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Taking Charge of Our Water Destiny

"This paper is about water - New Mexico's water. It outlines the high costs to be paid if we fail to take action to protect this resource. Our aim is to create awareness that something must be done -- and done soon, and that we actually can do what's needed to bring New Mexico's water management into our modern world. This paper is about priorities and solutions. We hope it provides a road map to improve management of the state's water."

Thus begins the introduction to an important new publication from 1000 Friends of New Mexico. Entitled Taking Charge of Our Water Destiny: A Water Management Policy Guide for New Mexico for the 21st Century, the seventy-six page report by Alleta Bellin, Consuelo Bokum, and Frank Titus examines the shortcomings of New Mexico's water laws and regulations and offers recommendations on what can be done to correct them.

The authors begin by sketching a scenario of what the near future might hold for us if we continue down the path we're on. That future includes dried up farmland and rivers, legal claims against the state that run into tens of millions of dollars, and widespread economic decline. To lend plausibility to their potential scenario they cite historical drought records and other data.

Chapter two of the report identifies why there are no easy solutions to our water problems. The authors state that the impediments to real progress range from the conviction by the major players that they can win simply by "hanging tough," to the reluctance to take action during "anyone's term of political office."

The report then turns to a critique of New Mexico's system of prior appropriation, which is the foundation of state water rights law and resource management. In theory, this system protects those with senior water rights, i.e., those who first put the state's water to beneficial use, against any impairment from junior users. In reality, say the authors, the system has been compromised and undermined by widespread ground water pumping that over time depletes surface flows and impairs senior rights. They point out that the lag time between ground water pumping and its impact on surface flows has prevented effective enforcement of senior rights, and that in times of shortages it is the senior users who have had to do without, "precisely the opposite of the 'first in time, first in right' system established under our state constitution."

The authors discuss instances in which the system of prior appropriation clearly has failed to work, such as on the Pecos River. They also discuss how it has failed to work for even the state's most senior users - Native Americans.

In chapter four the authors address what they contend is the key to reforming state water law and management: water budgeting and planning. They explain what water planning is and where we are in the regional and state planning process. Linking land use and water planning, they say, is critical if a local government expects to have sufficient water to meet its projected growth.

The remaining chapters in the report cover protecting ground water resources, urban development and rural stability, water conservation, and other major issues and solutions. A concluding section ties it all together with summaries of recommendations organized into categories that include changes to water management policies, legislative action, funding needs, and a plea for public involvement.

Report Available from:
1000 Friends of New Mexico
1001 Marquette NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 848-8232.
Fax: (505) 248-1361
Email: amigos@1000friends-nm.org
www.1000friends-nm.org/new_water.html