{"id":38421,"date":"2022-09-14T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T22:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/increasing-pressures-on-colorado-river-water-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2022-09-14T22:54:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T22:54:14","slug":"increasing-pressures-on-colorado-river-water-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/increasing-pressures-on-colorado-river-water-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Increasing pressures on Colorado River water in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Researchers
Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington work with alfalfa on July 22, 2020. Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. (Anthony Jackson\/Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Anthony Jackson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) \u2013 Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state.<\/p>\n

But Colorado River and reservoir management was designed during a much wetter period.<\/p>\n

And now, water officials are grappling with how to make do with less.<\/p>\n

State Engineer Mike Hamman, New Mexico\u2019s top water manager, said the state \u201creally feels the shortages\u201d because it doesn\u2019t have the big reservoirs of other states in the Colorado River Basin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the dilemma \u2013 looking at how we can reduce demand with as soft a blow as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

Editor\u2019s note<\/h4>\n

This is part of a collaborative series on the Colorado River on the eve of the Colorado River Compact, signed nearly 100 years ago. The Colorado Sun, The Associated Press, Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star and The Nevada Independent are working together to explore the pressures on the river in 2022.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton this year tasked Colorado River states with creating an ambitious conservation plan.<\/p>\n

Touton said the states need to conserve an additional 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water next year to protect levels at Lake Powell in Arizona and Utah and Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona.<\/p>\n

A basin-wide conservation plan had not materialized by the mid-August deadline.<\/p>\n

Nevada, Arizona and Mexico will all receive less water from the Colorado River next year because of rapidly-declining reservoirs, the Interior Department announced on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

Interior officials did not issue any mandatory water cuts for New Mexico.<\/p>\n

But the state\u2019s existing water conservation programs could be under increased scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Animas River flows in Farmington on July 22, 2020. The river is a tributary of the San Juan River, part of the Colorado River System. (Anthony Jackson\/Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Anthony Jackson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming did release a five-point plan this summer that points to the region\u2019s \u201climited\u201d conservation options.<\/p>\n

For two years, the states have released additional water from at least three reservoirs \u2013 including New Mexico\u2019s Navajo Reservoir \u2013 to prop up Lake Powell levels.<\/p>\n

Those Upper Basin reservoir releases will likely continue next year, Interior officials said.<\/p>\n

A more arid climate means all water users need to work harder to \u201clive within our means,\u201d said Estevan L\u00f3pez, New Mexico\u2019s representative on the Upper Colorado River Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly seems that we have to reset our expectations for what we might be trying to get out of the river,\u201d said L\u00f3pez, a former Reclamation commissioner.<\/p>\n

In 2021, water managers considered releasing even more water from Navajo Reservoir to help water levels in downstream reservoirs.<\/p>\n

But L\u00f3pez said the additional release could have jeopardized regional water supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we argued against it,\u201d he said. \u201cReclamation would perhaps not have been able to fulfill its contractual obligations to folks like the Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache and others that depend on water out of Navajo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same issues could resurface next year if officials look to the New Mexico reservoir as an emergency supply for downstream users.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Gila River flows south of Cliff, N.M., on June 19, 2019. Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. (Robert Browman\/Albuquerque Journal via AP)<\/span>Robert Browman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Upper Basin plan hinges on existing conservation programs.<\/p>\n

Strategies include fallowing fields and making irrigation more efficient.<\/p>\n

But the entire region must work together, L\u00f3pez said, to avoid more mandatory cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get water users within places like the San Juan Basin to agree to shortage sharing agreements, then there\u2019s no need for strict priority administration,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a more acceptable solution, generally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado River tributaries serve relatively small portions of northwest and southwest New Mexico.<\/p>\n

But the basin\u2019s water is essential for the state\u2019s largest city: Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

Rio Grande flows in Albuquerque are closely tied to the Colorado via the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project.<\/p>\n

The system of tunnels and dams at the New Mexico state line diverts water into the Rio Grande Basin.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque\u2019s municipal supply is entitled to as much as 15 billion gallons of San Juan-Chama water every year.<\/p>\n

David Morris, the water utility spokesman for the city and county, said the Colorado River water has allowed the region to wean itself off of unsustainable groundwater pumping.<\/p>\n

Since 2008, aquifer levels underneath the city have rebounded as much as 40 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we were hoping that our use of surface water would allow the aquifer to do,\u201d Morris said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a very fortunate situation here in Albuquerque to have two different and distinct sources of supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

But less snowpack and spring runoff resulting from climate change have led to several consecutive years when the utility and other New Mexico entities have received far less water than expected from the interbasin project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to invest in things like outdoor water conservation and reuse,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite possible that there just won\u2019t be as much San Juan-Chama water available in the future because of drought and climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922 \u2013 just 10 years after New Mexico became a state.<\/p>\n

New Mexico still uses only about half its allotment under the compact each year.<\/p>\n

That could change as more tribes reach water rights settlements and build out infrastructure to use those rights.<\/p>\n

Agencies are making progress on large projects to deliver water to Navajo communities in western New Mexico.<\/p>\n

A resilient future on the Colorado must have tribal sovereignty at the forefront, said Daryl Vigil, Jicarilla Apache Nation water administrator and a staunch advocate for tribal inclusion in water management issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe term \u2018consultation\u2019 gets thrown around in the basin a whole lot,\u201d Vigil said. \u201cBut if you know one tribe, you only know one tribe. Having a seat at the table means working with every tribe to learn their specific water rights and needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. Interior Department has said it will engage with tribes in the basin as parties hammer out some management details of the compact that are set to expire after 2026.<\/p>\n

A historic influx of funding for infrastructure and drought response could also help New Mexico and other basin states reduce water use and prepare for a drier future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m optimistic that we\u2019re going to sort through some of these more sticky problems with a good collaborative solution,\u201d Hamman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington work with alfalfa on July 22, 2020. Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. (Anthony Jackson\/Albuquerque Journal via AP)Anthony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38421"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}