Our Work

It is a crisis caused by a combination of factors:

1. A misguided federal government that promotes economic growth and corporate profits through a weakening of
   environmental protection safeguards including the Clean Water Act — placing human health and clean water at risk;
2. A sustained drought punctuated by extreme storm events;
3. Unlimited growth regardless of water shortages;
4. Watersheds degraded by overuse
5. Climate change.

Since 1988, Amigos Bravos has fought diligently and successfully to protect human health and New Mexico’s waters. We are a feisty group of dedicated social and environmental activists that produce on-the-ground improvements and consistently counter corporate proposals that threaten community water resources. We are not shy about taking strong action to ensure that future generations inherit a healthier and safer world.

What does Amigos Bravos do?

Amigos Bravos’ focuses on the on-going goals of Restoring Watershed Health, Holding Polluters Accountable, and Building a Water Ethic and Stewardship for the Future. Our work focuses on organizing around Environmental Justice issues and on countering the predicted effects of Climate Change. We accomplish our work by using three strategies:

• Civic Engagement and Action
• Policy Implementation
• Building Community Capacity

Activities

• We build coalitions – often bringing people to the table who might not otherwise work together – to come up with creative and practical solutions to protect and restore New Mexico’s most precious resource – water. Click here to read our 5-year Strategic Plan to guide us in our efforts.
• We stop industry from dodging regulatory safeguards and we hold all polluters accountable.
• We hold government accountable to the regulations it is meant to uphold, (the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an example of what happens when lax government oversight meets industry greed).
• We provide Clean Water Act trainings and technical assistance to river stewards and environmental justice activists throughout the state.
• We are the Clean Water Act specialists in the state and we serve as vice-chair of the national Clean Water Network.
• We interpret regulatory and legal jargon for public and media understanding.
• We provide educational opportunities
• We design and organize community water quality monitoring initiatives.
• We protect Special Places
• We organize in communities to restore water and watersheds
• We organize trash clean-ups along rivers
• We educate decision-makers