On the 22nd, the
Bounds case was heard in the New Mexico Court of Appeals. This case, based out of a dispute in southwestern New Mexico, has a fairy long track record now. You can see
one take on this dispute, from 2008, courtesy of Aquadoc. The same source also put together a
more recent update, prior to the hearing on the 22nd, with some helpful materials and links also (courtesy MC!). The plaintiffs have allegedly become a real thorn to both state-level agencies and to their neighbors as they try to enforce rigid prior appropriation enforcement, in this case for domestic well impairment effects. But in some ways, it forces the hand for both
OSE domestic well directives and New Mexico counties to address the schizophrenic water policies that are everywhere a problem in the west. Frank Titus remarked on this back in 2005 (
partial story link
here). How can the left hand manage water resources, if the right hand is forced to issue permits without regard to third party effects? Tough one. [Read the 2008 decision
here]. And the chronic, widespread groundwater pumping in New Mexico had already lowered water tables some 80 feet, even by the early 1980s (see
Figure above).
Yet access to water across the west is not guaranteed, even if you're in need or just want a drink and you lost your canteen. Colorado water law certainly is not merciful to the water-needy or the traveler wanting to drink or raft on flowing water as
this HCN story reminds us. Colorado still takes a rather baroque,
Omar Shariff "that is my water" approach to this, unlike New Mexico statutes that recognize the traveler's access to water when in need. There are
even penalties against land-owners who try to stop needy travelers from accessing water. Score 1 for NM.
Of course, water, power, and criminal behavior are strongly linked in the west. I won't exactly call it incest, since that
line's been taken by Emily Green, but her post is another reminder that water misbehaviors come at all scales, in all sizes, and in many different forms. Whether it's the approval or denial process for domestic wells, or find enough paper rights for the latest
nuclear plant effort, it's almost overwhelming to keep track of it all (which is why most of these aren't well known or widely discussed). Yet most media and pundit attention is focused on "big water" issues - dams, reservoirs, pipes, endangered species, and not on the
everyday pumping that comes from a thousand straws stuck into the same milk-shake we all share.
Next time: budget crunches, old obligations, and new pipe dreams ("El Camino
Unreal")
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