost of living, increased social problems, and increased taxes.  Therefore, at this period in our history, there is no doubt that but that environmental quality is closely related to population levels, and population growth beyond a certain optimal population is not compatible with a quality environment or a viable economy.  New Mexico should not, and cannot, serve as a haven from congestion and pollution for those persons from other areas of the nation, as it will only serve to eventually destroy our prime attraction and prime asset.

 

The competing demands for limited tax funds to support public agencies is tremen­dous in all states and at all levels of government.  A number of agencies, boards, and commissions are already involved in the struggle to retain or regain New Mexico's quality environment.  ....  Fragmentation or proliferation of environmental or ecologi­cal responsibility and programs only serves to confuse the public and place further stresses on an already over-burdened state tax structure.  All environmental factors, such as air, water, wastes, food, environmental chemicals, water supply, etc., are inextricably interdigitated both in the ecological and the program management sense.  Therefore, they are most effectively managed within a single, or at least a limited number of agencies.

 

We have no doubt that man can survive in a grossly polluted environment; however, we feel that man should thrive rather than merely survive.  Therefore, environmental quality controls should be predicated on retaining our quality environment rather than on mere health standards.

 

It has been repeatedly shown that technology does not advance or improve control methods until forced to do so by legal requirements.  Therefore, environmental quality controls in New Mexico should be based on the needs of protecting the environment and protecting man in the environment rather than on the latest limits of technology. 

 

All men must live in the environment and are supported by the life processes obtained from the earth.  Therefore, environmental quality controls should be administered by an agency having a prime mission of public service, rather than by an agency having a mission of protecting or promoting any given industry.

 

Federal standards have been promulgated for the needs of over-populated industrial areas which do not have options or alternatives available to New Mexico and New Mexicans.  Therefore, for the most part, adherence to current and proposed federal pollution standards would allow a drastic degradation of New Mexico's relatively high level environment.

 

All persons engaged in the business of promoting a viable economy should be well informed regarding the delicate ecological balance of New Mexico's environment and her environmental control regulations, in order that time, materials, effort and money not be inappropriately invested.  The New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency staff stand ready to discuss environmental quality issues or consult with any person or firm regarding compliance with established environmental quality standards and regulations.

                                                                             

K.  Occupational Health and Safety

 

            The New Mexico Division of Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation established an Industrial Hygiene program about 1947.  It was strictly a consultative, rather than a regulatory program.  Carl Jensen was the only staff, but he was very active providing consultation and providing information until his retirement in 1967.  The Industrial Hygiene program also provided consultation on radiation and air pollution.  Regulations Governing the Sanitation of Places of Employment were adopted by the State Board of Public Health in 1956, but they were used more as general guidelines than as an enforcement tool.

 

            By 1970, New Mexico was experiencing an occupational accident rate higher than many of its neighboring states and, in 1970, 61 persons lost their lives due to occupational injuries in New Mexico.  This figure, however, represented only a portion of the actual mortality, as it did not account for deaths which resulted from exposure to various insidious agents not causing immediate death.

           

            By 1971, the federal Occupational Health and Safety Act provided that states could implement their own OSHA programs, provided they were at least as effective as the Federal program.  I contacted Governor Bruce King requesting that in accordance with provisions of Federal law, he designate the EIA as the State OSHA agency.  He agreed.  But subsequently, the State Labor Commissioner Ricardo Montoya asked that the Governor designate the Labor Depart­ment for the OSHA program.  The Governor agreed.  (Bruce King had a reputation for agreeing with the last person to leave his office.)  I then restated my rationale in a lengthy memo emphasizing that OSHA was an environmental health activity, was based on health goals, required professional environmental health staffing, and necessitated environ­mental health laboratory support and environmental health epidemiology.  This time Governor King approved my request in writing. 

 

            During a 1971 budget hearing before the Interim Legislative Finance Committee, Senator A.T. Montoya of Sandoval County indicated that he intended to attempt a legislative over-ride of the Governor's designation of the EIA so as to place OSHA authority in the Labor Department.  I made a rather impassioned plea to the Committee to indicate the organization­al rationale, and the change did not occur. 

 

            Thomas E. Baca had left the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Environmental Health Depart­ment, earned his graduate degree in environmental health, and I was fortunate to be able to recruit him to head the developing EIA OSHA program.  Tom was originally from Belen and had a good relationship with Senator Tibo Chavez, an influential (president pro tem) and supportive member of the Senate.  Senator John Rogers, a newly elected Senator from Los Alamos and an individual who was very interested in health and safety issues, introduced a state OSHA bill in the 1972 legislature.  The 1972 legislature was a short session, thereby requiring a Governor's message for the bill to be introduced.  The bill was subsequently signed into law by Governor Bruce King. 

 

            Having a federally approved OSHA program allowed the Federal OSHA program to match State funds on a 50/50 basis.

                                                                             

L.  A Potpourri of Environmental Management Methods

 

            In 1973, I presented the following paper at an environmental training conference.  This presentation was subsequently utilized at conferences and training course in a number of other states.

 

Environmental management methods, for today and the future, consist of realizing, understanding, learning, undertaking, envisioning, planning, changing, promoting, defining, conceiving, creating, prioritizing, anticipating, cooperating, regulating, converting, adjusting, organizing, protecting, leading, guiding, counseling and exhorting. 

 

We must adjust to the fact that a vast array of governmental agencies and citizen groups are involved in the struggle for a quality environment (often playing ad­versarial roles), and adjust to the fact that a great many official agencies exert a greater impact on the environment than do most of the official environmental protec­tion or environmental health agencies represented here today.

 

We must manage the environment in the best interests of the total public, but remem­ber that many environmental regulatory agencies are fraudulent in that they have conflicts of interest by having a prime mission of protecting and promoting the interests of the very industries or groups they are charged with regulating.

 

We must realize that despite criticism of "federal intervention" and concern about "states' rights", most states have not become serious about environmental degradation until mandated (and funded) to act by the federal government.

 

We must realize that the efforts of governmental agencies are inseparable from the political process, which is ultimately the source of power, authority, legislation, policy and money.

 

We must constantly remember that aptitude, ability, imagination, creativeness and effectiveness are not the sole province of officials in Washington, D.C., or in regional offices. 

 

We must cooperate more effectively with citizen groups and accept the fact that citizen actions have been a desirable stimulant and have often spurred laggard regulatory bodies to action.

 

We should attempt to regain roles of leadership in solving matters of environ­mental quality and realize that citizen involvement is necessary and desirable, and that environmental quality is no longer shrouded in professional mystique as it once was.

 

We must learn that environmental programs can best be planned on the multiple goal basis of health, comfort, safety and well-being; and promote the sound, time-honored ecological principle of "the greatest good for the largest number over the longest period of time."

 

We must promote, improve and regulate environmental quality as directed and mandated by our various governing bodies, and let the courts balance the equities instead of trying to so do as program managers.

 

We must adjust to the fact that there is a universe of difference between preventing environmental pollution and attaining or regaining environmental quality.

 

We must realize that it is often patently impossible for local environmental health agencies, and to some extent even state agencies, to be fully effective as they are often in the position of attempting to regulate their own proprietary functions which may be creating environmental degradation.

 

We must learn to anticipate problems so as to offer meaningful input into their prevention and resolution.

 

We must realize that society has only recently allowed governmental efforts in such environmental problems as water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution and solid waste management; but has not yet reached the point of authorizing program efforts to effectively resolve problems concerning the basic priority issues associated with over-population, energy production, land-use and transportation.

 

We must increasingly exhort and counsel our United States Senators and Representa­tives in matters of federal legislation which affect the environmental quality of our individual or collective states.

 

We must change our efforts wherever possible to attempt to consider environ­mental matters on a regional, national and global scale in accordance with the truism that "everything is connected to everything else."

 

We must take legal action where other methods fail, but understand that compliance also consists of warnings, administrative orders, permit suspensions and revocations, and condemnations in addition to appropriate court action.

 

We must objectively study the types of personnel assigned specific tasks and programs so as to insure that personnel are utilized in accordance with their training and abilities.

 

We must constantly remember that public opinion polls continue to indicate that the public considers environmental problems among the most serious issues of the decade, and that such polls also indicate that the public is willing to pay for environ­mental quality.

 

We must accept the fact that we are witnessing an attempted backlash perpe­trated by some major polluters acting on the thesis that "no harmful effects have yet been shown on future generations", or that "future research will prove that pollution is healthful."

 

We must convert our concepts to think and program in terms of environmental consumption needs, rather than environmental consumption demands.

 

We must change our collective attitudes and adjust to the fact that "bigger is not better", and "growth is not progress."

 

We must remember that experience has repeatedly proven that pollution control technology advances most rapidly under threat of deadlines and penalties, and that environmental quality standards must, therefore, be based on the needs of environ­mental protection rather than on the latest limits of technology or "state of the art".

 

We must demand that no significant environmental degradation be permitted beyond current levels, inasmuch as the environment, once degraded, is seldom restored.

 

We must counsel that to regain a semblance of air quality in urban areas, alternative transportation methods and energy sources must be developed and subsidized by public funds just as facilities to prevent water pollution are financed by tax funds.

 

We must research and develop alternative energy sources, instead of blindly continu­ing to rely on fossil fuels.

 

We must guide national policy and priorities so that development of alternative energy sources and transportation methods prioritize as high as putting a man on the moon.

 

We must demand continuing health research to determine the long-term, chronic effects of pollutants on man and the biosphere.

 

We must adjust to the fact that environmental health and economic health are not at opposite poles, but are inseparably interdigitated for the continued health and well-being of the environment, including the human animal.

 

We must exhort our political and civic leaders that we do not require a sick environment to have a healthy economy.

 

We must protect those areas, primarily in the West, which still retain a high degree of environmental quality, and resist current federal efforts to control pollution by national dilution by permitting a uniform layer of smog.

 

We must protect our environment in such a manner that future generations can enjoy the thrill of fresh, brisk air; wilderness areas; trout in clear mountain streams; uncluttered mesas and vistas; wild geese on a cold morning; or solitude on a moun­tain peak.

 

We must consider our environment as a treasure, not a dumping ground.

 

We must dedicate ourselves to the proposition that the environment should provide something for everybody, not everything for everybody.

 

We must strive to negate the verse:  "So leap with joy, be blithe and gay,/ Or weep, my friends, with sorrow,/ What California is today, The rest will be tomor­row."

                                                                             

M.  Mercury Hysteria

 

            Among the more important responsibilities of environmental health and protection professionals is that of scientifically assessing risk to the health of the public or the environ­ment, evaluating cost/benefits of control measures, and prioritizing issues in relation to other problems.  The easy way out, and the one practiced by all too many environmental person­nel, is to simply say that "the sky is falling" regarding every "catastrophe of the week" issue, rather than using essential scientific and professional judgment.  The easy way out is usually more popular with the news media and the environmental activists.  The media need to keep sales and advertising revenue up, and many of the activist organizations are dependent on a continuing series of "catastrophe of the week" issues.  Additionally, Americans seem to love a good calamity.  Those activists who make false predictions accept no responsibility for their statements.  And there are always a critical mass of official agency personnel eager to be featured in a news article promoting the idea that a new catastrophe has been identified.  All this works to the detriment of organized, effective efforts to retain or achieve a healthful, quality environment inasmuch as official agencies do not have unlimited resources to attempt to deal with every perceived environmental insult.  As a result, government and industry frequently spend huge sums on insignificant problems at the expense of significant issues.  (This type of issue is discussed in more detail in Chapter 13, Section G.)

 

            One such recurring issue in New Mexico is that of mercury in fish caught in the state's lakes and reservoirs.  We first identified this in the early 1970's.  At that time it was carefully evaluated to determine the actual public health hazard.  There is no doubt that the ingestion of mercury can pose serious health problems, or be fatal.  This fact has been well documented in the scientific literature.  In New Mexico, we determined that many of our lakes and reservoirs contained mercury from natural sources, and that the mercury had always been present.  Ingestion of sufficient amounts of certain species and sizes of fish taken from these waters could indeed be undesirable.  Caution, not banning of fishing and ingestion of reasonable amounts of fish, is certainly dictated.

 

            When we first determined the mercury problem in Navajo Lake in the early 1970s, we issued appropriate warnings and public information.  The problem might be especially serious for pregnant women and children.  But realistically, it would probably be unheard of for someone to catch, and subsequently ingest, enough large fish to cause harm.  Few are that adept at fishing, and few eat that much fish. 

 

            But this approach didn't satisfy a few of the uninformed and misinformed.  As a result, a few activists demanded that Governor Bruce King dismiss me.

 

            Bruce King did not dignify their request by responding.

 

            The mercury problem was rediscovered in 1991 by a new crop of personnel who had no institutional memory.  They had their few weeks of notoriety in the news, and the problem subsided once again. 

 

            The problem in the 70s did serve a useful purpose, however.  The need to evaluate the problem provided rationale for funding of the Environmental Chemicals Laboratory in Santa Fe, which was a forerunner to the Environmental Laboratory, and eventually the outstanding New Mexico Scientific Laboratory System. 

                                                                             

N.  Do Wildlife Have Rights?

 

            Absolutely!

 

            Man is the only animal which blushes, and should!

 

            Historically, environmental health personnel were concerned primarily with protecting human health through controlling environmental factors which might adversely affect human health.  Inasmuch as I was an ecologist before I was professionally educated in environmen­tal health, I always had a different viewpoint.  I believed that we should not only protect people in the environment, but protect people and the environment.  This difference in concept meant that I was frequently out of step with my peers during my entire career.

 

            In the early 1970s, we received numerous complaints about mosquitoes around swampy areas in the vicinity of Bloomfield, as well as near Tucumcari Lake, outside Tucumcari.  Most members of my staff felt we should take steps to drain the swamps, as well as the Lake.  Both the swamps and the Lake were important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife.  I concluded that we basically had a problem of land use, and that people were living too close to the wildlife habitat areas.  Therefore, I refused to take steps to drain the water and solve the mosquito problems in that manner.  We did plant mosquito larvae-eating fish (Gambusia) in the waters to reduce the mosquito problem.  This did not make the complainants completely happy, but we didn't destroy any of our rapidly shrinking wildlife habitat.

 

            My viewpoint was vindicated in recent years.  The 1990 report of EPA's prestigious Science Advisory Board, Reducing Risk, stated that: 

 

            .there is no doubt that over time, the quality of human life declines as the quality of natural ecosystems declines....over the past 20 years, and especially over the past decade, EPA has paid too little attention to natural ecosystems.  The Agency has considered the protection of public health to be its primary mission, and it has been less concerned about risks posed to ecosystems....EPA's response to human health risks as compared to ecological risks is inappropriate, because, in the real world, there is little distinction between the two.  Over the long term, ecological degradation either directly or indirectly degrades human health and the economy....human health and welfare ultimately rely on the life support systems and natural resources provided by healthy ecosystems.

 

            It has always amazed me that the human animal can be so arrogant as to play God with the fate or even the extermination of other species of plants or animals.  Certainly the human animal is not threatened or faced with extinction.  The basic problem is human animal overpopulation, and this can not continue indefinitely in a finite world with finite resources.  However, the human animal species does not have the collective knowledge and will to deal with the population issue short of war, pestilence and famine.

 

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant:  ‘What good is it?’ If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.  If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like, but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seeming­ly useless parts?  To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.  Aldo Leopold, Conservationist.

 

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.  Now we face the question whether a still higher standard of living is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.  Aldo Leopold

 

            In 1987, the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission designated Tucumcari Lake as the Ladd S. Gordon Game Management Area, in honor of the outstanding conservation efforts exhibited by my brother.  Had I ordered the lake drained, it would no longer have been there as a permanent memorial to the game management and conservation efforts of Ladd S. Gordon!

                                                                             

O.  The New Mexico Council on Environmental Quality

           

            Senator Fred Gross of Bernalillo County introduced a bill in the 1971 Legisla­ture to create a Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).  The CEQ would have powers and duties similar to the President's Council on Environmental Quality and those in some twenty other states.  The CEQ was to have five members, and be responsible for environmental studies, recommending programs, identifying environmental program needs, identifying program overlaps and duplications, and developing reports on the status of the environment.  The CEQ was also to require a review of environmental impact statements on a state level similar to environmental impact statements at the federal level. 

 

            Fred Gross was a Republican in a Democrat controlled Legislature, and many of his bills were failing.  He complained to Majority Leader Tibo Chavez, and Tibo asked Fred which bill he would like to see passed.  The bill to create the CEQ subsequently passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor King.

 

            But that wasn't the end of the story. 

 

            The Legislature had stripped the CEQ of necessary staffing and funding.  The responsibility for staffing was assigned to the Environmental Improvement Agency, and the CEQ was administratively attached to EIA.  This was a fatal organizational error.  The CEQ should have been attached to the Governor's Office, as its powers and scope of responsibility affected many state agencies including, but not limited to, Agriculture, Highways, Natural Resources, Game and Fish, State Engineer and Construction Industries, as well as EIA itself.  The organizational location of the CEQ represented a conflict of interest with EIA.  Other agency directors viewed CEQ as being a part of EIA and having jurisdiction over their operations. 

 

            But it also provided the CEQ with some authority pertaining to the responsibilities of powerful State Engineer Steve Reynolds who was highly regarded, but certainly no environ­mental advocate.

 

            CEQ members were appointed in 1971, and they began meeting to develop council plans and guidelines.  EIA provided necessary minimal staffing. 

 

            In the 1972 legislative session, I was invited to visit with the Senate Conservation Committee regarding the CEQ.  Senator Ike Smalley of Luna County advised me that Steve Reynolds didn't like the situation.  We had a good discussion about the CEQ and how it should have been organized and staffed.  Senate Conservation Committee members were only concerned about the environmental impact requirement.  The 1972 Legislature then took action to suspend the powers of the CEQ until it could be reviewed and acted on in the 1973 legislative session.  At that time, there appeared to be no citizen or political support for the CEQ, and the 1973 Legislature took action to abolish the CEQ. 

 

            Certainly the environmental impact statement requirement was controversial.  However, the other responsibilities for the CEQ would have resulted in positive actions to protect New Mexico's environment.  Providing a mechanism to carry out such responsibili­ties, either by statute or executive order, would have been desirable.

 

            Fred Gross was another who had an idea whose time had not come!

                                                                             

P.  Command-and-Control or Performance?

 

            From the time I was Director of the New Mexico Environmental Services Division through my tenure as Environmental Improvement Agency Director, HSSD State Health Officer, and subsequently HED Deputy Secretary and Cabinet Secretary, I insisted that environmental health and protection regulations be based on performance rather than specification standards.  This policy flew in the face of the conventional wisdom of many of the agency's engineers and scientists who thought they were possessed superior ability to that of the private sector's engineers and scientists.  I always believed that our program goals were most effectively, efficiently and economically attained when we specified the end results or performance required, and left it to those interests being regulated to be allowed flexibility and creativity in complying with the performance standards.  This concept promoted research and application of new knowledge, rather than being forced to adhere to specification or command-and-control requirements.  This worked exceedingly well.

 

            Over the years, however, states were gradually forced to perform in accordance with federal EPA command-and-control requirements.  This approach was certainly ineffective and inefficient, and resulted in unnecessarily lengthy compliance periods, larger bureaucra­cies and inappropriate expenditures.  It also served to stifle creativity on the part of the private sector.  No environmental quality or public health good was served, but it must have made the bureaucrats seated in little cubicles overlooking the Potomac happy, as well as increasing their numbers and perceived importance.

 

            And command-and-control increased operating costs for the public and private sectors, and the costs were ultimately paid by consumers and taxpayers.

                                                                             

Q.  Consumer Protection versus Special Interests

 

            In January, 1993, several hundred cases of food-borne illness occurred in Oregon among individuals who had eaten inadequately cooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box fast food establishments.  The meat had been processed in California in a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected plant.  High numbers of E. coli bacteria were found to be the causative agent.  An agency which has a mission of promoting and protecting agricultural interests has an obvious conflict of interest if it purports to have an effective role in consumer protection.

 

            The issues surrounding the Oregon outbreak reminded me of a paper I wrote in 1969 while I was Director of the New Mexico Environmental Services Division.  The paper was published in the Newsletter of the Conference of Local Environmental Health Administrators, July 1, 1977.  It bears repeating.

  

Much of the inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and cost of many programs of environmental management and consumer protection at all levels of government have been related to:

 

1.                  inappropriate fragmentation of responsibility and activities among a number of agencies, and

 

2.                  the fact that many such organizations are not oriented to a mission of consumer protection and public service, but owe their allegiance to a specific industry having a vested interest in the program.

 

Within the past year, the public throughout the nation has become concerned and knowledgeable regarding problems of environmental quality and consumer protection.  Numerous polls indicate the publics' concern and citizens' willingness to pay for such programs.  It is now apparent that there is a groundswell of demand that such activities protect man and his environment.  Increasingly, the public has been outraged to learn of limited or non-existent funding for programs of environment and consumer protection, of which people considered themselves the beneficiaries.  The public has been angered by reports of meat inspection programs being administered by agencies basically designed to promote or protect an industry rather that the public; by reports of pesticides being sold contrary to the recommendations of environmental health officials; by reports of a pesticide being marketed in accordance with the recommendation of a consultant to the pesticide manufacturer; and by attempts to transfer public service oriented programs such as occupational health and safety, and radiation protection to agencies created primarily for the purpose of promoting the interests of labor groups.

 

There is no question that agriculture departments, livestock agencies, and labor departments have a proper role and are necessary elements of governmental structure and service.  However, there is also no question that such agencies cannot and should not be public service and consumer protection oriented, thereby attempting or pretending to serve two divergent interests and masters.  To so attempt is to perpetrate a farce and defraud the consuming public.

 

Programs of environmental management and consumer protection having a significant health component should be administered within a single agency oriented to health, consumer protection, and public service in order to:

 

1.                  deliver quality service and protection to the public,

 

2.                  promote uniformity of effort and standards,

 

3.                  prevent duplication of effort, budget, personnel, laboratory and other facilities, supervision, overhead, and staff services,

 

4.                  provide program balance on a rational priority basis,

 

5.                  balance difficult or controversial decisions in favor of the public,

 

6.                  attain desired program objectives and goals, and

 

7.                  prevent confusion over program controversies or duplication of effort for the ultimate benefit of both industry and the consuming public.

 

Proper funding and organization of environmental management and consumer protection effort is essential for public health and safety.

 

SCOPE OF PROGRAM

 

Such environmental stresses as pollution, waste products, chemicals, radiation, pesticides, insects, rodents, light, pathogenic organisms, safety hazards, noise, and adulterants must be properly regulated in air, food water, land and/or shelter whether in homes, businesses, industries, vehicles, institutions, recreational facilities, and open-spaces insofar as they potentially affect man's health, safety, comfort and well being.

 

Environmental management and consumer protection programs administered by agencies other than environmental health agencies are proper functions of those agencies if they do not have a significant health component affecting the public.  Consumer protection regulation of products and services not having a significant health component affecting the public, such as land or product sale fraud, are not proper activities for environmental health agencies.  On the other hand, programs such as radiation protection, occupational health and safety, air and water pollution control, food protection, pesticide regulation and meat inspection are proper functions of environmental health agencies, and relate closely to other environmental health functions in terms of objectives, methods, types of personnel needed, and laboratory facilities.

 

Too frequently, state organizational patterns and programming have tended to follow the federal pattern.  This certainly has not provided an effective, economical or efficient model.

 

Industry oriented agencies should properly confine their activities to promoting and protecting their industries.  Consumer protection oriented agencies should primarily confine their activities to promoting and protecting the health, safety, well-being, and comfort of the consuming public.

 

Remedying existing problems of program fragmentation and agency conflicts of interest, requires public understanding and political action if the public is to be protected effectively. 

 

 

8.         THE NEW MEXICO SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY SYSTEM

 

                                                  A.  The Public Health Laboratory

 

            The New Mexico Public Health Laboratory, located on North Terrace Street on the UNM campus, was built in 1937.  For many years, the building shared occupancy with some laboratories and offices of the UNM Biology Department, but the Public Health Laboratory eventually occupied the entire building.  The facility became overcrowded, dirty and vermin infested.  Equipment and supplies were in short supply, as were the budget and professional recognition.  Morale was low, and laboratory results, particularly in the area of chemistry, were frequently of questionable validity.  Every employee of the Public Health Laboratory signed and submitted a list of grievances to Laboratory Director Dr.  Daniel Johnson in 1970.  The grievances related to:

 

            obsolete equipment, lack of proper supplies, health and safety hazards in the laboratory, inadequate training program, inequities in hiring, low salary scales with little effort to remedy the situation, lack of proper communication within the laboratory and with related programs and institutions, and steadily deteriorating public image situation.

                                                                             

B.  The Environmental Laboratory

 

            We began attempting to address the chemistry inadequacy in 1971 by developing a small environmental laboratory in a vacant Game and Fish Department warehouse in Santa Fe.  My brother, Ladd S. Gordon, was Game and Fish Director and he allowed us to utilize the building at no cost.  But the Santa Fe lab was also inadequately equipped, understaffed, and inadequate to meet rapidly growing needs for timely, accurate laboratory services.

 

            By 1972, we moved the embryonic environmental laboratory to Albuquerque where it really belonged.  My old friend Howell G.  "Bud" Ervien was City Property Management Director.  Bud allowed us to utilize a city-owned building at Montessa Park south of Albuquerque.  The city furnished the building and all utilities.  We were able to acquire additional equipment and personnel and upgrade chemistry services considerably. 

 

            However, the Public Health Laboratory and the Environmental Laboratory still were not adequate to provide the necessary quantity and quality of services essential to program requirements.

                                                                             

C.  The Scientific Laboratory System

 

            In 1972, I wrote HSSD Executive Director Dick Heim proposing 1) an organization to be known as the New Mexico Scientific Laboratory System, and 2) a modern, well equipped laboratory facility to be located in Albuquerque.  I wrote that:

 

A Public Health Laboratory was one of the first components authorized in the Department of Health when it was created more than forty years ago.  The Public Health Laboratory attempted to supply laboratory services for the Public Health Department, and was quartered in a new building on the University of New Mexico Campus in 1937.  This building was built with $10,000 in State funds and $37,000 from the Federal Public Works Authority and was constructed in such a manner and at such a location that it has been impossible to enlarge or re-design the interior.  The Public Health Laboratory has frequently been over-looked and nearly forgotten in the budgetary process; and Health Agency program personnel have tended, in the past, to assume that the Health Laboratory would continue to provide necessary service without additional financial support even when new or enlarged programs demanded such support.  As a result, the Public Health Laboratory facilities, organi­zation and services have not been able to keep pace with the State's growth or the laboratory services required by various health programs.

 

For many years, the Public Health Laboratory attempted to provide laboratory services for various sanitation programs, but such services were not adequate either in quality or quantity.  With the recent and current emphasis on problems of the environment and concurrent with the creation of the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Agency, the EIA has attempted to provide laboratory services to support such programs as air pollution control, water pollution control, water supply, insect and rodent control, food sanitation, milk sanitation, occupational health and safety, swimming pool sanitation and safety, and others. 

 

The lack of suitable facilities and equipment for EIA laboratory services has been a source of continuing frustration to the Agency and the Department.  It is essential to provide accurate and rapid laboratory results to support EIA programs, both in fairness to those being regulated and to the public-at-large.

 

            Within a short time we were contacted by several UNM Medical School faculty who recommended that the facility also be designed to provide space and facilities for the Office of the Medical Investigator, and that much of the laboratory services required by the Medical Investigator be provided by the Scientific Laboratory System.

 

            Dick Heim supported the proposal and submitted it to Governor Bruce King for his approval.  I again worked with Representative Jamie Koch of Santa Fe to develop a proposal for the 1973 legislature.  Politically, Jamie preferred that the facility be located in Santa Fe.  However, Jamie understood and supported our recommendation to locate it on the UNM Campus.

 

            In the 1973 Legislature, I requested $5 million for the joint SLS-OMI facility, and obtained UNM Board of Regents approval to locate it on the UNM campus.  The legislative process was not smooth or easy, and at one point the request was entirely deleted in the Senate.  I drove home to Albuquerque after midnight thoroughly worn out and frustrated.  But the next morning, I was in Santa Fe early to locate Representative Jamie Koch and get the process started anew in the House.  An allocation of $2.  5 million was finally authorized.  That was only half of the original request. 

 

            I asked Dick Heim to appoint me as Director of the New Mexico Scientific Laborato­ry System.  I wanted to organize and set the mission and policies for the new organization, which would be derived from the pre-existing Public Health and Environmental Laboratories.

 

            Dick then promoted Aaron Bond to Director, Environmental Improvement Agency. 

 

            Construction commenced in 1973, and our troubles had only begun.  The architect did not prevent numerous cost overruns, and the State Property Control Division did not prevent or control the overruns.  The project was soon out of money and I had to return to the 1975 Legislature with a supplemental request.  This supplemental request certainly wasn't popular with the legislators, but additional funding was finally allocated.  Even after construction was completed, we found that there were serious defects in the design of the heating and cooling systems, so I had to return to the Legislature for more money. 

 

            It was a difficult and sometimes stressful project, but in retrospect it was worth it.  New Mexico citizens were served by one of the most modern, best equipped and staffed state laboratories in the nation.  The final cost was in excess of 5 million dollars —, not far from my original request.

 

            And the laboratory was, and still is, unique.  The organization and facility were designed to provide laboratory services to all tax-supported federal, state, and local agencies in New Mexico requiring such services on a reimbursable cost basis.  Other states have individual, often inadequate laboratories serving such client agencies as public health, environmental protection, substance abuse, occupational health and safety, game and fish, Indian Health Service, family planning, medical investigator, highway traffic safety commis­sion, local law enforcement, etc.  By taking a comprehensive approach, we were able to provide a superior organization, facility, equipment and services for our citizens.

 

            We were able to positively improve professionalism, training, quality control, organizational arrangements, supervision, client relationships, budgets, job specifications, salary levels, and inter-agency communication and coordination.

 

            During the first term of Bruce King, we evaluated laboratory facilities, equipment, and personnel and determined that services could be improved by closing the small, inade­quate Farmington Branch Laboratory and transferring the personnel to the new, modern facility in Albuquerque.  This would have improved services, quality control, training and supervision.  I received verbal approval for this action from Dick Heim, State Planning Officer (and Governor King's nephew) David King, and the Governor.  I then issued written notice of the change.  But I hadn't duly recognized the politics of the situation.  We soon had protests from the City of Farmington, San Juan County, the Four Corners Regional Commis­sion, the Indian Health Service, and the Navajo Tribe.  With these protests in hand, Governor King elected to state that he hadn't approved the action.

 

            Another good idea bit the dust.  Bad politics on my part!

 

            We promoted or recruited several laboratory professionals who became nationally and internationally recognized in the fields of public health and laboratory science.  Among these:

 

Loris Hughes, was promoted to Chief Biological Sciences Division, later entered the private sector for a short time, and I recruited him to return as Laboratory Director where he has performed in an exemplary manner since 1981.

 

Mike Skeels, recruited from the Montana State Laboratory, did an outstanding job in the New Mexico SLD, became Oregon Public Health Laboratory Director, and subsequently State Health Director in Oregon.

 

Sylvia Taborelli, who was with the previous Public Health Laboratory, was promoted, earned her Master of Public Health degree, became Quality Control Supervisor, and was later appointed SLD Deputy Director. 

 

            Many states have attempted to emulate the New Mexico model, but have found it impossible to overcome the influence of their already existing, fragmented laboratory organizations and their various "turf" imperatives.

 

            The Scientific Laboratory System became the Scientific Laboratory Division of the Health and Environment Department when Governor Jerry Apodaca worked with the legislature to reorganize state govern­ment and create the cabinet form of govern­ment in 1977.

 

            At the dedication of a new addition to the SLD in 1987 while I was Cabinet Secretary for Health and Environment, I noted that:

 

The Scientific Laboratory Division serves all New Mexicans through analyzing the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and checking for such diseases as plague, rabies, AIDs and cancer; and analyzing for carcinogens, pesti­cides, toxic chemicals, drugs, alcohol and radiation.  It is the silent, but essential, partner to the efforts of the Environmental Improvement Division, the Public Health Division, and many others in order to protect and promote the health, safety, comfort and well-being of all New Mexicans.

 

            It is interesting to note the following quote from Myrtle Greenfield's book, A History of Public Health in New Mexico: 

 

Newspapers were not particularly supportive of early efforts to develop a State Health Department.  One editor suggested that a State Health Commissioner would be enough, another suggested that since the Public Health Nurse would be essential, that only a nurse would be needed.  And still another believed that the Commissioner of Health would have knowledge of sanitation, and there was no need for a sanitary engineer.  Others believed that the salary of a bacteriologist ($2,000) and the cost of a laboratory could be saved as there was a bacteriologist in Albuquer­que who could provide all the bacteriological examinations necessary for no more than $250 per year.

 

            Life must have been much simpler in 1919!

                                                                             

D.  A Regional Laboratory?

 

            One of my better ideas regarding laboratory services never got off the ground.  Before we gained authorization to create the Scientific Laboratory System and construct the SLS building, I envisioned the desirability of a regional laboratory to serve New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.  The facility was to be located in the Four Corners area.  I convened a meeting of representatives from the other three states at former Governor Tom Bolack's B Square Ranch near Farmington, New Mexico.  Tom Bolack said he would donate the land for such a facility.  The various state representatives were in agreement regarding the desirability of developing a regional laboratory.  However, in ensuing months, it became apparent that there were too many state turf issues for the project to be realized.

                                                                             

E.  A Pound-And-A-Half Won’t Hurt You!

 

            While serving as Director of the Scientific Laboratory System, I was invited to visit Los Alamos National Laboratories as a guest for official ceremonies opening their low level radioactive waste sorting facility.  Other guests included U.S. Senator Joe Montoya and U.S. Representative Manuel Lujan.  Senator Montoya had a prepared statement which was very credible and smooth --- probably prepared by one of his staffers.  Representative Lujan's statement was not prepared for him, and not well organized.  At one point he indicated that he did not know why people were concerned about wastes from nuclear reactors, inasmuch as you could "eat a pound-and-a-half of it and it wouldn't even hurt you!"  Los Alamos National Laboratories Director Dr.  Harold Agnew looked shocked and embarrassed, but didn't say anything.  A few minutes later, Lujan again indicated that he didn't know why people were concerned about wastes from nuclear reactors, as you could "eat a pound-and-a-half of it and it wouldn't even hurt you!"  At the point, Dr.  Agnew politely interrupted and advised that the statements were not factual.  If the statements had not been so serious, they might have been amusing.  And this startling misinformation came from the mouth of a Congressman who had been serving on the Congressional Joint Atomic Energy Committee for several years. 

 

            Lujan later became Secretary of the Interior!  Everyone liked Manuel Lujan!

                                                                             

F.  Slow Suicide and Slow Homicide

 

            By 1973, we knew enough about the use of tobacco to recognize that it was to the user as well as those exposed to second hand smoke.  However, at that time there were few policies or requirements in place to protect the innocent bystanders from the smoke of others.  In New Mexico, neither the state legislature, the Albuquerque city council, nor any official agency had developed a policy regarding smoking in the work place.

 

            When I became Scientific Laboratory System (SLS) Director, I promulgated a policy prohibiting smoking in any of the shared areas of the new Scientific Laboratory building.  In 1973, such an action was practically unheard of.  A number of SLS personnel viewed the policy as punitive, an infringement on their "rights", or entirely illegal.  A few threatened to take the matter to court.  But despite such reactions and criticism, the policy prevailed.

 

            When I was appointed State Health Officer in 1976, I strengthened the policy some­what and made it applicable to the Environmental Improvement Agency, the State Health Agency, and the State Health Planning and Development Agency in addition to the Scientific Laboratory System.  This greatly increases the furor.  More litigation was threatened, but none suits were filed.  I also made it known that I would not hire or promote smokers into many sensitive positions.  This really caused the stuff to hit the fan.  But it worked!

 

            In 1982, when I was recycled for the second time as Director of the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department, I promulgated the same policy for the Environmental Health Department.

 

            While Cabinet Secretary for Health and Environment in 1988, I strengthened the policy considerably to prohibit smoking in any of the statewide Health and Environment Department facilities.  A few threatened to resign, but no such resignations were forthcom­ing.

 

            Years later, many of the smokers involved thanked me and told me that it was the key element causing them to stop smoking. 

 

            The use of this uniquely perilous legal product called tobacco remained the number one preventable health problem in the United States.  If the top twenty health problem of our nation were listed, tobacco use should fill the top five positions to emphasize its importance and public health priority.  While society is understandably seriously concerned about other drugs, it is worth noting that tobacco kills some 190 times as many Americans as does cocaine.  Tobacco kills almost 50 Americans each hour, and causes the hourly expenditure of some $7,5000,000 in health care costs!

 

 

9.         THE NEW MEXICO PUBLIC HEALTH DIVISION

 

                                                   A.  Recommending The Agency

 

            Following the creation of the New Mexico Health and Social Services Department in 1967, the Department was organized in such a manner that there was no unified "public health" organizational entity.  Central office public health services were mostly organized within an inappropriately titled "Medical Services Division."

 

            It should be noted in passing that public health is not synonymous with medicine.  Public health is profoundly inter-disciplinary and requires the involvement of scores of professional disciplines, public health physicians being among them. 

 

            The Medical Services Division had no direct line authority over the district and county offices where the services were actually delivered, and there was little coordination between the various districts.  This 1967 arrangement resulted in some degree of chaos and confusion, and a distinct absence of any visionary professional leadership.

 

            Among the many good management techniques HSSD Executive Director Dick Heim instigated in 1971, was that of frequent "retreats" for HSSD top management.  These routine "retreats" resulted in many improvements to HSSD services.

 

            During a 1972 retreat at UNM's D.H. Lawrence conference facility near Taos, I broached the subject of the rather ridiculous HSSD organizational arrangement for the planning, budgeting, coordination, prioritization, delivery and evaluation of public health services.  I suggested that the organizational and managerial pattern we had already devel­oped for the Environmental Improvement Agency would result in improved service delivery for public health services.  While the EIA had been developed by statute, HSSD could do much the same for public health services by HSSD Executive Order.  This idea appealed to both Dick Heim and David Farrell, and resulted in the creation of the State Health Agency within HSSD.

 

            But even the title "State Health Agency" wasn't properly descriptive.  When the Health and Environment Department was created in 1977, it became the Health Services Division.  After I was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Health and Environment, I changed the name to "Public Health Division" in 1988, and this was endorsed by the Legislature in 1989. 

 

            Public health is the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health and efficiency through organized community effort.  Basic public health initiatives have done more to enhance the status of the health of the public than all the collective actions taken in the field of health care (treatment and rehabilitation).  Public health, however, lacks the glamour commonly associated with health care and does not compete well for funding.  Public health programs are woefully under funded throughout the Nation.  Over 93% percent of all health dollars are for health care, 3.5% for health research, and only 2.9% for public health.  The nation's health demands greater attention through public health services.  Improved public health services are essential not only to enhance the health status of Americans, but to slow the rapidly escalating costs of health care.  Opportu­nities relating to prevention of the ten leading causes of death such as heart disease, cancer, accidents, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, influen­za/pneumonia, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, suicides, homicides, and congenital anomalies await the attention of public health.  We must have a commitment to preventing damage to the human machine in balance with efforts to repair the human machine after it is worn or damaged. 

                                                                             

B.  Health Bill of Rights

 

            In 1976, while serving as State Health Officer (Administrator for Health and Environmental Programs), I presented the following paper at the annual meeting of the New Mexico Public Health Association.  It was published in Focus on Health, a newsletter of the State Health Agency.

 

We believe:

 

In the right to positive health for all our citizens;

 

In the right to disease prevention and health promotion services;

 

That the greatest health benefits are to be derived from disease prevention and health promotion services;

 

That health status is influenced by poverty and ignorance as much as by the quantity and quality of health services;

 

That the pendulum of health services has shifted too far toward reliance on treatment rather than a balanced approach involving prevention, promotion, and treatment;

 

That communicable disease program efforts must be balanced with the increasing importance of chronic diseases as major causes of morbidity and mortality; the adverse effects of life-styles including lack of exercise, obesity and smoking; and increased environmental pollutants;

 

That health education, which has been missing from HSSD since, 1967 must be a basic component of every disease prevention and health promotion program in order to assure the greatest health benefits for New Mexicans;

 

That HSSD Health Agency services should be uniformly available to all citizens and sectors of the State regardless of economic status;

 

That HSSD Health Agency services should not duplicate or compete with treatment and rehabilitation services available from the private sector;

 

That many of the current problems of the HSSD Health Agency have been due to lack of proper planning, organization, and management;

 

That there is now one HSSD Health Agency instead of the past pattern of having a central office and six districts, each going their own way.  Therefore, continuing communication and coordination among all HSSD Health Agency components is an absolute necessity;

 

That insofar as possible, HSSD Health Agency should be delivered by field offices and personnel; with program direction, priorities, design, consultation, staff training, and logistical support being assured through the central office;

 

That professionally prepared public health professionals are essential to efforts to attain positive health status for all our citizens.  To this end, professional staff development and training must be enhanced;

 

That careful and continuing program prioritization must be accomplished to ensure the best cost-benefit relationship for the extremely limited Health Agency budget;

 

That our citizens are our corporate stockholders.  As such, Health Agency personnel are obligated to insure sound two-way communication and openness, as well as effectively relating health needs and program activities to the public;

 

That we must insure that others understand that the most effective and economical answers to health problems lie in prevention. 

 

 

10.       STATE HEALTH OFFICER

                        (Administrator for Health and Environmental Programs)

 

            Former State Senator Jerry Apodaca (Democrat, Dona Ana County) became Governor in 1975.  Prominent among his most unbelievable actions was the appointment of Fernando E. C de Baca as Executive Director of the Health and Social Services Department.  An entire chapter might be written about the damage that occurred during his tenure, but I will only mention it as necessary.  C de Baca's track record was the worst imaginable, but being a politically astute politician, he had ended up having an office in the hallway of the Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington, being among the scores of "Special Assistants" to President Gerald Ford, but having no apparent responsibilities.  None of us, including members of the Board of Health and Social Services, could ever understand why Governor Apodaca had appointed him.  But, politics make strange bedfel­lows!

 

            In the spring of 1975, the modern facility for the New Mexico Scientific Laboratory System had been completed and equipped, and the budget and staffing improved.  The laboratory was organized and functioning.  As SLD Director, I wasn't looking for any new challenges at the moment, but that didn't last long. 

 

            C de Baca called me at my home and asked me to accept the position of State Health Officer, which would include overseeing the functions of the Environmental Improvement Agency, the State Health Agency, the Scientific Laboratory System and the State Health Planning Agency.  I had recommended this organizational pattern to Alex Armijo, Acting HSSD Executive Director, prior to C de Baca being appointed. 

 

            Had I known how disruptive and incompetent C de Baca would prove to be, I would have turned him down.  But not knowing this, I accepted the position which later was formally termed "Administrator for Health and Environmental Programs."  However, such positions in other states were titled "State Health Officer."

 

            I appointed Aaron Bond as Director of the Scientific Laboratory System, Thomas E. Baca as Director of the Environmental Improvement Agency, and Mike Burkhart as Director of the State Health Agency.  All were experienced professionals, so my job should have been easy.  And it would have been except for the constant disruptive antics of C de Baca regarding personnel and programs.  He wanted both Tom Baca and Mike Burkhart dis­missed, and attempted to thwart my personnel evaluations of these outstanding professionals.

 

            I rapidly fell into disfavor with C de Baca, and then through "guilt by relationship", with Governor Apodaca.  The "guilt by relationship" was due to my brother, Ladd S. Gordon, Director, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. 

 

            The Game and Fish Department had been notoriously professional and non-political during its entire existence.  Apodaca ordered Ladd S. Gordon to appoint one of Apodaca's political buddies as an Assistant Director.  The individual had no administrative or game and fish management training or experience, and Ladd didn't need another assistant.  To make a long story short, Ladd refused to appoint the person, and Apodaca presumably "fired" my brother.  Ladd called a press conference and correctly stated that the Governor did not have the authority to dismiss him; that he had been appointed by the Game and Fish Commission, and it would take an action of the Game and Fish Commission to dismiss him.  Alex Armijo, later an interim HSSD Director, told me that the Governor was then flooded with telegrams supportive of Ladd.  Apodaca convened a special meeting of the Game and Fish Commission to have the Commission do his bidding.  But the Commission voted to retain Ladd as Director.  Apodaca was well known for his fiery temper, and he was furious.  He later told Ladd that he (Ladd) had succeeded in preventing him from being Governor again, but "By God, I'm still Governor."

 

            Later that year, Ladd opted to retire, accepted a position with the National Rifle Association, and later transferred to Ducks Unlimited where he held key positions until his final retirement in 1985. 

 

            One morning Thomas E. Baca and I were called to the Governor's Office to discuss priorities for dispensing federal matching funds for local sewerage projects.  Tom always seems to have a smile on his face and appear confident.  As Governor Apodaca looked up from his desk, he told Tom, "Wipe that f---ing grin off your face!"

 

            A very gubernatorial statement!

 

            We had developed an objective methodology for prioritizing request of funding sewage treatment projects.  Apodaca wanted to politicize the process.  We indicated we would not be parties to his scheme.  As we left the office, I jokingly asked Tom, "How many of your relatives will vote against Apodaca if he ever runs for political office again"?

 

            On another occasion, when I went to see the Governor, I found him with his head down.  I greeted him and asked him if he had a problem.  He responded to the effect that it had been a bad year "with all that Ladd stuff."  I asked if he couldn't look at me and think about something other than my brother.  He indicated that he would never do it again.

 

            But the Governor didn't forget the matter. 

 

            Robert McNeil, HSSD attorney, told me that he was involved in a discussion with the Governor and C de Baca about dismissing me, but that Bob admonished them that it would create something similar to the Ladd S. Gordon incident.  Actually, that would not have been the case.  Sportsmen are well known for their organization and political influence, whereas an environmental health and protection admi