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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNew Mexico officials know that continued warming is drying out the state\u2019s rivers, farmlands, forests, and reservoirs. And while there are plans to address some of those challenges, state water experts say they lack resources to implement changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This summer, more than 30 miles of the Middle Rio Grande dried. Farmers in that region, as well as further south, in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, received lower-than-normal water allocations. For the second year running, the Albuquerque Bernalillo Water Utility had to rely exclusively on groundwater pumping during the summer and fall. Statewide, streams, rivers, and reservoirs are low. And the forecast for this winter is another warm one, and another dry one.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The impacts of climate change are \u201cbaked in\u201d with the amount of greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere, said Norman Gaume, former New Mexico Interstate Stream Commision director in an interview early last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNew Mexico is going to be much drier and much warmer and is going to have much less water,\u201d he said. \u201cPut that decline in our water on top of the fact that we’re already using more water than is sustainable in most areas of the state.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Addressing these problems boils down to \u201cfacing our problems,\u201d Gaume said. But both the \u201cpublic demand\u201d and the \u201cpolitical appetite\u201d for serious changes in water management have yet to occur, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Water policy and funding doesn\u2019t appear high on the New Mexico State Legislature\u2019s agenda, Gaume said. And while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham published an \u201cexcellent water policy platform\u201d during her election campaign in 2018<\/a>, he said water hasn\u2019t been a priority during her administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe best thing that could happen to us would be if she would turn her attention to that and actually see it implemented,\u201d Gaume said. \u201cIt may not do everything we need to do, but it would be a wonderful start.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And clearly, New Mexico\u2019s top water officials are feeling the crunch of inaction and inattention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Water boss: \u2018We\u2019ve taken the agency as far as we can\u2019<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last Wednesday, three of New Mexico\u2019s top water officials announced their resignations to fellow staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John D\u2019Antonio, New Mexico\u2019s State Engineer, had submitted his resignation to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on October 31, saying he would stay in the job until the end of the year. As State Engineer, D\u2019Antonio also serves as secretary of the Interstate Stream Commission, Rio Grande Compact Commissioner, Costilla Creek Compact Commissioner, the governor\u2019s representative on the Colorado River, Upper Colorado River Compact Commissioner, and chairman of the Water Trust Board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a list of discussion points, D\u2019Antonio noted that \u201cwe\u2019ve taken the agency as far as we can, given the current agency staffing level and funding resources.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other issues he cited in his resignation memo include: <\/p>\n\n\n D\u2019Antonio\u2019s resignation came along with that of Interstate Stream Commission General Counsel Arianne Singer and Office of the State Engineer General Counsel Greg Ridgley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The news reverberated throughout the New Mexico water community last week. Speaking on background, one high-level water attorney in the state said he was \u201cterrified\u201d about what it means for New Mexico\u2019s water future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Known for an even disposition and the ability to get along with various agencies, commissions, and states, D\u2019Antonio returned to state government in 2019, at the request of Lujan Grisham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019d previously served as State Engineer from 2003 to 2011, appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson and remaining for almost a year under Gov. Susana Martinez. When Lujan Grisham\u2019s transition team approached him in 2018, he was working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked at that time, why he would want to head the state agency again, especially given New Mexico\u2019s water challenges,<\/a> D\u2019Antonio said he didn\u2019t initially apply for the position. \u201cBut as I spoke to the transition team\u2026and noting how much of a challenge we have as a state, I thought it was important to have someone coming back in that could pull a lot of things together,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even at the time of that interview, early in 2019, D\u2019Antonio was worried about the agency\u2019s budget. Then, roughly one-quarter of the staff positions were empty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New leadership, new opportunities<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will miss many of the folks who chose to leave,\u201d said Rep. Nathan Small, D-Do\u00f1a Ana. But he thinks there is now an opportunity to \u201cmove forward aggressively\u201d on the state\u2019s water challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He acknowledged the legislature\u2019s need to fund the water agency\u2019s budget at a level commensurate with the challenges. But, he said, since 2019 the legislature has increased the Office of the State Engineer\u2019s budget by about 11 percent. And on average, he said, about ten percent of the agency\u2019s total budget, about $3.8 million, remained unused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Agencies can request that unused money \u2014 budgeted toward staffing positions that aren\u2019t filled \u2014 be redirected toward other projects. When that request isn\u2019t made, Small said, the money is returned to the state\u2019s general fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Small also noted the need for \u201cnew ideas for more comprehensive and innovative water management issues, [and] I rarely saw those originate within the Office of the State Engineer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs we look forward with strong budgetary capacity, with a clear and keen understanding of the stresses that the climate crisis places upon New Mexico\u2019s core water infrastructure and the ways that our systems of water use have been set up, I am very hopeful for a strong, active, and innovative partner,\u201d Small said of the agency\u2019s leadership: \u201cOne that is committed to using all of the funding capacity that the legislature appropriates\u2014which has not been the case for the last few years\u2014and is a part of bringing forward new tools and stronger collaboration with regional stakeholders, be those acequias, irrigation districts, or the myriad other stakeholders.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, \u201cabsolutely agrees\u201d that the state\u2019s water agencies are underfunded\u2014and said a subcommittee of the Water and Natural Resources Committee is looking into the agency\u2019s budget and performance. Through those efforts and proposed legislation, as well as improving transparency and data, she\u2019s optimistic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m hopeful about continuing to modernize the system of water governance in the state, and what we can do to improve the process,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, with new leadership, comes new opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an email, the governor\u2019s press secretary, Nora Meyers Sackett, wrote of gratitude for D\u2019Antonio\u2019s \u201ccritical work to protect New Mexico\u2019s water resources\u201d and said the office will continue that work and fill the State Engineer job as quickly as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are working expeditiously to address the state\u2019s most pressing water challenges, including unprecedented drought, low reservoir levels and inequities around access to water in some New Mexico communities,\u201d Meyers Sackett wrote. \u201cA priority of this administration remains the completion and implementation the state\u2019s 50-year water plan and an active, cross-agency planning process is underway. With the effects of climate change mounting, we must ensure we are prepared for and resilient to its effects, and water is of the utmost importance, especially in the American Southwest.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She added that New Mexico\u2019s spending efforts will be augmented by hundreds of millions of federal dollars via the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Bill, which will \u201cenable once-in-a-lifetime investments in our water planning and infrastructure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gaume: NM on the \u2018verge\u2019 of another compact violation<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n In D\u2019Antonio\u2019s resignation memo, he noted his own optimism on the state\u2019s position in the U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit playing out on the Lower Rio Grande, where New Mexico is embroiled in a disagreement with Texas, and now, the federal government. The downstream state alleges that New Mexico is violating the Rio Grande Compact by allowing farmers to pump groundwater, and thereby draw water from the system that should be flowing downstream in the river. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The state of Texas sued Colorado and New Mexico, filing No. 141, Original: Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado,<\/em> in 2013. The following year, the United States joined forces against New Mexico, saying the state\u2019s actions have harmed its ability to deliver water under the Rio Grande Compact and the international treaty with Mexico. <\/p>\n\n\n\n D\u2019Antonio wrote that the first phase of the trial is complete, and \u201cwe are very optimistic that NM has greatly mitigated its liability exposure.\u201d He added the state is moving into a \u201cpossible mediated settlement phase.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Gaume said the Lower Rio Grande isn\u2019t the only place New Mexico has to worry about lawsuits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the Middle Rio Grande, we\u2019re on the verge of another Rio Grande Compact violation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the Rio Grande Compact of 1938, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas share water based on how much is physically present in the river each year. Colorado\u2019s water deliveries to New Mexico, for example, are based on flows past the Lobatos stream gage<\/a>. And New Mexico\u2019s deliveries to Texas are calculated by the sum of the measured flow below Elephant Butte Dam for the year and the change in storage within the reservoir. When states deliver additional water downstream, they accrue credits. When they don\u2019t move the required water, debits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And right now, New Mexico owes Texas more water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe’re behind, seriously behind, and our debit is going to get worse this year,\u201d said Gaume, warning that Texas could sue New Mexico again, putting the issue behind closed-door litigation. \u201cWe must pay attention to that and not let control slip out of our hands because we have violated the limit of our debit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, New Mexico’s debit was about 91,000 acre-feet in 2020. That includes 38,000 acre-feet of water the state of New Mexico essentially borrowed from Texas that summer as part of an emergency release of water for farmers<\/a> in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By the end of October 2021, New Mexico had accrued an additional 46,000 acre-feet of debit \u2013 although the Bureau of Reclamation anticipates the final debit for 2020 and 2021 will be closer to 100,000 acre-feet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s due to estimated daily river flows, as well as \u201cprior and paramount\u201d water that the six Middle Grande Pueblos did not use this year, water that Reclamation plans to move into Elephant Butte Reservoir by the end of December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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