From the President’s Desk: Rio Grande Compact Jeopardy

New Mexico’s water resource management agencies are telling the Legislature that New Mexico faces Middle Rio Grande compact jeopardy and lacks capacity to prevent that jeopardy from becoming a disaster. What jeopardy, you might be thinking? This is how the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) describes it (emphasis in the original): If hydrology does not improve, and without further action, New Mexico could violate the Rio Grande Compact – an agreement between New Mexico and our neighboring states related to how the waters of the river are shared. A compact violation could trigger curtailment and/or costly litigation that may result in severe and unpredictable shocks to the economy and water supply for agricultural and municipal users in the middle and lower Rio Grande.   […] If depletion reductions are managed in a proactive manner, New Mexicans can retain local […]