New water works, a new water czar, and the same challenges ending 2011
Last post of 2011!
It’s been too long, yet again. So this will be the last post for this calendar year of 2011. There are so many issues and events of interest to cover, since last August, I’m not sure where to start. So here I’ll simply start with some regional issues, first with Texas (?!), then moving on to the usual New Mexico water issues, challenges, and battles. There was also big news out of Santa Fe, namely with the appointment of a new state engineer. Finally I drop a plug or two for some books that have recently appeared that should be of interest to all residents of the Southwest if you care (at all) about water in our region.
NPR had an interesting story on water issues in Texas specifically that I thought was worth sharing – see below. I’m not sure if they are “things you didn’t know” about water in the Lone Star state, but some are intriguing.
Water in Texas:
The water year in New Mexico, as in most parts of the Southwest, was grim during 2011. If 2010 was “meh” by way of rainfall and snow, then 2011 was a big, fat uh-oh. The region entered its second straight La Niña pattern, which means (typically) less rainfall, less snow, and a certainly drier winter. Is that what we’re getting, as I write this in late December? Well, it’s a mixed picture honestly. The Colorado high country is drier this year, with less snowpack, and it’s certainly now the snowbonanza that 2009-10 was. New Mexico and Arizona, along with SE Colorado, and well…. All of Texas have taken it on the chin as far as rainfall. But there has been a decent set of snowfalls in New Mexico, at least, in the early part of winter 2011. Will it extend to 2012? The good folks at CLIMAS, the regional climate assessment service out of the University of Arizona, are not promising much for late winter.
Water in NM (supply/drought):
In other news, the state of New Mexico got its first new state engineer in the last ten years with the new Republican Governor. Her appointee is a relative unknown, Scott Verhines, and he certainly has his work cut out for him. While the OSE has made genuine, and faster, progress on adjudication efforts across the state, there are a few white elephant stream stretches that will likely outlive his presence as state engineer (I’m looking at you, Lower Rio Grande).
New NM OSE State Engineer, Scott Verhines,
You can, if you like, see the state’s past state engineers at:
Water transfers, in New Mexico, show no signs of abating and no signs of fading as a regional and local object of environmental politics. Wild Earth Guardians, for example, is contesting some notable water rights transfers, and this merits following if you have an interest. So not only are local ditches contesting transfers away from their stream flows, and ditch flows, now you have NGOs increasingly intervening in the water transfer issue. Is this the only way to keep a healthy set of river flows? Is it the only way to keep endangered species on the radar for the state? Stay tuned…(below)
Finally, on water news, I want to highlight some local coverage in New Mexico regarding the so-called Aamodt adjudication, basically the Pojoaque River Valley basin, and the so-called “celebration” that this funded settlement created. Celebration by whom? That’s a better question, since I witnessed some of the settlement hearing open meetings this past summer – depending on who you are, there’s either something or very little to celebrate – so I can only guess that the involved attorneys, the BuRec folks, the BIA, the city of Santa Fe, and the county of Santa Fe are the ones who are pleased with the settlement (in that, the process might…just might, be over). Does this settle things? Better question.
Aamodt settlement (latest)
Finally, and yes, the link is from Aljazeera, I want to put in a plug for Bill deBuys’ latest book (A Great Aridness) which addresses the real, tangible, or emerging signs of (warming) climate change in the Greater Southwest. I finally had a chance to read it over the early part of my winter break, and it’s a great book, and also a great service to people living in the region. While Bill is a well-known resident in El Valle, New Mexico, this latest book is not just about New Mexico. He does, however, make recurring references to the Rio Grande, and the large wildfires of the past decade in the state. Read more about it in this opinion column published by Bill (below) – I’ll post more links just below it, so that you can purchase and read it at your leisure. The other volume is V.B. Price’s The Orphaned Land, a quirky yet large compendium of staccato-style writings on environmental justice, history, water, pollution, and radiation issues in the state of New Mexico. It’s a great, easy, read that you can consume all at once (python-style) or in the brief snippets that are of most interest. Check out both of these – you won’t be sorry.
Overall drought picture (from deBuys, age of thirst):
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011127125429770306.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011127125429770306.html
W deBuys’ A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest. Oxford University Press, available at
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Aridness-Climate-American-Southwest/dp/0199778922/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325123319&sr=1-1 or better yet, your local bookstore…
V.B. Price’s The Orphaned Land: New Mexico’s Environment Since the Manhattan Project. UNM Press.
http://www.amazon.com/Orphaned-Land-Mexicos-Environment-Manhattan/dp/0826350496/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325123364&sr=1-1 or better yet, your local bookstore
I’ll have more to say in the upcoming weeks, I promise, on these books in a more substantive post. Until 2012, amigos...
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