Anyone living in Northern New Mexico can’t help but hear regularly something about some water issue. There are many issues, of varying fear-factor, that affect us directly or indirectly but they’re all important.
Please take the time to read Sherry Robinson’s column at the bottom of this page. She outlines several issues crawling through the legislator at the customary snail’s pace when they should have blipped brightly on every legislators’ radar.
We’re not talking about quality, or lack of quality, regarding our education system. It’s not a sexy issue like new roads and bridges. It doesn’t pertain to health care or emergency services.
However, one of the rare things Democrats and Republicans can agree: everyone drinks water. The two major parties may not agree on climate change and its impact on rainfall in the southwest United States but they all drink water.
New Mexico, in the thick of the national water debate, is skimping on supporting the two major bureaucracies that monitor and loosely control our water. The State Engineer’s Office regulates water coming out of the ground or flowing on top of it. Water rights rule in the taking of water.
The Interstate Stream Commission does just what its name sounds like. It regulates water use and flow of the state’s surface water, especially when it comes to compacts with entities downstream (Texas).
We’ve become numb in the north regarding the levels of our reservoirs. It was not long ago that Abiquiú, El Vado and Heron reservoirs would reach 70 to 80 percent of capacity every spring. An average spring melt would have the choro at Los Brazos blasting a huge volume of water for two or three weeks. Santa Cruz lake flowed over for a month, filling the Rio Santa Cruz with silt-laden water. The Rio Grande sometimes changed course flowing through Española as the forceful runoff would mow down islands and cut new channels.
It’s frightful to think about El Vado being drained this summer, its water allowed to flow into Abiquiú. While short term that may be nice for those who enjoy water recreation on Abiquiú, how will we refill El Vado in two years after the work on its dam is complete? It is currently filling to 5 to 10 percent of capacity each spring, slowly being drawn down over the summer. Getting it back to its meager current level will involve withholding some of that reservoir’s water commitments to downstream users.
Robinson writes about the $10 million (additionally) the state wants to spend on lawyers fighting Texas in court. Their argument? Texas is spending $21 million so we must be prepared.
How about working on water conservation projects along the Rio Grande corridor to address the water issue? Please read Michael Miller’s column on A8 about bosque conservation. That’s where our money should be going. We must take care of our water sheds and conserve.
The trend we’re experiencing says in another few years there won’t be much water over which to argue. One side can win and say they owe or don’t owe the other side water but no judge can say from where that water will magically appear.
Kudos to Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo. Robinson writes Herrera is carrying HB 41, which appropriates $60 million to the Water Trust Fund, which hasn’t seen an appropriation since 2007. We haven’t increased funding water projects for 15 years. That’s a giant blind spot.
The fund is worth $43.9 million at year end, and provides $4 million a year for water projects. Robinson writes, that draw-down isn’t sustainable, according to legislative analysis.
As with every issue the state can’t address, this one is tied up in politics, state budget and bureaucratic morass. We don’t need lawyers and legislators. We need conservationists, water engineers and public involvement.
Someone needs to figure out how we’re going to survive in a world with less water, much less water. And that needs to happen soon, without the same political finger-pointing and game-playing we’ve come to expect from Santa Fe.