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Climate – Water Impacts

Understand how climate change is affecting New Mexico’s water resources, leading to reduced snowpack, earlier snowmelt, and increased evaporation.

2025 Non-Recurring Appropriations for Water Programs

The 2025 Legislature’s Water Priorities—Follow the Money

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Follow the Money: What the 2025 Legislature Funded—And What It Didn’t

The final version of the 2025 General Appropriation Act tells a clearer story than the session itself: when the dust settled, the Legislature prioritized water infrastructure and dirty water development projects over science-based management and environmental stewardship. While critical needs in clean water access and infrastructure received attention, both the Governor and the Legislature shortchanged programs focused on protecting, conserving, and managing New Mexico’s water resources.

Advocates pleaded, to no avail, for multi-year appropriations to implement the very laws the Legislature has already passed.

The House adopted one-time (non-recurring) water funding allocations—many of which were later slashed by the Senate. These cuts disproportionately affected programs grounded in science, water data, and environmental cleanup.Many of those cuts targeted programs rooted in water data, science, and environmental cleanup. The result: funding levels fell tens of millions of dollars below both the House budget and the Governor’s official budget recommendation.  Click the graphic to download a larger copy.

The Legislature also transferred $200 million of General Fund revenue to the Water Project Fund for specific water and wastewater infrastructure projects authorized by HB206.

Key Cuts Included:

  • NMED cleanup of contaminated sites: Cut by $30 million by the Senate, leaving $20 million

  • NMED River Stewards Program: Entire $7 million request eliminated by the Senate

  • NM Tech Aquifer Mapping Program: Cut by a total of $22 million in the House and Senate, leaving $7.5 million

  • NMED low-interest water and wastewater loans: Cut by $5 million by the Senate, leaving $15 million

  • Governor’s ‘Strategic’ Treated Brackish Water Supply: Cut by $25 million, leaving $40 million for a project that remains unvetted, undefined, and controversial

Other critical science and management-focused programs were already reduced in the Governor’s budget before the session even began—and then further cut by the House:

  • OSE Water Rights Enforcement, Middle Rio Grande: Cut $0.5 million in the House, leaving nothing.

  • Indian Water Rights Settlement Matching Funds: Cut by $15 million, leaving $25 million.

The Legislature’s priorities are clear: funding flowed to infrastructure, water quality enforcement, and so-called ‘new water’ concepts more than stewardship, enforcement against illegal water use, and data and science-driven water resources management and planning. Large appropriations went to the New Mexico Environment Department for water quality assurance and clean-up programs, infrastructure, and brackish water development for high water use industries.

The 2025 Legislature gave little attention—or funding—to the Office of the State Engineer and the Interstate Stream Commission to:

  • Plan for adapting to a future with much less water,
  • Establish effective water data systems, and
  • Enforce against illegal water use and protect against the impacts of Middle Rio Grande overuse

The Legislature has already passed three major laws to support these purposes. Two—the 2019 Water Data Act and the 2023 Water Security Planning Act—passed unanimously. The third law, which requires the State Engineer to administer water to prevent interstate stream compact violations, was upheld unanimously by the New Mexico Supreme Court, along with the detailed rules it authorized.

The political will to prioritize New Mexico’s adaptation to a future with far less water has not yet emerged. The Governor’s and Legislature’s funding choices still fall short of the understanding and leadership our water and economic security urgently require.

Rio Chama SWE at zero percentile 3-38-25

Rio Chama Snowpack Sets New Record Lows

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The Rio Chama snowpack holds less water today than on this date in any year since measurements began—zero percentile. Click the graphic to download a larger version.

The red line at the bottom marks the historical minimum. The black line shows this year’s measurements. The red shaded area represents the bottom 10th percentile. The green band spans the 30th to 70th percentiles. The top blue line indicates the historical maximum, with the top 10th percentile shaded in blue.

In early March, the Bureau of Reclamation issued its Rio Grande Annual Operating Plan, based on similarly low snowpack measurements across the headwaters. The plan forecasts Rio Grande flows from the source to Texas. This graphic shows the forecast for prolonged dry river conditions at Bosque Farms and San Acacia—briefly interrupted, we hope, by summer monsoon spikes.

Here we go: 2025—our next record-setting hot, dry year.

Warning sign at river bank

We Must Update NM Water Management for Today’s Needs

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New Mexico’s Growing Water Supply Crisis

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.

Can those living in New Mexico successful save our existing and growing economies from some sort of future catastrophic collapses due to water supply shortages caused by climate change? Most do hope so, but action is needed very soon. It does not seem, however, that it is human nature to address pending crises before they become severe. For example, our state and local governments and communities are failing to address rapidly the present and ongoing realities of water supply overuse along the Rio Grande and elsewhere across New Mexico. 

Cities and towns along the Rio Grande see almost daily new developments, apartment complexes, housing communities, office buildings, and so on being constructed. This would seem to be in response to the significant ongoing efforts by the local governmental development agencies to attract new industries and business to the New Mexico, especially to the Albuquerque area. While we have sometimes heard, “If we are not growing, we are shrinking,” we also have heard, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Not an outcome most would desire. 

Current State and Local Efforts: Are They Enough?

Yes, our state’s Interstate Stream Commission and Office of the State Engineer are grinding away slowly in a start to address the state’s present and pending water supply crises, an effort that some may call “too little, too late.” Many reports have been produced and necessary actions are being talked about. It will take years to establish and implement the need actions, perhaps too slow and too late for the magnitude of changes coming regardless of whether we act or not. But it is important to acknowledge that these efforts by our state’s agencies are severely constrained by major limitations caused the failure to the NM legislation to recognize the severity of the growing water supply crises and their failing to provide needed funding to rapidly produce needed management changes. So, will a better late than never water management update be adequate? Time will tell. 

How Did We Get Here? The Prior Appropriation Doctrine

How did we get here? States west of the 100th meridian, including NM, generally have long managed surface water supplies, especially along rivers, using the prior appropriation doctrine.  This gives to whoever first started depleting surface water for “beneficial uses” the right to divert the same defined volumes of surface water from that source for ever. Historically, this meant diverting surface water for agricultural uses, as water for domestic or other uses tended to be relatively minimal, even insignificant, in comparison. This system is also sometimes called, “first in right, first in use.”

A water right is the right to use water, not the right to own water. Under the NM Constitution (Article 16), all water in NM belongs to the public, that is, the State, and is subject to appropriation by beneficial use. Those with the most senior water rights include native tribes, pueblos, Spanish land grants, and other territorial water users established prior to the 1907 Water Code. Senior water rights users can continue to use the permitted quantity of water annually for their beneficial uses into the undefined future, if the water source can supply that quantity. Successive users who then have more junior water rights can take any remaining surface water from that source for their own beneficial use, but only so long that they do not impinge on the rights of the more senior users. At least that that is the way it was supposed to work.

The Reality of Over-Appropriation and Overuse

How well does it work? It seems, less than optimally. According to a report from the Western Water Network, in the 1880s the Rio Grande water “was fully appropriated for irrigation.” Then the 1889 drought cycle “aggravated problems of over appropriation [emphasis added] in the Upper Rio Grande.” In that report “Upper Rio Grande” means the river upstream from just south of El Paso, Texas, to the river’s headwaters in Colorado. Consider then with over appropriation, that is “overuse,” of the Upper Rio Grande occurring in 1889, how is use of the Rio Grande water not considerably stretched thinner today? Consider this now especially when facing the region’s diminishing annual water supply and warming.

Is the 1880s Water Management System Still Appropriate?

Here it is important to question how the water management system established in the late 1800s for New Mexico’s agriculture and mining dominated economy remains appropriate for water management in the 2020s and beyond. Under the 1880s system of water management, only those having water rights permits for specific surface water sources may divert water from those sources. As such, whenever a surface water supply shortage might occur for a source, access to the surface water can be limited to those holding the oldest or most senior water rights or permits. Potential harm can result affecting others with more junior rights who also depend on that water source. 

Under that 1880s system, water rights holders, either senior or junior, can also potentially lose their permitted water rights through non-use of their permitted beneficial use, for example, by stopping to farm. Often too, what can happen in NM and in most western states, water rights permit holders can sell their water rights separate from the land. This is a common approach for how municipal or industrial users can acquire needed surface water supplies. However, for existing owners of pre- or post-1907 water rights permits to change their permitted uses, they must apply for that change to the NM State Engineer.  Surface water rights of individual irrigators in federally established irrigation and conservancy districts cannot be sold for use outside the district by communities and industry.

Active Water Resource Management (AWRM) – A Modern Attempt

The concept of limiting overuse of water by agreement was adopted for Pecos River Compact compliance purposes by the 2001 Legislature when it codified the agreement negotiated between Carlsbad area and Roswell area surface and groundwater users.  The 2003 Legislature passed a law that directed the State Engineer to administer water rights in the absence of a completed adjudication based on the best information available.  This new law, authorized the State Engineer to issue rules for priority administration and rules for expedited water marketing and leasing based on appropriate hydrological models. This law requires that administration not interfere with adjudications, not impair water rights any more than necessary to meet downstream obligations and must not increase depletions. The legislation exempted acequias and community ditches. It required that rules for marketing and leasing water be consistent with current law governing changes of point of diversion, place of use, and purpose of use of water rights. The legislation was signed by the governor and became New Mexico law at §72-2-9.1. NMSA 1978.

Called Active Water Resource Management (AWRM), it broadened and formalized the Office of the State Engineer abilities to manage the state’s waters. Under the resulting new regulations, stream-system based district water masters were designated and directed to employ hydrology monitoring of water use with district-specific rules to administer and protect water rights. During times of water supply shortages, several administrative options were implemented to address user needs. These include direct flow administrationwhere water can be delivered only to those users having highest priority water rights. Storage water administration can be used to manage the distribution of storage water to those having water rights to these waters, but not to those having only an administrable water right to native stream flows. Alternative administration can be used to file a plan with the Office of State Engineer for a water use agreement between junior user(s) facing a cutoff and senior water right owner(s) who can share water not planned for use with the  junior user(s). Such arrangements are called shortage sharing. 

Groundwater Depletion – A Growing Concern

During those times of surface water supply shortfalls in NM and elsewhere across the West, groundwater is typically pumped and used to supplement water supply requirements. Groundwater also is used when no reasonable access to surface water exists, for example, for rural homes or agricultural production. Historically, groundwater use has not been regulated or otherwise controlled. This has increasingly led to the depletion of groundwater, as the communities of east New Mexico are now experiencing as the Ogallala Aquifer is drained by agricultural pumping without regard to the need for communities to maintain a secure water supply for domestic and non-agricultural economic activity.

It is important to emphasize that surface water commonly is connected to the underlying groundwater. The connection can be direct and strong or less direct but with a longer-term impact.  As such, unregulated pumping of groundwater from an aquifer interconnected with a river reduces river flows. In addition, groundwater pumping creates empty space in the pores formerly filled with the extracted water. In some places and at some times the weight of overlying soil and whatever is on the surface causes compaction of the aquifer. This leads to the formation of sink holes and overall ground surface settling, called surface subsidence. Areas of northeastern Albuquerque, for example, are included among those potentially susceptible to future pumping induced subsidence.

Differences Between Western and Eastern Water Management

In contrast to practices in the western US, most eastern states mange water under the riparian doctrine. This doctrine allows water use by the owners of the land adjacent to the water. Riparian rights cannot lose their rights for non-use, as is possible for those under the prior appropriation doctrine.  Some western landowners think they have rights to water flowing by their land or underneath it, but that legal luxury is not valid in the western US as water must flow past to downstream senior water right owners.

The Challenge of Managing Wet Water for Multiple Needs

It has been emphasized here that the water management system of prior appropriation used in NM and the West comes from the agrarian dominated economies of the late 1800s. Unfortunately for that system, about 150 years ago there was also an “Industrial Revolution” that, like COVID, started to significantly spread across the world, changing the population size and economic base of many communities. Yet, across most of the West water is still managed as being an agrarian water-rights dominated economy, those having water rights from 100+ years ago get water first. But today NM needs to manage wet water from its various sources to deliver water for multiple user needs.  

Of note here, a State water expert recently and perhaps surprisingly commented privately, “NM has plenty of water,” then, added, “it just goes to agriculture.” In fact, the ISC “Water in New Mexico” handout shows that 76 percent of the state’s water is diverted or pumped for irrigated agriculture. That, coupled with NM’s historical water-rights base management system is, perhaps, our state’s main obstruction to wet water management for today’s changing water supplies and population needs under climate warming.

The Need for Modern Water Management Approaches

NM’s water management approach needs to be updated for modern climate-warming times. NM must start managing physical wet water rather than focus almost entirely on administration of paper water, that is water rights and groundwater pumping permits. In the end, municipal populations and economies, family food farms, home food gardens, and, certainly, Hatch chile farms need water. If economic municipal economic growth is going to continue then wet water management needs to prevail over water rights management. If that is to happen, remaining family-owned senior, land grant, and tribal water rights will require special consideration. Likely too, in the long-term, some or many junior water rights holders may require significant shorting or eliminating. 

Conclusion: Wet Water Management for the Future

Until NM changes to an emphasis on managing wet water over paper water, we may be left with two extreme inconvenient choices in the years to come: (1) some or most years with considerably less or zero water for domestic, municipal, industrial, and  agricultural uses, particularly for those agricultural users with newer, post-1907 water rights; or (2) an increasingly dry or even desertified municipal and industrial economies with increasing urban abandonment.

Additional reading:

Active Water Resources Management. P. Bossert and G.C. Ridgley. 2013. Utton Center, University of New Mexico.  https://uttoncenter.unm.edu/resources/research-resources/active-water-resource-mgmt.pdf

Land subsidence and recovery in the Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico, 1993–2014. Driscoll, J.M., and Brandt, J.T., 2017,: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2017–5057, 31 p.https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175057

MainStream New Mexico. https://mainstreamnm.org/data-and-reports/ (This site provides links to many reports produced by various state organization on the state’s upcoming water crisis.)

Ogallala Aquifer Depletion Threatening Rural Communities & Ag. Ryan Hanrahan. 2024. Farm Policy News Summary. https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2024/01/ogallala-aquifer-depletion-threatening-rural-communities-ag/

The Ogallala Aquifer: Saving a Vital U.S. Water Source. Jane Braxton Little. March 2009. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ogallala-aquifer/

The Upper Rio Grande – A Guide to Decision Making. S.J. Shupe and J. Folk-Williams. 1988. Western Network. (This report is difficult to find but provides considerable insight on the region’s water histories plus planning and management needs. This organization has produced other similar reports for water resources across the West.)

Drought

Commentary: Surviving a drought – Middle Rio Grande Water Advocates

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State residents need to think of ways to conserve our water supply

Following is an Op-Ed that was published in the Albuquerque Tribune on May 29, 2007, before climate warming became as publicly visible and intense as it is today.  Promptly (sarcasm intended), a mere sixteen years later, the 2023 New Mexico Legislature unanimously passed the landmark Water Security Planning Act.  Now, we’re eagerly watching and waiting to see if the 2024 Legislature will see fit to fund the Act’s implementation. This article is even more relevant than it was in 2007, as the aridification of the West has only increased. Time is of the essence, New Mexicans and specifically the 2024 Legislature must act now in order to secure a sustainable and resilient water future for New Mexico. !Agua es Vida: Do your Part!

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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 we receive less rainfall than we would like to have. In New Mexico, we get such a reminder from nature virtually every year.

As a result, we are setting ourselves up for a day of water reckoning.

In Sandoval, Bernalillo and Valencia Counties, we have been using over 20 percent more water than we receive overall, deficit-spending our resource, resulting in the gradual draining of our aquifers. We must stop burying our collective heads in the sand, or all we will have left is sand.

Consider: 23, 28, 35, 39, 47, 34, 29. A familiar series of numbers? Probably not. These are the annual inches of precipitation during droughts in Chicago, Cincinnati, Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, New York and Portland. The averages are substantially higher.

These cities are some of the places from which three quarters of New Mexico’s new residents move. The other quarter of the newcomers is born here. It takes some effort to recognize the implications of Albuquerque’s precipitation levels – which average just over 8 inches and peak around 12 inches.

The folks who grow up here usually recognize that we are in a perpetual drought. Generally, that knowledge is reflected in their concern for water and their resultant behaviors for using water. The only question is whether this year’s drought-descriptor should be noticeable (above average rain) or serious (near average rain) or desperate (below average rain).

To set a reference, look at precipitation averages from tree ring studies over the last 2,200 years. It is interesting to note Chaco Canyon was abandoned during below-average rainfall, and the middle Rio Grande region’s 20 percent water-consumption deficit was during the wettest quarter-century in those two millennia.

Because we are not elected officials in Washington, D.C., deficit spending cannot go on forever. We have limited ability to increase our water income at a finite dollar price, which suggests we need to terminate a sizable chunk of our total uses. That’s a tough order.

When we think about it carefully, it’s even tougher than it first looks. We have to realize over a third of our total water goes to natural, open-water evaporation and riparian plant life within the three-county region. We have minimal ability to reduce these natural uses. The only credible reduction targets are agricultural, domestic and industrial uses. To meet the goal, those target uses would have drop from 195,000 to 140,000 acre feet per year – with everyone using 30 percent less.

And the toughness of our water-budget balancing order doesn’t stop there. The region’s population is growing by 1 percent to 2 percent each year – more people wanting more water. Our behaviors, deeper pumping and releasing of effluents are degrading the quality of some of our water sources. The global-warming scientists tell us to anticipate even less rainfall this century than the average over the past 2,000 years.

The techies at the Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln define four kinds of droughts: meteorological (rainfall shortage); hydrological (water supply shortage); agricultural (soil-moisture shortage); and socioeconomic (resultant goods or services shortage). Their beginnings tend to follow one another and occur in cycles.

Usually, it is local governments that declare what actions we are politically willing to take in response to a drought – sometimes depending on the drought’s intensity or duration. While our political will has increased somewhat over the last few years of meteorological drought and improved scientific information, it has a long way to go.

While we have increased the price of water delivery a little, there is still a negligible charge for the water itself. When we perceive meteorological drought, we sometimes limit car washing for a few weeks or so or limit lawn sprinkling to selected days. We even replace a few percent of our toilets with low-flow devices. And we sometimes shorten the irrigation season by a few weeks.

For your homework, please do a little arithmetic, and see how far you think those use-reductions will go toward mitigating our 30 percent annual shortfall.

Drought: It’s nature’s reminder that water does not grow on trees. Ask your elected officials what they are doing, each and every day, to help us all work together and survive our perpetual state of drought.

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Email the Water Advocates today to say you would like to participate!


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People at round tables in discussion

Why Should You Plan for Water?

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The Issue – Who gets water when there isn’t enough? At a simplified level, the current New Mexico “Priority Administration” regulations, if enforced when there isn’t enough water, would provide much of the water to irrigators first, leaving very thirsty cities and towns. And with desperately thirsty cities and towns, the New Mexico economy would wither, taking down those irrigators as well as virtually everyone else.

New Mexico law provides a workaround.  It allows for a community of neighbors on a common water source to create an agreement on how to “Alternatively Administer” water. If done well, such agreements could equitably balance the impact of water shortfalls and minimize the pain to the overall community.

An Opportunity –The 2023 New Mexico Legislature recognized the risks, and unanimously passed the Water Security Planning Act (WSPA, a.k.a. 72-14A-NMSA). While some encouragement would be helpful, the 2024 Legislature is poised to provide funding to vigorously implement the unanimous 2023 Act. 

WSPA provides a formal guide for regions of the state and their included communities to come together and develop programs and policies (agreements) to share water equitably, consistent with physical reality.

The Act concurrently provides a mechanism for the regions and their communities to identify current and future problems, to identify needed infrastructure projects, evaluate and prioritize such solutions, and then, with the state’s help, seek funding to implement the projects.

The Goal – Together, the programs, policies and projects will form a plan to deal with regional water in the future. To work effectively and to provide equitable results, the planning process must involve proper consideration of input from all stakeholders – at the regional level to meet region-wide constraints, and at the community level for addressing localized problems. 

A Prime Case – Let’s consider the Middle Rio Grande Region (from the Los Alamos Highway to Elephant Butte Reservoir). That area encompasses a big fraction of the state’s population and its economy. The Middle Rio Grande has an urgent problem – risk of expensive Compact violation.  Accordingly, we want to start the planning effort promptly, in parallel with the state’s rule-making process. 

We all draw from the same water source: the Rio Grande and the aquifer that lies under the river, which in turn are fed only by precipitation (rain or snow). That precipitation is highly variable. 

Over the past decade or so, the Region has been regularly using more water than it is entitled to use.  If unabated, the rapidly accruing debit (see figure on following page) will almost surely lead to lawsuits, astronomical taxpayer costs, and potentially, federal Supreme Court control over New Mexico water. And with a warming climate, more of the incoming surface water will evaporate leaving even less for use, which will drive groundwater users to increase their impact on the already-damaged aquifers. 

We (virtually all of us) have become spoiled, accustomed to having and using plenty of water. You might remember that the last two decades of the 20th century were the wettest in 2000 years, but the past two decades have been among the driest. And significant further climate-based reduction is projected. 

What’s Coming? – With grant funding, state concurrence, and nationally recognized coordinators, the Middle Rio Grande Water Advocates are convening a collaborative, broad, multi-stakeholder process to establish the well-balanced regional water resilience planning Entity that WSPA calls for. That Entity will conduct a multi-year, publicly driven and scientifically based water planning process leading to a consensus plan for program and policy agreements along with evaluated and prioritized infrastructure projects ready for legislative and other implementation funding.

For the MRG to have a viable water and economic future under changed climates, we can’t continue in a siloed race to the bottom. All interests must be represented, collaboratively participate, and be duly respectfully heard. The process must keep water at the forefront and develop a consensus on the best solutions going forward. 

And this means you.  Agua es vida.  Do your part!  

Email the Water Advocates today to say you would like to participate!


Bob Wessely has worked with and led the Water Assembly, now Water Advocates, for twenty-five years. Partnering with the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments, the Assembly coordinated the planning process that resulted in the 2004 MRG Regional Water Plan.

In Bob’s previous 30-year career, he co-founded and served as Technical Director of SciSo, Inc., an Albuquerque software system engineering and management consulting firm supporting diverse industries nationwide. Although Bob holds a PhD in Theoretical, Solid-State Physics, at heart he is a systems engineer who enjoys finding solutions for problems important to NM and its communities, especially water.

dry river bank

A Thirsty Future: New Mexico’s Looming Water Crisis and the Path Forward

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Amidst the rugged beauty of New Mexico, water is not merely a resource—it is the lifeblood of the desert, vital for its people, agriculture, and ecosystems. The recent report from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology, “Climate Change in New Mexico over the Next 50 Years: Impacts on Water Resources,” brings to light a potential future marred by water scarcity, precipitated by the relentless advance of climate change. This document serves as a wake-up call, indicating a future where the equilibrium of water supply and demand is severely threatened.

The present situation, as outlined by the report, is challenging but not without hope. It predicts significant alterations in water availability due to rising temperatures, dwindling snowpacks, and changing precipitation patterns. Such shifts threaten to exacerbate the scarcity of our already limited water resources, impacting agriculture, urban water supplies, and natural habitats. This forecast for the coming decades highlights the critical importance of confronting water security as a primary concern for New Mexico’s inhabitants.

Forthcoming challenges are manifold, accentuated by the report’s identification of considerable data and modeling gaps and uncertainties. These are not mere academic concerns but real barriers to crafting and executing efficacious water management strategies. Overcoming these hurdles calls for a unified endeavor to enhance our scientific understanding of the impacts of climate change on water resources, ensuring decisions are informed by solid, comprehensive data.

Yet, the route forward is characterized not by resignation but by proactive adaptation. It demands a shift away from conventional water management towards innovative approaches that leverage technology, policy reform, and, crucially, community involvement. The development of the New Mexico 50-Year Water Plan, founded on the pillars of stewardship, equity, and sustainability, outlines a vision for securing water for future generations. This strategy envisions a state adept at navigating the unpredictable waters of climate change, with water security as a cornerstone of its prosperity.

Global examples of innovative water management—from cutting-edge irrigation technologies that optimize water use to green infrastructure that bolsters water recharge and quality—point the way forward. Marrying these technological advancements with policies that prioritize conservation and equitable access can revolutionize our approach to water. Moreover, the active participation of communities in water conservation efforts is vital, fostering a collective sense of duty and empowerment that propels us toward sustainable water utilization.

The insights from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology report present both a challenge and an opening. They compel us to confront a future where water scarcity could become a defining feature of our environment and to adopt a course of action rooted in innovation, cooperation, and sustainability. As we stand at this pivotal juncture, our decisions today will determine the water security of future generations. The journey ahead is undoubtedly daunting, but with concerted effort and communal resolve, we can navigate towards a resilient, water-secure New Mexico. The moment to act is now, and it begins with each of us.

Virus Lockdowns Cut Pollution, Slowing Snowmelt in South Asia

The New York Times has published ‘”Virus Lockdowns Cut Pollution, Slowing Snowmelt in South Asia” addressing the runoff effects of pandemic-caused reduction in dust on snowpack.

Cleaner skies over South Asia that resulted from pandemic lockdowns last year likely affected the timing of snowmelt in the Indus River basin of Pakistan and India, researchers reported on Monday.

The lockdowns cut emissions of soot and other pollutants, as people drove less and the generation of electricity, largely from coal, was reduced. That meant less soot was deposited on snow, where it absorbs sunlight, emits heat and causes faster melting.

The cleaner snow in 2020 reflected more sunlight and did not melt as fast, the researchers said. In all, that delayed runoff into the Indus River of more than than one and a half cubic miles (3.3 million acre-feet) of melt water, they calculated, similar to the volume of some of the largest reservoirs in the United States.

Click here to view the entire article.

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Water Risks Grow Across the Southwest

AZCentral, part of the USA Today Network, has published “As hotter, drier climate grips the Colorado River, water risks grow across the Southwest” addressing effects of climate change in the area.

The water level of Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, has dropped more than 130 feet since the beginning of 2000, when the lake’s surface lapped at the spillway gates on Hoover Dam.

Twenty-one years later, with the Colorado River consistently yielding less water as the climate has grown warmer and drier, the reservoir near Las Vegas sits at just 39% of capacity. And it’s approaching the threshold of a shortage for the first time since it was filled in the 1930s.

The latest projections from the federal government show the reservoir will soon fall 7 more feet to cross the trigger point for a shortage in 2022, forcing the largest mandatory water cutbacks yet in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.

Click here to view the entire article.