Phoebe Suina, Environmental Engineer: A Day in the Life

My grandfather was a lifelong student. He was one of my role models. He taught me that even if you get your degree, you will always be learning. It’s important to keep learning and keep up to date with how things change. He also told me about the history of Cochiti Lake, and the dam. The large dam at Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico was built in 1960 by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was completed in the early 70s. They claimed that the dam was necessary for flood control on the Rio Grande River.

I’m from San Felipe Pueblo (Cochiti Pueblo), which are two tribes located along the Rio Grande. Our people have been living here since time immemorial. They say the same phrase every day. It’s difficult to determine how many years. I will say thousands of years, not just one, two, or three thousand years, but multiple thousands. Over time, there was a ebb-and-flow of movement in this region. There were times we were on the Rio Grande and times when our feet were in the mountains. This is due to changes in climate and resources. Our people adjusted. They found evidence of Pueblo Indians here in Cochiti when excavating the dam. This was similar to recently discovered footprints in Southern New Mexico’s White Sands. These footprints were over 4,000 year old. We’ve been here for a very long time.

Our people in Cochiti Pueblo have dealt with climate change over time. We have learned to adapt. The Federal Government told them they needed to build dams, but they didn’t know where to place it. They chose to build the dam in Cochiti. The dam is close to a place where the river dramatically changes in terms of its natural features. Our Pueblo was the first to welcome them and our leadership when they wanted to build the dam. Our Pueblo has an old, traditional, internal governmental system. It is composed of six tribal leaders who change each year. The tribal council is made up of six former leaders who are now members for life. The Army Corps of Engineers showed up at the council to place the dam in Cochiti. The Council replied, “No. The Head of Army Corps came back to threaten that the Federal Government would use the eminent domain process to condemn the refusal to put the dam. If the owners of the property are paid, the government can use their property for public purposes through the eminent domain process. They were very insistent in their demand.

We cannot really share with the rest of the world why this dam location was inappropriate. If we are looking at a project scientifically, we want to have as much data as possible to make the best decisions. Our people have data going back thousands of years. Our knowledge, expertise, and history of this land have made us here since the beginning. We would be foolish not to incorporate this expertise into our decisions. In the 1940s and 1950s the data that Western science had about this area was likely only decades old. They chose to use the minimal data points to determine the best place for the dam.

Our people said, OK, fine. As long as you don’t disturb these areas that we have designated, we are happy to accept this. The Army Corps of Engineers also agreed. But, they only disturbed and destroyed the places that were marked by tribal leaders. As the owners of this land, we have to take care of these places. Not just for us, the living today, but also for the Cochiti and all the other Indigenous peoples in the Southwest. I don’t know Cochiti if there isn’t a five-mile footprint on our reservation. This dam is what I see when I look East from my window today. Without the dam, Cochiti is not something I know.

Fast forward to my birth. As a child, water was my favorite thing. Science was my passion. I have always loved the outdoors, rivers, and streams. I enjoyed learning about the environment. I was awarded an engineering scholarship to Dartmouth College in Cochiti when I went to college. I didn’t know what my future career would be after high school. At the time, water was not something I thought about. I thought I was more interested Chemical Engineering or Structural Engineering. It was hard for me, an Indigenous person from San Felipe or Cochiti, to make it all the way to Dartmouth. I was shocked at how much culture and language had been lost by other Pueblos, tribes and Indigenous peoples. To understand what we have in New Mexico, in Pueblo communities, it took me 2,000 miles.

I took a theory and calculus course in my second year. I struggled and thought, maybe I’m not meant to be in science or maybe this is not what I am good at. It wasn’t easy for me. My brain wasn’t understanding it. I was very down on myself, so I took a few months off to work in Cochiti. In 1996, I took part in a language revitalization course. Growing up, I was not encouraged to speak Keres my native language. I was encouraged to use English.

The Lieutenant Governor approached me and asked me to help him with this side project. He led me into a room with a lot of dusty cardboard boxes and asked me to learn more about the Cochiti Lake. Then he gave a presentation to the community. I went through all the resolutions, articles and drawings as I was going. I read the information that the Army Corps of Engineers had given to the Pueblo. I asked the governors if these engineering drawings were known. They replied that they didn’t know how engineering drawings were read.

If you look at the engineering drawings you will see that the dam could not be built without disturbing the area the leadership wanted to protect. There was no way. I explained to the leadership that the Army Corps of Engineers had lied. That’s the technical part. It doesn’t include economic development and policy. The Cochiti people sued the Federal Government in 1980 for the cost of building the dam. We won. I was able to re-engage myself in the language and in our cultural, ritual ways and learn about the importance of all our cultural and environmental resources to our people. I knew I had to return to Dartmouth to complete my degree. I wanted someone to help our people, our people, read engineering drawings and be able sit across the table and tell us that what you are saying is incorrect.

I returned to Dartmouth, settled down, and received my Bachelors in Environmental Engineering as well as my Masters in Engineering Management degrees. I took a differential equations class when I returned from Dartmouth. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able pass the class, but I passed it! Differential equations are the application of the theories that I had learned in my calculus course. It was the application and understanding of the theories that my brain was capable of. Before I left, I struggled in an electrical engineering class. It wasn’t working for me. When I got back, I took hydraulic engineering classes, and it was like a lightbulb in my head. You can see how water flows all the phenomena you learn in an electrical circuit. Because I could see water, all the theories I learned in electrical engineering were finally clear to me. Despite struggling in one type, hydraulic engineering, which is the engineering of water, worked for me.

I enjoy sharing with people that I have seen, from my career, in New Mexico, what I know from this landscape. I also love to share our stories about how weve been here since time immemorial. Our people were the first scientists and engineers, hydrologists, botanists. astronomers. Science is in our DNA. This is how we’ve survived, been sustainable, adapted and thrived in this changing landscape. It will help us to continue to steward the environment and our natural resource. I am grateful for Aha! Before I went off the path, my Aha! moment was there. I realized that we needed someone at Pueblo to advocate for us and explain.

After graduating from graduate school, I worked as a laboratory technician at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I was responsible for all aspects of post-fire recovery and response after the Cerro Grande fire, 2000. This included tree thinning (to prevent future flames), and fire road development. The Las Conchas Fire, a major and catastrophic fire, occurred in 2011. It had the largest environmental footprint of any wildfire in New Mexico. My daughter was just one-and-a half years old at the time. I took her to my parents to be with me for the day. I can recall that we had just had a baptismal at the Pueblo. When I returned to the garden at the house to tend to the plants, I saw a small plume of smoke. It was so narrow. I took my daughter with me and drove home. I drove up to Los Alamos the next morning and came back to Cochiti in smoke. I turned the radio on to hear the news. They said that the fire had grown to 40,000 acres. That didn’t make sense to me based on my experience working with fires. They probably meant 4,000 acres. Even that would have been a huge fire overnight. Officials from the tribe said it was actually 40,000 acres. I knew I had no choice but to return to work. I wanted to do my best to help. I wondered if my Pueblo where my daughter lived needed my help. I called home, but no one answered. To make sure that my daughter and my family were okay, I quit work. I offered my help and they agreed. I knew that we had to put out the fire. Second, we will be facing major flooding issues following the fire. I didn’t mean for anyone to be scared, but this was something we needed to deal with.

After the fire, it took a lot of effort. I met with all of the entities that work on drainage, flooding, and environmental management in the country. I was walking in all our Cochiti watersheds and realized we were facing flooding. Watersheds are where all the water from streams and rivers drains off to. The US Forest Service disagreed. They stated that they had done preliminary studies, and that at most, there would only be 2,000 cubic yards of water per second. I can remember taking out a napkin because it was all I had and doing some calculations. I estimated 10,000 cubic yards per second. This would impact the Pueblo. I tried to not be disrespectful, but I tried my best to tell them they were wrong. Only my governors believed in me.

Two years later, the company I had worked for won a large contract and asked me to be its leader. We managed to see 20,000 cubic feet per hour in one of our watersheds, which normally has 20 cubic foot per second during a monsoonal event. I told my bosses that I would work half-time for the new contract because I didn’t want to leave Cochiti during monsoon season. They said no. My co-founder and me had to figure out how we could start a company to continue our work at Cochiti. It took us just one week. We were able find a name, file paperwork through the governments, and get a lawyer to help us avoid making a mistake. High Water Mark was founded out of the need to continue the work we did after the Las Conchas Fire. We informed the Cochiti on Tuesday. The entire middle Rio Grande valley was flooded by a major storm in 2013. The entire state of New Mexico was flooded a few months later. Both floods were declared Presidential disasters. It was a lot of work for New Mexico’s various communities to find the right resources to recover from these events.

High Water Mark, LLC, an engineering and environmental firm, is my current job. It was important to me to build an organization (or a company) that understands the complex and changing environment. Ten of the 13 staff members are Indigenous people, with either engineering degrees or other science-based degrees. We often work with tribes, states, non-tribal communities, and federal entities on infrastructure and environmental projects. Our expertise includes post-fire flooding. Our communities are supported in navigating and getting things done. We don’t just talk about it. Dartmouth was a great place to learn how to make a project happen or how you can be an entrepreneur engineer. There are many considerations and constraints that must be considered when implementing a project, such as funding, legal or environmental constraints. These constraints and considerations may not be considered in the design process. You could design a system for wastewater treatment that costs $100 million. This is because there’s only $1 million to build it. What was the best location to build the Cochiti Dam? This design was subject to cultural constraints. Although it was possible to threaten eminent domain, the design failed to consider the environment and physical constraints. My company is focused on how we can help communities, the state, and the globe expand and incorporate the inputs and considerations into good and sustainable solutions for any concerns or problems.

You must do what you love because there will be ups and downs in everything you do. There will be ups and downs. The best thing about the ups is knowing what I am doing will benefit my children. I see the bigger picture and remember my responsibility to steward our environment. It makes me feel good to hear elders speak about their responsibility in this life. We have been involved in helping to recover mountain areas that were destroyed by multiple devastating fires. We also worked with non-profit and government groups to plant Ponderosa pine and Douglas Fir trees. One elder said that planting these tiny, 18-inch saplings is not something that was for him. We are not doing it for everyone here today, because these saplings won’t be able produce what we need for ceremonies until 60 to 100 more years later. We are doing it for the future generations. These are my highs when our elders remind me of what were doing. I feel honored and blessed every time I find myself in such situations. It reminds of me that I am trying to help future generations.

I encourage girls who are interested in engineering and young women to pursue science and engineering careers. My classes were dominated by women, and I was one of the few who was able to complete my program. It can be daunting to navigate these situations. Follow your passion and what makes you happy. Keep feeding that positive side in your heart and mind. It doesn’t matter how difficult it is, just keep your eyes on the prize. Once you’ve completed your classes and your program no one can take anything you’ve been through, everything you’ve learned, away. Follow your passion. Follow your heart. Follow your heart. My 12 year old daughter, who is passionate about science, says that although it may seem difficult, she should keep going. It will be worth it, especially if you put in the effort.