At the Southern tip of our state, community members of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa have been fighting for clean and safe drinking water for years, plagued with high levels of arsenic contamination in their drinking water, and a water authority that chronically fails to address this issue. Residents now face yet another battle for […]
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Explore the critical role of groundwater in New Mexico’s water supply, including the challenges of declining water tables and the need for responsible management.
A permit application by Niagara Bottling, the Village of Los Lunas, and PNM to move old PNM water rights to Village wells for use at Niagara’s bottling plant faces strong legal objections. I formally protested this application to the State Engineer because it would do public harm. It would worsen the Middle Rio Grande’s Compact […]
Despite its importance, groundwater is too often treated as invisible or secondary—governed inconsistently, measured incompletely, and managed with outdated frameworks.
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.
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 […]
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 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 […]
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
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.