A discussion with Nat Chakeres, OSE General Counsel, and Tanya Trujillo, Deputy State Engineer, discussing how the OSE is managing Rio Grande Compact compliance in the Middle Rio Grande and below Elephant Butte Dam in the Lower Rio Grande. Learn about incentives and motivators that the OSE can use to ensure that New Mexico complies with its legal water sharing mandates.
New basin-wide science shows groundwater depletion in New Mexico is already well documented and driven primarily by irrigated agriculture. This long-form analysis explains why the remaining barrier is not science or authority, but the failure to institutionalize groundwater governance.