Notes on the 13th Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly, disassembled
I attended, yesterday, the Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly, an informal working group originally created to create the MRG Water Plan (published in 2004) that has continued to meet after its original mission was completed five years ago. It was interesting for both some content, the nature of how that content was presented and portrayed, and for the positions that were clear from the so-called stakeholders present.
The panelist sessions were probably the highlight, though like any such format the audience wants to participate more, at the same time that panelists want to have their say or perspective included. The folks in front included the assembly facilitator and the assembly president, who rifled through three interesting panelist sessions and a "keynote address" by Tom Turney. Turney's address was both rushed and a little lack-luster, either because of nerves or because he felt rushed (or both) - but it highlighted many of the continuing difficulties the state will face with water resources.
The panelist sessions got grouped into various "sectoral" interests (producers, business, tribal, etc...) and later as "providers/regulatators" (OSE, water authority, city managers), and finally the bits of academic wisdom that have been added since 2004 (climate change, hydrology, desalination presentation). If anything was left in the air it was the "what now?" piece. Participants agreed to work on updates to the 04 analysis, forecasts, and planning - to reflect the current state of knowledge - though there were some good ideas about how to make this issue more 'apparent' to the community. Documentary movies/videos, a Water Assembly Wiki, vision planning documents by 'sector,' were all part of these ideas -- of course people need to take possession and need to put in the time and effort to make these.
More importantly, it allowed me some face time with interesting people - someone from natural resources at Santo Domingo Pueblo, the state engineer, and people from Sandia Labs. I also met a few parciantes from the MRG concerned with both the district's handling of water leasing and the unaddressed, unstarted business of adjudication in this stretch of the Rio Grande. We'll see if the OSE heeds the past state engineer, Turney, and his advice to make these more "bottom up in nature" than they have been in the Lower Rio Grande around Elephant Butte Dam. There was also a beat of seat-squirming nearby when Turney went into the possible illegality of Active Water Resource Management (AWRM) rules that the current OSE is trying to implement and enforce, given that these are taking place in largely unadjudicated basins (with two exceptions).
The panelist sessions were probably the highlight, though like any such format the audience wants to participate more, at the same time that panelists want to have their say or perspective included. The folks in front included the assembly facilitator and the assembly president, who rifled through three interesting panelist sessions and a "keynote address" by Tom Turney. Turney's address was both rushed and a little lack-luster, either because of nerves or because he felt rushed (or both) - but it highlighted many of the continuing difficulties the state will face with water resources.
More importantly, it allowed me some face time with interesting people - someone from natural resources at Santo Domingo Pueblo, the state engineer, and people from Sandia Labs. I also met a few parciantes from the MRG concerned with both the district's handling of water leasing and the unaddressed, unstarted business of adjudication in this stretch of the Rio Grande. We'll see if the OSE heeds the past state engineer, Turney, and his advice to make these more "bottom up in nature" than they have been in the Lower Rio Grande around Elephant Butte Dam. There was also a beat of seat-squirming nearby when Turney went into the possible illegality of Active Water Resource Management (AWRM) rules that the current OSE is trying to implement and enforce, given that these are taking place in largely unadjudicated basins (with two exceptions).
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