Angelina Miller and Joaquin King

Air Quality Scientist and Planner and Water Quality Specialist

Environmental Programs Department

Southern Ute Indian Reservation, CO

October 21st, 2025

The Southern Ute Indian Reservation is renowned for its Environmental Programs Department (EPD) that monitors and maintains healthy air and clean water on the reservation. The representatives for the EPD, Angelina Miller and Joaquin King, met with us at the Southern Ute Cultural Center to tell us just why this department has made such big waves in the world of environmental protection. The EPD is split into two divisions: air quality and water quality. In addition to these, there is a youth community outreach program, Environmental Leadership Knowledge Seminar (ELKS).

Angelina is an air quality scientist and planner at the EPD. Her interest in air quality came from living and going to school in Salt Lake City, where the air quality is generally poor. She was drawn to working at the EPD because of instrumentation and the communication of science. Angelina shared that the EPD will fly a colored flag on top of the public library that corresponds to the AQI of the day, and that they share real time data online to communicate science in a tangible way to the community. In addition, she showed us a thermal infrared camera that the Air Quality Division uses to capture gas leaks.

Joaquin is a water quality specialist in the Water Quality Division of the EPD. He is a member of the Navajo Tribe and a Southern Ute descendant. He grew up in Ignacio, Colorado, and began his path in environmental science in high school when he interned for the EPD. Joaquin passed around a sonde, the technology that he uses to test water quality, as well as a collection of specimens in glass jars that he has found in the rivers that run through the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. He shared with us how the Water Quality Division will test residential wells if a community member notices something off with their water, and help to remediate water quality if it is poor.

On a larger scale, the EPD is currently working on cleaning up the Enterprise Gasoline spill, a record-breaking gas spill in Colorado that is currently affecting water quality in the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. The EPD’s timely response to the spill has helped to minimize the effects on water quality. A combination of effective community outreach and ability to take care of air and water quality on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation contributes to the Southern Ute’s success within their community and beyond.

By Lucy Brown