For well over a decade, New Mexico has been on a roll toward violating its Rio Grande Compact water delivery obligations through the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) to Elephant Butte Reservoir (EBR), largely due to overuse of water in the Middle Rio Grande. For all New Mexico taxpayers and ratepayers, such a violation would bring…
Read MoreIntroduction: Now that New Mexico has finally recognized and accepted the reality of climate change, it’s time to realign our water planning processes to that reality. Based, in part, upon concerns with previous water planning processes, the Middle Rio Grande Water Advocates is developing a proposal for an updated water planning paradigm. It is entitled…
Read MoreOn July 13, 2021, U. S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has chosen to end its participation in the just-starting multi-entity Rio Grande Basin Study. The announcement included a copy of the letter from the Chief Planning Officer of ABCWUA to USBR and MRGCD, which provided no rationale…
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When I first proposed the idea of A Small Farm Future it got a strong reaction. Some thought I was out of line to propose such an outlandish idea. Any large new idea usually has this reaction. It is not my idea, but author and farmer Chris Smage’s. I wished to convey it to the…
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The Rio Grande Basin Study: Lobatos Gage to Elephant Butte Dam (Basin Study) presents a unique opportunity to develop projections of future water supply and demand and use them to model and evaluate potential adaptation strategies that are not constrained by current operating practices, infrastructure capacity, and policy constraints.
Read MoreThe New York Times has published ‘”Virus Lockdowns Cut Pollution, Slowing Snowmelt in South Asia” addressing the runoff effects of pandemic-caused reduction in dust on snowpack. Cleaner skies over South Asia that resulted from pandemic lockdowns last year likely affected the timing of snowmelt in the Indus River basin of Pakistan and India, researchers reported…
Read MoreThe Conversation (funded by the University of California has published “Water Wells Are at Risk of Going Dry in the U.S. and Worldwide” by Professors Debra Perrone and Scott Jasechko, University of California at Santa Barbara, addressing the worldwide decline of groundwater. “As the drought outlook for the Western U.S. becomes increasingly bleak, attention is turning…
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Concern is building on how the multiple years of annually low mountain snowpack and extended durations of drought are combining to cause decreasing water supply to the Rio Grande and other NM rivers. Accompanying these concerns is the recognition that improved approaches and methods to achieve effective and innovative water management practices are needed to…
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As discussed in the Water Advocates’ blog posting for the Minnow Action Team (MAT), the interim March 2021 Projected Annual Operating Plan (AOP) for the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) was presented during the MAT Meeting on 31 March 2021. The following briefly summarizes that presentation. The March URGWOM projections are based on observed snowpack water…
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On June 9, 2007, a meeting of two worlds happened at the Annual Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly. The Assembly had been grappling with water shortages due to growth of overuse and where we could mitigate the deficits. The Assembly, titled “Growth, Ecology and Traditions”, hoped to find solutions by reductions in use in all…
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