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Water in New Mexico It's Time to Balance the Books by Kevin Bean

Also: View from the Ditch: How the water budget looks to a farmer and acequia parciante Minnow's critical habitat becomes part of Middle Rio Grande water use debate Information Contacts

Controlling growth without stifling economic development. Protecting endangered species while preserving dwindling farmland. Meeting the needs of today without compromising the future. In New Mexico, an overriding reality links these issues and objectives: the scarcity of water. In the final analysis, water sets the terms and establishes the conditions that govern every contract and agreement, every bargain, covenant, and understanding. More than just a common denominator, water defines the very nature of life in this region. In New Mexico and throughout the Southwest, water is everything.

This reality has long been recognized in New Mexico, as evidenced by a complex system of water laws and management practices that in some cases dates back to the area's earliest human settlements. Throughout the state's history people have struggled with water scarcity and the need to balance competing demands with the limited supply available: to live, in other words, within the region's water "budget." That struggle continues, and today in the face of increasing demands for water the outcome of many diverse and important issues hinges on finding that balance. This issue of The Workbook takes a look at how that struggle is playing out in New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande region, home to one third of the state's 1.6 million people.

A Water Budget for the Middle Rio Grande

Total income is the foundation of any budget, and in the case of a water budget income equals the available supply of water. The water supply available to the Middle Rio Grande region was established last year with the publication of the Middle Rio Grande Water Budget. The Water Budget was prepared by the Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly, a nonprofit citizens organization made up of water managers, specialists, and advocates — citizens from all walks of life with an interest in water. Begun in 1997, the Assembly is working with the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments to develop a regional water plan. The Assembly's Water Budget identifies the amount of renewable, and therefore sustainable, water available to the Middle Rio Grande in an average year. It does so by examining total surface water inflows and outflows, starting at Otowi Gauge on the Rio Grande just north of Santa Fe, and extending south to Elephant Butte Dam. The Water Budget includes tributary inflows from the Jemez River, the San Juan-Chama diversion project, mountainfront recharge, and stormwater and municipal wastewater inflows. In calculating outflows, it takes into account diversions for irrigated agriculture, water use by the riparian environment, and open water evaporation. In the past year the Water Budget was revised to include river water discharges to the shallow aquifer, and it also shows the effect of deep groundwater pumping.

After subtracting the amount of water owed our downstream neighbors, the Water Budget shows that about 360,000 acre feet of water is available for use in the Middle Rio Grande in a typical year. (One acre foot is equivalent to approximately 325,829 gallons.) In wet years, the region gets a slightly larger share of total river flows; in dry years, it gets a lot less.

The Middle Rio Grande region's share of the river is fixed in a seminal document entitled the Rio Grande Compact, an interstate agreement between Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Adopted in the 1920s to settle longstanding disputes over water use, the Compact establishes the upper and lower limits of water availability in the Middle Rio Grande. Compliance with the Compact's downstream delivery requirements rests with the State of New Mexico, and although it provides some flexibility in meeting those requirements it also sets a limit to how deeply in debt the state can go. An examination of historical Compact delivery records shows the state just barely breaking even in some years, and accruing a deficit in many others. If the state exceeds the debt limit in the Compact, the State of Texas can issue a call on the river, which is tantamount to a bank calling in an overdue loan.

Future Expenses Threaten to Bust the Budget

The Assembly's Water Budget shows water supply and demand in the region in precarious balance, a fact that has important implications for the area's future growth and development. Although we're making ends meet today, inevitable changes threaten to disrupt the careful balancing act that has kept water flowing south and kept New Mexico out of court.

On the demand side, population growth and increased commercial and industrial activity, coupled with the need for resource sustainability, will force a redistribution of available water supplies. The City of Albuquerque, for example, which with 450,000 people is the state's largest municipality and the hub of economic activity in the region, is mining nonrenewable groundwater at the rate of at least 60,000 acre feet per year. The city is growing at a rate of between 1.5 and 2.0 percent per year. Communities to the north and south of Albuquerque, although much smaller in size, also are solely dependent on groundwater and are expanding at double or triple the rate of growth in Albuquerque. These unsustainable water use practices should be recorded as a debit in the region's water budget, but they haven't been until now because groundwater mining has not adversely affected Compact deliveries. Groundwater mining, in fact, has contributed to meeting Compact delivery requirements by supplementing the river via wastewater discharges. That situation will change as Albuquerque and other communities switch to renewable surface water supplies, thereby eliminating the subsidies provided by groundwater mining.

The water needs of endangered species will also effect changes in the distribution of the region's water. Although farmers, municipalities, and environmentalists disagree as to how much water endangered species require, no one disputes that the water needs of the Silvery Minnow and other plant and animal species have not been adequately accounted for, and that their survival depends on some redistribution of water. As for the supply of water available to meet the region's water demands, although it fluctuates from year to year and even day to day, some reduction in supply can be expected based on longterm water supply records. The last 20 years, for example, have been two of the wettest decades on record, and a return to even "normal" conditions, let alone a recurrence of drought, is going mean less water to go around. While the importation of "new" water supplies into the region remains a possibility, in general the "water development era" is over, and the Middle Rio Grande and the state as a whole must learn to live with what they've got.

Balancing the Budget:
The Imperative for Action

Looming changes in the water budget for the Middle Rio Grande present the area's citizens with two options. They can either allow a federal judge to decide how scarce water supplies will be allocated, or they can develop a plan of sustainable water management strategies that addresses local needs while meeting interstate and international obligations. To achieve the latter, regional water planning has been initiated in the Middle Rio Grande and in 15 other planning regions across the state. Coordinated by the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, regional water planning involves cities, farmers, environmentalists, and other interests in the difficult and frequently contentious process of balancing water supply and demand. The goal is to complete these regional plans within the next two or three years, and to then integrate them into a statewide water plan.

The quality of life for us and our children and even our ability to survive in this area depends on the success of this water planning process. Even now, state and federal water management agencies, such as the Office of the State Engineer, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Corps of Engineers, are evaluating water management options for meeting their various legal obligations. Although no decisions have yet been made, one thing seems certain: all of the region's current and future water demands cannot be met with the available supply. It is critically important, therefore, that concerned citizens get involved in this process to ensure that the plans that result from it reflect the interests and concerns of the community as a whole.

In an upcoming issue of The Workbook we will examine some of these water management options, and what they might mean for citizens in the Middle Rio Grande.

Kevin Bean is a consultant to the City of Albuquerque's Water Resources Division and a member of the Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly. He chairs the Assembly's Public Participation Working Group. He can be reached at (505) 293-9208 (home phone) or by e-mail at: surich@earthlink.com.

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View from the Ditch:
How the water budget looks to a farmer and acequia parciante

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The water budget states a very simple fact and that is: here in the Middle Rio Grande Basin, we are using as much water as we are entitled to. In other words, we are maxed-out in our water usage vis-a-vis our water rights according to the Rio Grande Compact. Further use or appropriation is more than likely to result in a lawsuit from downstream users during the next water-short year.

We can look to recent events over on the Pecos River Basin to get some idea of the ramifications of violating the Compact. Three years ago, downstream users in Texas sued New Mexico in federal court because they felt they were not receiving their share of Pecos Compact water. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed and ordered New Mexico to deliver the water. The N.M. State Engineer's Office (OSE) then went to the State Legislature and asked for funds to buy up Pecos water rights so the Compact could be met. After millions of taxpayers dollars were spent on this, the OSE determined that trying to buy up the rights was not going to work. New Mexico then negotiated with Pecos farmers to lease surface rights in order to retire them and satisfy the court. These negotiations broke down. The State Engineer stated that his office could simply retire rights, but that they would have to be done by priority according to the State Constitution — in order to get at old and senior surface rights, the OSE would have to retire newer, groundwater rights to get at them. These new groundwater rights are mainly new well permits that are supporting new housing development. The State has lost its sovereignty over Pecos water, but what might happen on the Rio Grande in the same situation is hard to imagine.

There are a lot of efforts to squeeze more water out of the system to relieve our precipitous situation. A data collection system is being built that may soon give us real time data on water flows and weather conditions in stunning detail. There are research and pilot projects on evapotranspiration or water wasted by exotic tree species in the bosques. Farmers are adopting new water conservation measures. There is a proposal to move Elephant Butte Reservoir up to Colorado because so much water is lost to evaporation — averaging 140,000 acre feet per year, or 45.6 billion gallons. (Source: Middle Rio Grande Water Budget, produced by the Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly.) All these measures should be encouraged, but they will not provide enough water or protect the watershed unless we solve the real problem, which is a political one.

We would not have a water problem and I would not be writing this if it were not for the boom development that has occurred in the last 15 years. Farmers are often blamed for wasting all the water and not letting developers have more, but the truth is that unchecked growth has been the source of abuse of our water resources, and the development industry owns the politics ... Local governments are reluctant to fund water planning because there is no immediate return, while the State Legislature fails to provide adequate funding for effective water management that citizens can rely on.

— Lynn Montgomery

Lynn Montgomery is an acequia parciante and farmer on Las Huertas Creek near Placitas, New Mexico, where he grows herbs, garlic, shallots, fruits, and vegetables. He has written extensively about water and historic preservation issues over the last three decades.

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Minnow's critical habitat becomes part of Middle Rio Grande water use debate

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In June, 1999, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service designated a 163-mile stretch of the Rio Grande as critical habitat for the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow, from north of Elephant Butte Reservoir to downstream of the Cochiti Dam. The minnow is a small fish that was formerly one of the most abundant species in the Rio Grande basin of New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.

Designation of critical habitat has been challenged by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the State of New Mexico on the basis that maintaining instream flows for the fish will economically harm irrigators and the State's ability to meet its obligations under the Rio Grande Compact. The City of Albuquerque has filed a lawsuit seeking a ruling that its San Juan-Chama project water shall not be available for discretionary releases by the Bureau of Reclamation for the benefit of the fish. A group of environmental organizations have sued the Bureau and Corps of Engineers over water management practices which they feel are harmful to the fish.

The silvery minnow debate has brought together a variety of agencies and interest groups to attempt collaborative approaches to recovery of endangered species. These efforts have resulted in discussions of the many unquantified existing and future demands on the limited water resources of the region. While the minnow may represent only one of many water needs on the river, it certainly has brought everyone to the table.

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INFORMATION CONTACTS

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Forest Guardians John Horning 1411 Second Street Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 Telephone: (505) 988-9126 Fax: (505) 989-8623 e-mail: swwild@fguardians.org web site: http://www.fguardians.org/ Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly P.O. Box 9844 Albuquerque, NM 87117 web site: www.waterassembly.org Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments Jim Gross, Director of Water Planning 317 Commercial NE, Suite 300 Albuquerque, NM 87102 Telephone: (505) 247-1750 e-mail: jgross@mrgcog.org New Mexico Game & Fish Department 3841 Midway Pl. NE Albuquerque, NM 87109 Telephone: (505) 841-8881 Fax: (505) 841-8885 web site: www.gmfsh.state.nm.us

Interstate Stream Commission web site: www.seo.state.nm.us Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Sterling Grogan, biologist and planner 1931 Second St. SW Albuquerque, NM 87102 Telephone: (505) 247-0234 Fax: (505) 243-7308 e-mail: grogan@mrgcb.dst.nm.us Albuquerque Defenders of Wildlife 1719 Girard NE Albuquerque, NM 87106