IT'S THE WATER

Increased Population, Drought Draws Down N.M. River

By Headwaters News, 6-12-06

New Mexico’s largest cities share the state’s largest water problem, as well. Staci Matlock in the Santa Fe New Mexican details dwindling water supplies in the Rio Grande Basin. That basin splits New Mexico lengthwise and Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and three other of the state’s fastest-growing cities all lie within the basin. And as those cities continue to grow, so too does the demand on the water supplies in the basin.

But a lingering drought, flow levels required by an endangered fish and the state’s water debt to Texas have exacerbated the water problems in the basin.

There are nearly 1 million people living along, and depending upon, the water in that basin. Given the double-digit increases in population of those cities between 1990 and 2000, and growth projections for the next 20 years – those populations could double.
Developers are already awaiting approval on thousands of new homes along the stretch of the basin from Belen to Santa Fe.

Those projects are dependent upon Rio Grande water, aquifers and imported from elsewhere in the state.

A former New Mexico state engineer said a few years ago that the state had already overpromised water resources on paper more than four times than supplies exist.

New Mexico is also spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars to make payments in lieu of sending Pecos River water to Texas—which has its own exploding growth-water supply situation to deal with—and some critics of New Mexico’s current water situation say that
Texas won’t be content with mere money if New Mexico doesn’t honor its promise to deliver Rio Grande water.

And the tiny silvery minnow is having a huge impact on Rio Grande River as well. Lack of snowpack next year will pit the state against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which requires a constant flow of water from Nov. 16 to June 15 to maintain the species.

New Mexico’s current water situation is similar to that in many Western states: Very few states have actually accounted for all the existing water rights in the states. Montana recently imposed a $20-per-water-right fee to pay for an accounting there.

And the Bozeman Chronicletoday reported that the Bozeman City Commission has begun work on addressing the future of its water supply.

Montana also made headlines a couple of months ago when the Montana Supreme Court handed down a decision that said groundwater and surface waterwere connected.

Idaho seems to have reached that conclusion, as a debate between Idaho Power and area farmers wrangled over the power company releases to recharge the aquifer.

And in Colorado, eastern farmers were left high and dry when the state engineer ordered 400 irrigation wells turned off to maintain water supplies in the South Platte River.

The seemingly simple resolution appears to be that states require developers prove water supplies exist for new developments. And some cities and counties in New Mexico and other Western states already do that.

But an accurate accounting of who owns rights to what water is needed--the question remains whether development will wait for that information.

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