The State Constitution requires the State to balance its annual budget, which prevents financial bankruptcy. However, the State is hurtling towards water bankruptcy in many of the State’s distinct hydrologic regions.
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2021 will bring a wake-up call that will be hard to ignore. We must pivot to cooperatively face our existential water supply issues. The days and years of reckoning are upon us.
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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.
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Water Advocates comment publicly regarding the NM Interstate Stream Commission’s water planning study session. The comments identify essential elements of a meaningful NM water planning process.
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Pursuing water equity is a moral project. Addressing water equity is often absent from conversations about the sustainability of our water resources. It is unfortunate not all of the important issues facing water challenges revolve around water quality. There is broad consensus that equity refers to just and fair inclusion–a condition in which everyone has the opportunity to participate and prosper.
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Introduction As the din of calls to deal with all the profound crises—social, cultural, economic, and environmental—finally start to dominate the political discourse it might serve us well to start to build a coherent vision of where this is going to end up. Author and farmer Chris Smaje has given us a comprehensive guide to…
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At the New Mexico Water Dialogue’s annual statewide meeting (January 13-14, 2021) the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) launched the process to develop a Fifty-Year Water Plan for New Mexico. The plan presents a new opportunity to really face up to and address New Mexico’s scarcity of water issues in each unique hydrologic region. …
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The Rio Grande Basin Study is beginning to feel more tangible. Over sixty people attended Reclamation’s quarterly “All Partners” meeting held Dec. 4. After a presentation on in-progress climate assessment research and a coming agricultural adaptation workshop, the discussion focused on the detailed draft plan for the three-year …
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Interstate Stream Commission members agree the need for effective water planning is urgent. Yet two years into this administration, the staff is not yet focused on “helping New Mexicans plan for water scarcity and a changing climate.”
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Leadership and unprecedented actions are needed to prevent a Rio Grande Compact violation in 2021. Serious water planning can no longer be neglected. The legislature is requested to take five actions.
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