Posts Tagged ‘remedies’
Solutions
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.
Read MoreRainwater Catchment: a Path Back to Traditional Farming
The recently articulated vision of the Honoring Water Group, an informal citizen’s group meeting at Zuni, Vanderwagen and Gallup is: “Abundant water, respected and treated ethically. When water is honored as sacred, mutual flourishing is possible.” This citizen’s group, with much organizational support from James and Joyce Skeet of Vanderwagen, seeks to honor and protect water in…
Read MoreFrom the President’s Desk: Addressing New Mexico’s Water Crisis by Adequately Funding the Prerequisites to Data-Driven Water Governance
This ongoing mismanagement of vital water data hampers effective decision-making needed to address the state’s water crisis.
New Mexico is at a crossroads. Without a significant shift towards a water governance framework that recognizes and integrates hydrologic and climate realities with actionable data, parts of the state risk becoming uninhabitable. This shift requires a departure from the Legislature’s practice of passing laws without funding their implementation. It is imperative that the Governor’s Office and the Legislature fully commit to funding the necessary changes outlined in the 2019 Water Data Act and the 2023 Water Security Planning Act. Only through such transformative changes can New Mexico hope to secure a sustainable water future for all its regions and residents.
From the President’s Desk: Water Policy Progress and Tipping Points
On April 9, 2024, I witnessed a significant step forward in local government’s approach to water policies crucial for New Mexico’s future. Bernalillo County elected officials and staff have clearly acknowledged in a draft high-level plan that water poses a constraint. This marks the first official acknowledgment of hydrologic reality in Bernalillo County in a long time.
Read MoreMillions of Dollars Available for New Mexico Water System Improvement Projects
Does your water system need improvement? Repairs, expansion, regionalization, storage, treatment to remove contaminants, new pipes, replacement of lead? Millions of dollars in loans, at low interest and the potential to have most or all of the principal forgiven. Read this guest post from the New Mexico Environment Department.
Read MoreSpending on an Unstrategic Badwater Not-Much-of-a-Supply
The so-called strategic water supply is the opposite, like “produced water” as a name for toxic oil field waste. It is not beginning with the end in mind. It is not putting first things first. It is not informed by facts and science. It is unvetted. It is wrong.
Read MoreFrom the President’s Desk: Sweetwater
The sweet waters of New Mexico are necessary for all life in our beloved state, in all our home places, our querencias. An acerbic senior ISC water engineer told me 25 years ago that we know where New Mexico’s water is. It is where we live, irrigate, water livestock, hunt and fish, and enjoy our heritage. He didn’t need to say “sweetwater”.
Read MoreProgress Is Accelerating. Think Water – Act Now.
At this juncture, New Mexico and the Middle Rio Grande stand on the precipice, necessitating unified, swift action to combat looming water challenges. With the legal framework now in place, we must now establish collaborative regional water security planning councils across New Mexico.
Read MoreThe 2024 Legislature Must Think Water: Act Now!
Wake Up New Mexico. Collectively, we are asleep at the wheel. Our collective inaction puts our water security, and therefore our economic security, at risk.
Read MoreEquity
People know what they want and what they need. The planning process must help communities distinguish between these two things so we can figure out a way for everyone to share equitably in the abundance or scarcity of water.
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