Draining Aquifers to Extinction

Measurement data has shown regularly increasing drawdowns of aquifers in many, perhaps most, areas of the state, This is visible particularly in "closed" basins that don't have regularly flowing rivers to provide recharge. The State Engineer's rules do not currently provide a plan or mechanism to prevent (or delay) the aquifers' becoming dry or impractical to pump.

Posts - Any technical papers, data, opinions, announcements, etc. that relate to this Draining Aquifers to Extinction issue appear just below.

We Must Update New Mexico Water Management for Today’s Multiple User Needs

By Mike Marcus | October 9, 2024

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.

wa945c-Rio Grande Compact Credits_Debits-Through-2023

We’re Still in a Heap of Trouble

By Bob Wessely | May 22, 2024

The inconvenient truth is New Mexico’s economic well-being depends critically upon water. We are already in one of the driest periods in the last millennium and changing climate will make it worse.

Several statewide issues foretell slow train wrecks and do need attention. However, there is one water issue in the Middle Rio Grande that is urgent, potentially a fast train wreck. This article describes that urgent issue.

From Portales, NM – “If Only I had Known”

By Mike Davidson | May 15, 2024

If I had only known! How many times have you said that in your life? Grab some caffeine and join me for a tour of our possible water future. Do you remember that time when you meant to go see someone but something came up, only to get a call that something had happened to…

Staring into New Mexico’s Water Supply Abyss

By Mike Marcus | May 6, 2024

Water managers along the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) and across New Mexico increasingly feel as if they are staring into an abyss of water shortages for increasing numbers of users who depend on water supplies for drinking, for economic growth, and even for the survival of our present-day economy. The reliable supply of NM’s surface…

NM Court Stops Augustin Plains Ranch Water Grab

By Ann McCartney | May 1, 2024

At a momentous hearing on April 5, 2024, more than 100 community members from Catron County crowded the court room and hallways of the Seventh Judicial District court in Reserve to hear oral argument on the Augustin Plains Ranch LLC’s continuing and relentless requests to mine and hoard 54,000 acre-feet of water a year from…

Los Lunas – Niagara Bottled Water

By Valencia Water Watchers | April 3, 2024

NM Acequia Association came bringing signs that read, “Agua es Vida” and brightly painted shovels painted with the patron saint of the acequias, San Ysidro, which they bring out when there are times of drought. Dabi Garcia said, “This is a time when our community is under threat.” He then sang a traditional acequia song, keeping the beat on the shovel handle.

Commentary: Surviving a drought

By Bob Wessely | January 31, 2024

Drought – nature’s reminder that water does not grow on trees.

Drought is the time when some form of government advice or regulation prescribes that we collectively choose to reduce our uses of water, usually because of some form of government advice or regulation. It is the time when

Why Should You Plan for Water?

By Bob Wessely | January 3, 2024

Who gets water when there isn’t enough? At a simplified level, the current “Priority Administration” regulations, if enforced when there isn’t enough water, would provide water to Nations/Tribes/Pueblos and other senior irrigators first, leaving very thirsty cities and towns. And with desperately thirsty cities and towns, the New Mexico economy would wither, taking down

Water Rights … and Water Wrongs

By Bob Wessely | December 6, 2023

While the rules about them are extremely complicated, “water rights” are simply your permission slip from the State to use water, if you can find it (often a big “if”). ll too often people conflate paper water and wet water. The results can be seriously misleading or worse.

UNM’s Middle Rio Grande Water Data Dashboard: Status Report & What’s Next

By Norm Gaume | October 2, 2023

The Water Data Dashboard will be online at the end of this semester as an interactive website prototype with integrated graphic views and drill-down features, illustrating where our water comes from, where it is going, and what we need to know but don’t.

We welcome postings on this or other water-related issues from interested parties. Please email your posts, preferably in Word format, to the Editorial Board at Info@MRGWaterAdvocates.org

Description of the Issue

In several areas of the state, New Mexico groundwater uses are substantially draining aquifers. There are no rules or plans to avoid the extinction of the aquifers in the not too distant future. The original New Mexico plan for the future of the aquifers remains in place. That plan allows groundwater pumping amounts from individual aquifers that would leave half of the stored groundwater in the aquifer after 40 years.

The historical and still-existing plan was developed based on the sole objective to provide water for economic activity. Preserving water for future generations was not and is not a criterion.

Examples of aquifers that are being drained include the Ogallala Aquifer, the Mimbres Basin aquifer system, and Estancia Basin Aquifer. Irrigation is the principal use in all three areas. The local aquifers in the Placitas area are another example. Domestic wells are the principal use.

The costs to New Mexico's economy and people when aquifers are depleted will be very high yet the state has no plans to address this crucial problem, other than to import water from elsewhere. The Ute Reservoir pipeline from the Canadian River to the Clovis and Portales area will replace a very small fraction of current and historical groundwater pumping from the practically exhausted Ogallala aquifer. The cost is over half a billion dollars.

A New Mexico Bureau of Geology news article and open file report and a NM Political report detailed story describe the Ogallala aquifer depletion and future.

They also use the Ogallala Aquifer situation as an example of the importance of water data.

The Water Advocates point to the end of the Ogallala Aquifer as an example of the uncontrolled depletion of the water resource providing water to a large portion of New Mexico, with little consideration of the consequences. What happens to the economy and the people when water is very limited? Is that what we want for the future of other closed basin aquifers and the New Mexicans whose water comes from those aquifers?