As of May 2025, the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that Albuquerque is gripped by Drought Stage D3—Extreme Drought. Nearly 97% of Bernalillo County is in the same condition, along with most of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Basin.
Yet, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority says we’re in Drought Stage D0—a designation that, in the Authority’s framework, means customers are conserving more water than the utility’s target. This internal metric, however, is not a hydrologic drought indicator. It contradicts observable realities and misleads the public.
This disconnect matters. The Authority is heavily pumping groundwater to meet demand. The Middle Rio Grande’s surface water is already over-allocated, and vast stretches of the river from Elephant Butte to Albuquerque will likely be dry this summer. Despite this, the utility tells customers there’s no cause for concern.
Two slides below are copied from a water resources presentation posted for the May 21 Water Authority Board meeting. They show that the utility’s definitions are decoupled from actual drought conditions, such as those recognized by federal agencies.
At the same meeting, the Board adopted its FY2026 budget. Discussion revealed that customer conservation is reducing utility revenue, threatening the Water Authority’s ability to meet debt service and annual operating costs.
So what does the utility do? It downplays the drought. Never mind that:
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2025 snowpack produced very little water.
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Middle Rio Grande water users are consuming water legally allocated to downstream users under the Rio Grande Compact,
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Without urgent state action, the region’s cumulative water debt could exceed the Compact’s legal limit this year or next, subjecting New Mexico’s water management to judicial discretion.
From the Water Advocates’ perspective, the problem is deeper than misleading messaging. No one is taking effective charge. No public agencies are acting with the urgency that increasing aridity coupled with extreme drought conditions demand.
The Water Authority undermines its own credibility — and fails its customers and the region’s economy — by using internally defined drought stages that obscure reality rather than reflect it. We urge the Authority to adopt transparent, science-based drought metrics and to communicate honestly with the public about the very real risks we all face.
June 19, 2025 @ 8:10 am
I don’t see how it’s a utility’s role to declare or define drought for the region. What they do have is a publicly posted drought plan with internal triggers (like reservoir levels) that determine when certain conservation measures kick in. Calling it a similar name to the regional drought index doesn’t mean they’re hiding anything, it means they’re following their own, transparent playbook.
Your claim that conservation is being scaled back to boost revenue also feels like a serious reach, given that they’ve just scaled up conservation efforts in response to the drought stage. The utility’s budget is structured to break even, not profit, and recent years have actually seen more investment in conservation (staff and programs have grown). Assuming bad faith without evidence undermines real accountability. We get further by questioning policy choices directly, not by painting public institutions as intentionally deceptive.
June 19, 2025 @ 11:55 am
Anonymous:
Thank you for your comment: should the largest water and wastewater utility in New Mexico act as an honest and transparent leader in Middle Rio Grande water public communications and stewardship? Absolutely—especially when the consequences of overuse include the likely intervention of the State of Texas in Middle Rio Grande water management.
I attended the Water Authority’s May board meeting to offer public comment and to hear a scheduled staff briefing on the Water Authority’s drought index. However, at the start of the meeting, the chairman announced that the drought index presentation was canceled. This post documents my oral public comment and adds links, graphics, and further commentary drawn from the public record of that meeting.
My observation—that there is tension between the Water Authority’s conservation goals and its need for water sales revenue—is based on what I heard and saw during the board’s discussion of its FY2026 budget. That meeting is available via the Authority’s posted video. The board members and Finance Director discussed how reduced customer demand affects revenues and the financial challenges of meeting operating and capital costs.
As for the drought stage designation, the Water Authority uses a set of internal metrics to determine the stage shown in its public communications. According to the slide titled “Drought Stage,” if customers are using less than the target—currently 133 gallons per person per day—the Authority does not activate any drought stage. Right now, customer demand is averaging 127 gallons per capita per day, which triggers a “D0” stage under the Authority’s definition. Unfortunately, this definition diverges from other official drought indicators, such as the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Perhaps the Authority’s index should include metrics that would capture the shortfall in San Juan-Chama project water deliveries to the Authority. The Interstate Stream Commission’s June 18 staff report says this year’s shortfall will be 60 to 65%.
I encourage you and others to stay engaged and keep an open mind. I expect the Water Authority may soon revise its index to better reflect real water supply conditions in the Middle Rio Grande. Curry County and the City of Clovis took the initiative to confront gross mismanagement of their water resource through local initiative and action in the face of state inaction.
Please consider attending the July Water Advocates workshop featuring Bernalillo County Commission Chair Eric Olivas and Commissioner Frank Baca—both of whom also serve on the Water Authority Board. They will share their views on how local and regional governments can help build a more secure water future.