Environmental Legislative Update

Arizona state lawmakers recently passed two bills dealing with water, one deals with water adequacy and one that sets up a fund for infrastructure. Meantime it looks like Senate Bill 1552 the Air Quality Program— will go to conference committee for additional amendments next week. The Sierra Club is asking legislators to make it as strong as possible. Joining Horizon is Sandy Bahr, Conservation Outreach Director for the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter.

Transcript:

Steve Goldstein:
Tonight on "Horizon," as state lawmakers consider budget legislation, environmental groups seek better bills to improve air and water quality. And a conversation with Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, the founder of the center for autism and related disorders, about the study and treatment of autism. Plus, at one time the town now known as Tempe, Arizona, was founded by communities of people from Mexico. We look at Tempe's Hispanic heritage. Those stories, next, on "Horizon."

Steve Goldstein:
Good evening, I'm Steve Goldstein, welcome to "Horizon." Arizona state lawmakers recently passed two bills dealing with water, one on water adequacy, and one that sets up a fund for infrastructure. Meantime, it looks like Senate bill 1552, the air quality program, will go to conference committee for additional amendments next week. The Sierra Club is asking legislators to make it as strong as possible. Joining me now is Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director, with the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter. Thank you for being here.

Sandy Bahr:
Thanks, it's a pleasure to be here.

Steve Goldstein:
Sandy, a few months ago there was a big press conference. Gov. Napolitano, Sen. John Huppenthal, Sen. Carolyn Allen, announcing air quality legislation. Later that afternoon the bill was stripped. What happened to that bill?

Sandy Bahr:
Basically, it ran into the Senate Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee. And the influence of the home-builders, agriculture, sand and gravel, all of the entities that are contributing to the air quality problems were affected by the bill.

Steve Goldstein:
What's the current status of the bill right now?

Sandy Bahr:
Well, the bill has been in limbo for a couple of months, while people get together and discuss how to strengthen it and to meet the mandates of the Clean Air Act. And the Clean Air Act has health-based standards for particulate pollution. We have not met those health-based standards, so we have a deadline, the end of this year, to put together a plan to show that we're going to reduce emissions and to meet the standards.

Steve Goldstein:
How much compromise is going to have to happen? The rock products association was not happy with the bill. The developers feel they're getting picked on. How do we get everyone at the table?

Sandy Bahr:
Well, everyone is going to have to do something and Sen. Carolyn Allen made that clear in the meeting. Everyone needs to step up and agree to change something to reduce emissions. We're not going to get there without having the home builders, the construction industry, sand and gravel, those interests, do more. And including agriculture, and I think that a number of measures on the table will help with that. There are some requirements for dust coordinators and dust training for construction sites. There are even some requirements to limit the use of leaf blowers, which is very annoying to many people. Agriculture gets off kind of easy with dust management practices, and we would like to see a little more there. There are some restrictions relating to off-road vehicles and requirements to develop ordinances to reduce those emissions. So right now the measure looks like it will have a little bit of everything. Whether it will be enough to actually get us to compliance is a big question. Right now the oil industry is fighting some cleaner-burning fuel requirements in the bill. They tend to usually do that. So that will -- we'll see if they weaken the bill. And the home builders association says they're not happy with some of the provisions, as well.

Steve Goldstein:
How big an impact would mass transit have on this?

Sandy Bahr:
We would like to see mass transit included as part of the bill, at least as part of where the state is focusing its energy. Right now we tend to be pumping more and more money into freeways, instead of really looking seriously at investing more in mass transit. But a lot of our pollution comes from transportation. That ozone pollution we see in the summer, a lot of that is generated from vehicles. So, whatever we can do to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, and how far those vehicles are going, will help with pollution.

Steve Goldstein:
As the quality of legislation has run into obstacles, there have been rumors - I'm sure legislators love to hear that -- that there might be a special session. Might we need that?

Sandy Bahr:
Well, if they aren't willing to pass a strong bill with strong enforcement mechanisms in it -- that's one more thing I have to mention. We've had horrible compliance with our current air quality program, as much as 51% in noncompliance. We need something with strong enforcement and compliance mechanisms. Otherwise, a think a special session will be required, that is, as people take it seriously that the federal government might say, hey, we're going to take some of those federal highway dollars.

Steve Goldstein:
What's the urgency among lawmakers at this point? One is we want better air quality for people's health, but we don't want to lose federal funding for our freeways. Which do you think is more important and does it matter which is more important, as long as the bill moves along?

Sandy Bahr:
I would like to think the public health issue creates urgency, but the bottom line is it hasn't. Sen. Allen and some other leaders in the legislature are focusing on public health. But the numbers are really concerned about losing federal highway dollars. Still, others don't think the E.P.A. will really do it, so I don't think they really are taking it seriously, which is why the original bill did not pass by a very wide margin in the House of Representatives. You had the speaker of the house voting against the air quality bill.

Steve Goldstein:
Has it been predictable as far as what sides were for and which side has been against? As I mentioned, Sen. Allen and Sen. Huppentahl, who were in favor were both republicans.

Sandy Bahr:
I think the senate has shown a lot more leadership on the air quality issue to date. That's where most of the action on the bill has been coming from. And the house has been a little bit more reluctant. When you see people working against the bill, they're over in the house. The Western States Petroleum Association are over talking to the Speaker of the House, trying to make sure that they're taken care of in the bill.

Steve Goldstein:
I'm glad you brought up the word "leadership," because I think that's important to address. If the average person says, I don't want these air quality problems that we're having, is there enough leadership at the capitol from both sides to determine, let's really get something done? Does one person need to take hold, whether it's the governor or someone else?

Sandy Bahr:
I don't think there's enough leadership on air quality. I think that there ought to be more done, before we have sanctions or deadlines or threats of lawsuits or threats of losing federal highway dollars. They ought to be trying to clean up the air because children can't go outside and play in the playground on bad air days. The people in Fountain Hills suffer from serious high levels of ozone, and have trouble breathing when those ozone levels are high. That ought to be the reason they step up and show leadership. I think it is going to take a strong push from the Governor, from Sen. Allen, President of the Senate, and at some point someone in the house needs to also step up and help lead the way on cleaning up the air.

Steve Goldstein:
A couple of bills related to water made progress in the legislature last week, tell us a little about those.

Sandy Bahr:
Well, one bill dealt with funding for infrastructure for water. We were very concerned about that bill because it didn't provide any protections for rivers or streams, and could effectively mean we're funding drying up rivers and streams. The other one dealt with ensuring that there's adequate water for development outside of places like Phoenix and Tucson. That bill is -- has a little bit in it that I think is worth supporting. But the big problem with it is that it requires that a county have a unanimous vote of the supervisors before they can adopt adequacy provisions. So it means it'll be limited in its application because getting a unanimous vote is not always easy, especially on water.

Steve Goldstein:
Sandy Bahr of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, thanks for joining us on "Horizon" tonight.

Sandy Bahr:
Thank you.

Steve Goldstein:
Autism is a disorder that remains enigmatic in many respects. Some of the symptoms are impaired social behavior, restricted communication, and repetitive or hyper focused interests. The causes of autism are debated and there's no known cure. But experts on the neurodevelopmental disorder say early intervention can be the key effective treatment. A three-year state-funded pilot program is now in Arizona at the center for autism and related disorders. Merry Lucero sat down with the center's founder and executive director, Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh.

Merry Lucero:
Thanks for joining me. How did you get involved in the treatment and study of autism in the first place?

Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh:
When I entered the UCLA program, one of the earliest ways to get clinical experience there was with the autism projects. Really, I would say it was the first child that I worked with, a little boy. His name was cory, and he just astonished me. He was pretty severely affected, but he had this incredible memory. And I would take him to my house, and then two months later I'd take him to my house again and he'd remember so many things, like oh, the roof has changed, or you changed the color of the walls. He just had an incredible memory. So I really became intrigued. This is back in the 70's, really. And I started to realize that these children are -- this is a completely misunderstood disorder. In those days people thought that there was a high correlation with mental retardation. I spent years and years saying, these kids are not mentally retarded, these kids are incredibly intelligent, were are testing them with IQ tests and they are just locked in there. I guess that was the fascination for me, most of all, as well as just being able to see how we affect parents' lives and the whole family system. If you have children, anyone who has children will know that they are the dearest things in your lives, and nothing else really matters once you have children. To have a child who's developing well, and then to lose your child and see your child regress, and for us to come in and be able to transform that situation back, and gradually reverse and help the child become functional again is -- we're just very blessed to be doing what we do. It's an incredible opportunity for us.

Merry Lucero:
C.A.R.D. is not a new organization. You're new to phoenix, but not at all new. Give me a little background on the center for autism and related disorders, and the other cities where you're located.

Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh:
I founded C.A.R.D. in 1990, and the first location was in Los Angeles. Since then we've opened -- I believe Phoenix is the 19th location. So we now have nine centers in California, two in New York, one in Texas, one in South Carolina, one in Virginia, and now in Arizona, as well as one in Auckland, New Zealand, one in Sidney, Australia, and London, England. We're right now focusing on opening one in Chicago, Illinois.

Merry Lucero:
What's unique and different about C.A.R.D. and how it goes about the study and treatment of autism?

Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh:
The type of therapy we do is called A.B.A., or applied behavior analysis. Because we have been applying this to children - A.BA. can be applied to many different things. We've been using it for children with autism since I started in 1978, so for a very long time. We've sort of detailed and perfected the application of A.B.A. for children with autism. What's unique about C.A.R.D. is we've developed a very intensive detailed assessment tool that allows us to establish with each child what specific deficits they have, what specific strengths they have. And then we apply that knowledge to a curriculum, and we have a very extensive curriculum for teaching skills in the areas of language and social skills and cognitive skills and executive functioning, planning, social skills, areas that are very pertinent to autism. Our expertise is very specialized to just autism. There are providers all over the United States, but we're -- I guess we're well-known because of our curriculum and our assessments, and also because of our expertise with children on the higher functioning area of autism, as well as our programs. We have two programs. Our second program goes for children past the age of 10 to adulthood.

Merry Lucero:
But you also focus on early intervention. Why is it so important to focus on early intervention?

Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh:
Okay, back in 1987, when I was at UCLA, the first major study on autism and A.B.A. was published. I worked on that study, and the study showed that if you do intensive A.B.A.. -- so 40 hours a week of this type of therapy with children who are diagnosed with autism -- 47% of the children that we had recovered. And this was contrasted to other types of therapies, and also lower types of intensity. And those two control groups where there was either lower intensity or a different type of therapy; there was only 2% of children who recovered. This was a very significant study. Since then there have been 200 replications, so A.B.A. is very effective. This study showed that it's important to try to get children as early as possible. We start children before 2 now, actually, and if you do this type of intensive therapy, you have a very good chance of turning children around, teaching them the skills they need, so by the time they're 5 or 6 they can be mainstreamed, they can have normal cognition, I.Q., skills, language. Actually they can be mainstreamed into the normal world and lead very healthy lives.

Merry Lucero:
Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, thank you very much for joining me.

Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh:
Thank you very much.

Steve Goldstein:
Assessment, treatment, and report-writing services are provided on a flat hourly rate. You can get more information from their website, at centerforautism.com. The phone number is 602-325-2485. Since autism encompasses educational delays as well as behavioral disabilities, parents may be able to get partial funding from their school district for educational needs, and partial funding from access for behavioral needs.

Steve Goldstein:
Tempe, Arizona, is well-known as the home of Arizona State University. But long before it was even the city of Tempe, it was made up of several communities settled by pioneer farmers, ranchers and workers who came from Mexico. Between 1870 and 1900 about half of the Tempe area was Hispanic. Producer Merry Lucero, videographer Richard Torruellas and editor Ben Avechuco continue our series Arizona Stories with a look at Tempe's Hispanic heritage.

Merry Lucero:
San Pablo, Soltero Ranch, Hayden's ferry, in the late 19th century, a thriving community with the lives and people and culture of Mexico, in what we now know as Tempe, Arizona.

Christine Marin: They brought their culture, their customs, their language, their religion, and their expectations for a better life. And it was just a matter of coming from Sonora, from large settlements like Hermosillo, to Tempe.

Merry Lucero:
Many farmed or worked for pioneers such as Charles Hayden, on his flour mill or ferry, and settled along the Salt River.

Christine Marin:
Mexican families wanted to stay, so they began forming their community and named it San Pablo. By 1873, San Pablo was already in existence as a Mexican community.

Merry Lucero:
San Pablo was located around the base of today's a mountain. The land was donated to the Mexican families by pioneer settler William Kirkland. The little town thrived for generations. Joe Soto paints from memories of San Pablo where he grew up.

Joe Soto:
I remember one of my cousins saying how nice it used to be when we could go to sleep and leave the doors open. Somebody could walk in and borrow something, but then they'd bring it back the following day. There was a lot of friendship and everybody saw themselves like family.

Merry Lucero:
Another successful Mexican pioneer community in the area was headed by an industrious woman, Manuela Sotello.

Scot Soliday:
She had a very difficult time, but got by growing vegetables and herbs and flowers. All the other farmers were growing cash crops, alfalfa and wheat. She was the only one really providing a lot of the food for all of these local farmers. She continued to work that way throughout her life.

Merry Lucero:
Sotello subdivided her property and sold the parcels. The area near Rural and University became known as Sotello ranch, and later the Sotello edition. Marci Gorman's grandparents, who cam in 1890, built this homestead there.

Marci Gorman: I love this homestead, I have always loved it. I came when I was three. There were two pear trees, two naval oranges, two grapefruit, two pomegranates, two quince, and we would eat the fruit. And the chores that we had when they irrigated we made into games. In summer, we spent all summer swimming.

Joe Soto:
You see that right there, that was our swimming hole, and the water was always clean and clear. They had sandy bottoms which were fantastic.

Merry Lucero:
The canal and the river were the preferred swimming spots, since the Tempe beach swimming pool was off limits.

Scot Soliday:
The swimming pool was basically closed for Hispanics. There was one night a week the Hispanics could swim, and it was the night before they drained the swimming pool and filled it with fresh water. So obviously, aside from the fact that they were not allowed to use the swimming pool most times, the indications were such a vicious insult to the people here in Tempe.

Merry Lucero:
Another insult was the school system.

Christine Marin:
In 1898, the Arizona territorial legislature established a bill that made it clear that Mexican children would be separated and educated separately.

Merry Lucero:
Mexican-American children were being taught manual skills and housekeeping skills. Parents began to recognize the injustice.

Christine Marin:
The parents were actually protesting the fact that the children were segregated and taught by teachers who were not professional teachers. While they were being taught these skills to make them housekeepers, they really wanted the children to learn other skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic, the typical three "R's" as they were called.

Merry Lucero:
A landmark court case settled the issue in 1925, by allowing Hispanic children into Anglo schools, but that was just a prelude to a bigger battle that was brewing. Mexican-American citizens were realizing their civil rights and groups were beginning to organize. In the 1930's, Los Conquistadores, at Arizona State University, formed to fight discrimination.

Christine Marin:
They spoke up for the workers who were not treated fairly or who wanted a decent wage. They wanted to end the segregation in this county, Maricopa county, and not just in Tempe.

Merry Lucero:
In the 1950's, the land that housed the distinct Mexican American neighborhoods of Tempe was needed by a rapidly expanding Arizona State University. Using the power of eminent domain, the university was able to acquire property for growth, for expansion. Among the property was that area called San Pablo.

Joe Soto:
The homes in the surrounding area, when A.S.U. bought them, they came with a bulldozer and just knocked them down.

Merry Lucero:
Only two original structures still stand. Mt. Carmel Catholic Church, where many social and cultural events took place and parochial school was taught, on University and College. It is now the Newman Catholic Center. And the Elias Rodriguez house, where Marci Gorman grew up which was restored by the city of Tempe.

Scot Soliday:
The Elias Rodriguez house is really the last structure that has a significant history with the Mexican-Americans that came up into this area.

Christine Marin:
This just happened a few years ago, that they started acknowledging that Mexicans, you know, because they have been carrying their history around in their arms for years, trying to make people aware that they were here.

Scot Soliday:
Having read so much about Tempe history, the one thing that really has surprised me the most is suddenly finding that there's a completely different story that has absolutely nothing to do with what has been written through all these years.

Merry Lucero:
Tempe's Hispanic history lives through photographs and these paintings, glimpses of life long ago, and the memories of those who once lived here.

Steve Goldstein:
We'll be featuring "Arizona stories" segments each Tuesday night here on "Horizon." Starting June 12th you can see the new series of a half-hour program, "Arizona stories," every Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.

David Majure:
Some of Arizona's land is sinking, and with it property values could be sinking, too. These open cracks can destroy homes and infrastructure. We'll find out what causes them and get a peek at some brand-new maps that show us where the earth fissures are. That's Wednesday at 7 on "Horizon."

Steve Goldstein:
Be sure to join us Friday night for the "Journalists Roundtable." this Friday the latest from the State Capitol, including the state budget, Governor Tim Pawlenty's latest news, and whether the current session will actually ever end. Thanks for joining us on "Horizon." I'm Steve Goldstein, have a great night.