This interactive workshop had a panel of three former members of the 2022 State Engineer’s Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force, Phil King, Ladona Clayton, and Norm Gaume. The panelists are working together currently as NM Water Ambassadors. The Water Ambassadors joint purpose is to advocate for all the water task force recommendations. The panelists each presented their highest priorities for water funding and policy, and why. The joint funding requests to the 2024 Legislature of Dr. Ladona Clayton, Executive Director, Ogallala Land and Water Conservancy, and Norm Gaume, P.E. (ret), President, Water Advocates, are available here.
Eighty-five years of Rio Grande Compact accounting data tell a clear and troubling story. The 17-year period from 2009 through 2025 produced native basin flows at the Otowi Bridge gauge nearly identical to 1948–1964 — the most severe sustained dry period in the Compact record. The San Juan-Chama Project, long a buffer against dry years, […]