Editor’s note: Stacy Timmons prepared this paper for the January 2024 New Mexico Water Dialogue Annual Statewide Meeting information packet. Stacy is the New Mexico water scientist who oversees the hydrogeology programs as Associate Director of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. It’s republished here because funding is needed from the 2025…
Read MoreThe Governor has allowed water agencies to request badly needed staff capacity improvements but has not provided for the one-time expenses needed to implement the laws and a vastly improved knowledge of New Mexico’s groundwater, recognizing New Mexico is more dependent on groundwater than any other state. The New Mexico Water Advocates’ respectfully and…
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The Legislature must augment the funding the Governor has permitted the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) and Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) to request by authorizing funds from rich oil and gas revenues to accelerate work that only the State can do to secure New Mexico’s water future. Implementing three transformative 20th Century water laws and enabling agency programs, including State Engineer water rights enforcement and Bureau of Geology aquifer mapping, requires a large increase in one-time funding.
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What becomes possible when our agencies are well-funded, our water security laws are fully implemented, and we all work together?
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Now is the time to build on these foundation of good water law already on the books. Fully funding the implementation of key legislation—is crucial for securing our water future. These acts provide a framework for addressing critical water challenges, yet their full potential can only be realized if state water agencies have the capacity to fully implement them. Here are the essential elements of our water security agenda emphasizing the urgent need for accelerated progress.
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While New Mexico’s water situation is dire, there are viable solutions to our water challenges. Growing public awareness, hard-working and innovative state agency staff, and fledgling official actions point to the adaptation we need in the face of much less water resulting from our hotter climate. While productive steps are being taken, far more must be done. Significant funding is needed to accelerate the state government fulfilling its water management and governance roles.
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Water is the lifeblood of New Mexico’s economy and communities, yet we face a growing crisis of scarcity driven by overuse and climate change. The stark reality is this: our current path leads to a future where water resources are severely depleted, jeopardizing our environment, economy, and way of life. New Mexico’s economic well-being critically depends on having sufficient water. Without water security, we have no economic security. We are already in one of the driest periods in the last millennium. Due to climate change, New Mexico’s best scientists project an average of 25% less streamflow and groundwater recharge within the next 50 years. Already, Rio Grande streamflow under the bridge to Los Alamos (at the Otowi Gage) has dropped 25% since 1988. With increased pumping caused by drought, a decrease in groundwater levels are accelerating across most of the state, to the point of complete depletion. Ongoing overuse, exacerbated by climate change, is a crisis that New Mexico is not facing up to.
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You won’t learn from the Feasibility Study Review Draft that desalination of Permian Basin fracking wastewater, the explicit 2028 goal of the Governor’s 50-Year Water Action Plan, would require all the energy from multiple San Juan Generating Station-sized power plants to produce a maximum of 65,000 acre-feet of treated water and an equal amount of concentrated, hazardous waste. You also won’t learn that desalination of 100,000 acre-feet per year of deep brackish water would require the equivalent of building three and a third El Paso Kay Bailey Hutchison desalination projects.
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New Mexico faces a growing water crisis, driven by climate change and overuse. Without swift action, water shortages could threaten our economy and way of life. Experts forecast that, within 50 years, our state will be 5-7 degrees hotter, with 25% less water.
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While many steps are being taken in the right direction, we are short on reliable facts, trusted data, and funding; and long on misinformation. The Governor’s water leadership focus is badwater treatment, justified by oil and gas industry disinformation. The opportunity costs of this focus are unacceptable. The State of New Mexico must instead focus on stewardship of the good water that we have.
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