San Luis Valley
A StoryMap of the CO Environmental Justice Storytelling Project
Life in the San Luis Valley
The Rio Grande headwaters flow from the San Juan Mountains and through the San Luis Valley making its way through southern Colorado, the entire state of New Mexico, and into the Gulf of Mexico.
Located in the south-central region of Colorado and northern New Mexico, the San Luis Valley is home to several towns and counties. Most land is used for grazing and agriculture. Lettuce, potatoes, and the barley people enjoy in their Coors-brand beer grow in the San Luis Valley.
The beautiful San Luis Valley is known for some of the West’s most iconic landscapes including the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve , the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge , and the Rio Grande.
The Great Sand Dunes National Park in Spring 2022. Credit: Jayna Patel
Sandhill cranes spend their spring and fall each year in the San Luis Valley, part of their migration route. Each year the valley hosts a "Crane Festival" in early March to welcome the birds and springtime. Credit: National Park Service
Issue in Focus: Water Exportation from Rural Communities to Urban Landscapes
The communities in the San Luis Valley are no strangers to water challenges. These same challenges are faced by many other communities across the state. Some look elsewhere to import water to solve water supply obstacles and concerns.
The San Luis Valley is looked at as one potential solution for urban communities experiencing water shortages.
With less than seven inches of rainfall a year, the San Luis Valley holds together a vast agricultural economy, while having been stricken with devastating drought conditions for the past two decades.
The reliance on the Rio Grande and other natural water resources has historically sustained communities in the valley.
Yet, even with sparse water supplies to delegate elsewhere and every drop of the Rio Grande accounted for in water rights, there have been proposed projects and speculation to funnel water from the San Luis Valley’s rural communities elsewhere.
San Luis Valley community members, farmers, ranchers, and conservationists are pushing back against suggested water exportation efforts.
Learn more:
More Reading on Water in the San Luis Valley
A surprising place to get wet, but also a handy place to then get dry (except when it's raining) is Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Alamosa and Saguache counties in Colorado. Photo Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith
White-faced ibis in a wetland along the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley. Credit: Rio de la Vista
A girl enjoys the wave action of Medano Creek at Great Sand Dunes National Park in May 2010. Credit: National Park Service
CO EnviroScreen
Community members living in the San Luis Valley face varied environmental health risks than other Coloradans as indicated by each county’s Colorado EnviroScreen Score.
Although many counties connect in the San Luis Valley and many communities share the same challenges regardless of county designation, Rio Grande County is scored high for environmental health risks based on environmental justice factors that contribute to the county's EnviroScreen Score.
Rio Grande County Score: 95.31
100 is the highest score, and the higher the score the higher the environmental health risk factor for a county.
Learn more about each factor that contributes to the Colorado EnviroScreen Score at cdphe.colorado.gov/enviroscreen .
The Colorado EnviroScreen is an environmental justice mapping tool that uses quantitative data to calculate an “EnviroScreen score” to measure environmental injustices. It was developed for the CDPHE by a team at Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment.
Dive into CO EnviroScreen to learn more here: cdphe.colorado.gov/enviroscreen .
This StoryMap was created for CDPHE by the Colorado Environmental Justice Storytelling Project in Professor Phaedra C. Pezzullo’s University of Colorado Boulder Foundations of Environmental Justice class, co-led by Anthony Albidrez and Jayna Patel. This pilot project amplifies voices and lived experiences of disproportionately impacted communities across Colorado to complement CO EnviroScreen’s quantitative data. The ideas and statements expressed by community members may not reflect the views or positions of CDPHE as an agency, the university, or all residents. We hope the StoryMap encourages more qualitative research and public participation about how to achieve environmental justice in Colorado.
If you want to provide feedback on EnviroScreen or this StoryMap, contact: cdphe_ej@state.co.us
