Reduced to a trickle, river managers brace for more drying - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Triple digit temperatures and a fickle monsoon season have combined with decades of persistent drought to put one of North America's longest rivers in its most precarious situation yet.
Islands of sand and gravel and patches of cracked mud are taking over where the Rio Grande once flowed. It's a scene not unlike other hot, dry spots around the western U.S. where rivers and reservoirs have been shrinking due to climate change and continued demand.
Local and federal water managers on Thursday warned that more stretches of the beleaguered Rio Grande will be drying up in the coming days in the Albuquerque area, leaving endangered silvery minnows stranded in whatever puddles remain.
The threat of having the river dry this far north has been present the last few summers due to ongoing drought, officials with the Bureau of Reclamation and one of the largest irrigation districts on the river said. But, this could be the year that residents in New Mexico's most populated region get to witness the effects of climate change on a grander scale.
It's not uncommon to have parts of the Rio Grande go dry in its more southern reaches, but not in Albuquerque.
Like a monument, the river courses through the city, flanked by a forest of cottonwood and willow trees. It's one of the few ribbons of green to cut through the arid state, providing water for crops and communities.
"This is almost the sole source of water in the central part of New Mexico and we're not trying to save it just for the fish," said Andy Dean, a federal biologist. "It's our job as the Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent the extinction of this animal, but this water is also for everybody in the valley. We're trying to save it for everybody and if the fish is that piece that helps us do that, then that's what we have to use."
The Bureau of Reclamation will be releasing what little supplemental water it has left in upstream reservoirs along the Rio Grande. Over the last 20 years, the agency has leased about 700,000 acre-feet — or 228 billion gallons — of water to supplement flows through the middle Rio Grande for endangered and threatened species.
Biologists aren't sure this latest release will be enough to make a difference for the endangered minnow.
Crews already have been rescuing stranded minnows in the San Acacia and Isleta areas and will continue as the river dries. So far, they've been lucky to net about 50 fish a day, but Dean said those numbers are just a fraction of what has been rescued in past years.
"It doesn't look like there's a lot of minnows out there currently. Our population monitoring is reflecting that as well," he said.
Dean said scooping up minnows in Albuquerque will be new territory for the crew as they have never had to do such work that far north.
With a series of dams and interstate water-sharing agreements governing the Rio Grande's flows, local, state and federal officials have been successful in previous years reaching resolutions that allow for extra water to be leased and released so that flows could be boosted in times of need.
This year is different. New Mexico has been unable to store any extra runoff in upstream reservoirs because it owes Texas water as part of an interstate compact. With the outstanding debt and no water in the bank, New Mexico has nothing other than the hope of rain to recharge the system during the monsoon season.
Jason Casuga, the chief engineer for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, which serves farmers throughout the Middle Rio Grande Valley, said it should serve as a wake- up call for the public and water management agencies.
"There's a lot of infrastructure on this river that was built for a purpose and that was during a period of time when water was plentiful," he said. "I'm hoping that's the silver lining that comes out of this, that people start re-envisioning the way we can use that existing infrastructure."
Congressional legislation would be needed in some cases. In others, it would require agreements with federal water and wildlife agencies that would allow for more flexibility.
"The longer this drought stays around, I think people are going to recognize we've got to find balance," Casuga said.
The irrigation district and state officials have been pushing more farmers to participate in voluntary fallowing programs. Farmers would leave their fields unplanted for a season in order to save water and increase what flows across the border to Texas as a way to chip away at the debt.
Most NM police departments fail to report crime data, LFC analysts say - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Less than one-third of police departments in New Mexico are following state law that requires them to deliver crime numbers to the N.M. Department of Public Safety, lawmakers learned Wednesday.
Under state statute, every police department must turn in reports to the state Department of Public Safety. The state’s centralized system has been in place since 2008 and feeds into the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System.
None of the police departments are exempt from the law, and the issue has been brought up by legislative analysts before, at least twice in 2018.
But only 35 police departments are reporting. Twenty-nine were in a 6-month testing period where the FBI was ensuring the numbers are accurate, and 51 were not reporting, according to DPS info cited in a report produced by Legislative Finance Committee staff.
This has the effect of leaving New Mexico without timely data on statewide crime trends, the committee’s analysts wrote.
Lawmakers reviewed the report during a meeting Wednesday inside the Miller Library at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, and one senator asked about why the data still isn’t getting to where it needs to be.
“I just want to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure this data gets across to where it needs to go, so you can collaborate,” said Sen. Nancy Rodriguez (D-Santa Fe). She asked why departments are not submitting the data.
The two largest police agencies in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico State Police, are not reporting to the FBI database “due to changes in their records management systems,” the LFC wrote.
The state is working with APD “to bring them into the testing phase” and expects to start testing with State Police when their new system goes live in December, the LFC wrote.
As part of the crime package signed into law this year, police could lose money if they do not comply with the reporting requirements already in state law.
The money at stake is held in the Law Enforcement Protection Fund and can be used to buy any kind of “law enforcement equipment” including guns, surveillance, vehicles, uniforms, belts, badges, computers, printers, phones, training manuals and classes, conference expenses and police dogs.
The crime package provides the Department of Public Safety with $100,000 every year to help local police departments meet the reporting requirements.
Secretary for the Department of Public Safety Jason Bowie said State Police records and computer assisted dispatch systems are “antiquated.”
“We are implementing changes there,” Bowie said, “and we have a new system that’s going to be online in December.”
He said once they get it online, the FBI must certify it, which will further delay the process into 2023.
“We will hopefully be successful online with the system in December, and after the certification process, hope to be online six months after that,” Bowie said.
But Rodriguez asked about all the other police departments, as well as the prosecutors, public defenders, jails and prisons.
“Is there any way to get all of those parties connected?” she asked. “‘Cause we have a lot of disconnect, obviously, and we need to be connected together for communication and data consolidation.”
Ellen Rabin, one of the authors of the report, said DPS is working with local police departments to get them to report the data.
She also told Rodriguez that another law passed in 2019 requires all of the various agencies in the criminal legal system to get together with the same information.
Under that 2019 law, the state Sentencing Commission, which advises the government on the criminal legal system, is required to create a network to share data with local Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils, panels of the highest-ranking judicial and police officials in each judicial district.
“That is in progress but it is definitely difficult,” Rabin said. “It is a big lift. There’s a lot of different people, a lot of different systems, and different levels of willingness to share their data.”
Two killed in northern NM flash flood, rescue underway for third victim - Las Vegas Optic, KOB-TV, KUNM News
Fire officials say two people have died and another is missing after a burn scar west of Las Vegas was hit with flash flood Thursday.
The Las Vegas Optic reports the Cabo Lucero Volunteer Fire Department responded to a report of a vehicle floating in water near Blue Haven Youth Camp.
New Mexico State Police and the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office are supporting the continued to search for the missing person. KOB-TV reports the National Guard is also assisting with rescue efforts.
The names and ages of the two individuals who died in the flood have not yet been released.
New Mexico COVID map growing redder as cases surge – Santa Fe Reporter, KUNM News
The number of New Mexico counties showing high community levels of COVID-19 has risen from 7 to 17 according to data released by the CDC.
According to the Santa Fe Reporter, the latest numbers cover a seven-day period from July 14-20. Over that time period there have been more than 7,500 cases and 137 deaths, bringing the total deaths to over 8,100.
Santa Fe County remains yellow, or medium risk. Bernalillo County is high and is “red,” like a large swath of the state. Only four counties are in “green” indicating they have lower level. That’s down from nine last week.
For those in counties with high community levels, the CDC recommends indoor masking, but state health officials said in a recent briefing there are no plans to return to mask mandates. Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase said the new Omicron subvariant BA.5 likely accounts for half of cases here. The variant is causing a surge nationwide.
State works to protect Las Vegas’ threatened drinking water supply – By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
The massive fire in the northern part of the state has been threatening the drinking water supply of Las Vegas, N.M., for months now. And though the fire’s nearly out, the problem isn’t going away. The risks of flooding during monsoon season only made it worse, and officials are desperately trying to safeguard Vegas’ watershed.
Kelly Hamilton, deputy secretary for the N.M. Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, described the dire situation for the city with the state’s Legislative Finance Committee on Tuesday.
“The people I’ve asked questions about the watershed for Las Vegas tell me that it’s as bad as it gets,” Hamilton said. “It is just simply as bad as it gets.”
He said if the Gallinas watershed, choked with debris, isn’t able to provide safe drinking water to Las Vegas, the state would have to manually move over 1 million gallons of water to the city every day — but there aren’t enough people available to do that.
“If we don’t keep that watershed and their water supply in Storrie Lake in as good a shape as we can and mitigate those (fire) efforts, then we’re hauling water to them as a state,” Hamilton said. “And that’s a lot of water to haul daily, and we simply don’t have the capacity to do that.”
The state is using money allocated from the federal government to preserve existing water infrastructure, he added. Every day, Hamilton said, experts from a variety of state departments work with federal agencies to protect the Gallinas watershed, setting up barriers and netting to hold material and dirt in place.
Sen. Bobby Gonzales (D-Ranchos De Taos) asked whether the state has considered drilling wells.
“There is nothing off the table as we move forward,” Hamilton said, “because we know the other option is moving 1.8 million gallons of water a day in some fashion.” He said the state is weighing drilling new wells or rehabilitating old ones, as well as using pipelines to pull a water supply from elsewhere.
Flooding hasn’t yet been added to the disaster declaration for the northern fire, and the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management plans to ask the governor to add it in light of the threat.
Groups to buy guns from Santa Feans, turn them into garden tools - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
If you have an unwanted gun, the city of Santa Fe and its police department have partnered with a gun violence prevention group and car dealership to buy it off you this weekend and turn it into a gardening tool.
New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence is co-hosting the Guns to Gardens buyback program Saturday from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the parking lot of Santa Fe’s Fiesta Nissan.
In a news release, the city called the program “a safe surrender event,” meaning the identities of participants won’t be collected.
Gift cards ranging from $100 to $250 for box stores, gas or groceries will be provided in exchange for functioning firearms, depending on their type, along with free gun locks.
The city says guns should be unloaded and kept in the trunks of those participating, who should remain in their vehicles. There’s no limit to the number of guns an individual can turn in.
The Santa Fe Police Department will run a check on each weapon to ensure it’s not stolen.
If it is, the city says the owner will be contacted. If it’s not, New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence plans to show people how to forge it into a gardening tool the next day at what they’re calling a “Peacemaker Ceremony.”
That event will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sunday, July 24, at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe.
The city says Mayor Allen Webber plans to attend the event to proclaim “Miranda Viscoli and Reverend Dr. Harry Eberts Peaceseekers Day,” after the co-presidents of NMPGV who recently won the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s 2021 Peaceseeker Award, according to the church.
Immigration judge union seeks recognition as top judge quits - By Elliot Spagat Associated Press
The National Association of Immigration Judges on Thursday asked the federal government to restore its union recognition after the Trump administration stripped its official status and the system's chief judge resigned after two years on the job.
The two developments come at a critical time for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the courts.
The judges' backlog of immigration cases has tripled to 1.8 million since 2017. Cases for people who are not detained take several years to resolve.
Tracy Short, who was named chief immigration judge in June 2020 by then-Attorney General William Barr, said in a message to immigration judges that his decision to step down as of July 30 was "difficult and not one that I envisioned I would be making."
Short, a longtime government attorney with extensive experience in immigration, did not explain why he was leaving in the message, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, confirmed that Short resigned.
Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Jim Jordan, top Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland last week about news reports that "multiple" judges appointed during the Trump administration were recently ousted.
They claimed some departures were due to"the result of a coordinated effort between the Biden-Harris Administration and far-left immigration advocates." Mattingly did not immediately provide responses to questions about those allegations.
The National Association of Immigration Judges, which was founded in 1971 and has long sought more independence from the Justice Department, was a frequent target of Trump administration officials who said judges took too much time to decide cases.
His administration ordered each judge to complete 700 cases annually in return for satisfactory performance reviews, a target that was scrapped during the Biden administration.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority stripped the National Association of Immigration Judges of its official status, siding with the Trump administration that judges were akin to management employees without collective bargaining rights. But the union hopes for a reversal after the three-member panel shifted to Democratic control in May.
The union said a majority of the roughly 550 immigration judges have signed a petition in the last two months to restore the union's recognition.
The Trump administration "went to extraordinary lengths to unjustly silence immigration judges," said Mimi Tsankov, president of the union, which operates under the AFL-CIO.
Tsankov, who is also an immigration judge in New York, said lack of official status ended the union's influence on collective bargaining agreements and diminished its say on court spending and other operations.
"We don't have a way to make known what the concerns are," she said. "We need someone to say this is what's not working."
Mattingly, the court spokeswoman, said the Justice Department "supports employees' rights to organize but is bound by orders issued by agencies and courts."
While immigration judges wear black robes and preside in courtroom settings, they are considered federal attorneys with the Justice Department and can be removed from their positions by the attorney general.
In contrast, federal judges who oversee criminal and civil matters are appointed for life and work for the independent judicial system.
NM legislators gear up to fight for federal wildfire reimbursement - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
As the state continues fronting costs to fight and recover from the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, legislators are questioning whether the federal government will really pay it all back in full, and when exactly that will happen.
Deputy Secretary Kelly Hamilton with the N.M. Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management updated lawmakers on Tuesday about the biggest fires of 2022, prompting questions about the responsibility of the federal government to help New Mexico recover since the U.S. Forest Service was at fault for starting both the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires.
There isn’t yet a total estimate for how much rebuilding and recovery will cost the state, Hamilton said, but expenses are piling up. Last month, President Joe Biden came to New Mexico and personally promised that the federal government will pay the costs back 100% for the first 90 days from the his disaster declaration.
At a Legislative Finance Committee meeting, Sen. Nancy Rodriguez (D-Santa Fe) questioned whether there will really be no caveats and if the state will get every single penny back. Hamilton said it’s a valid point to raise, but he can’t guarantee full federal reimbursement.
Getting any money back could be a years long fight, Hamilton said, with both approvals and denials. “Every expense that we incur as a state, we are going to aggressively ask for back from the federal government,” he said.
LFC Vice Chair Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup) said New Mexico shouldn’t be asking for reimbursements but rather telling the federal government what is due. The executive may need to file a lawsuit against the feds for not complying, he said, which would pile on top of the personal lawsuits that have already been submitted.
“Unless we force somebody to do something at this point, they’re not going to do it,” Muñoz said.
Many legislators expressed frustration at the state’s hand in the slow process of recovery. “We’re still talking about planning after months of planning,” Muñoz said, “and we’re not getting people back to where they should be.”
Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero) said it’s time for New Mexico to start definitively laying out how much recovery will cost, even if the state has to fight with the U.S. government to get those reimbursement funds.
“It’s going to be a fight, and I think we ought to start fighting now,” Chatfield said. “I think we need to push forward to restore this (Las Vegas) watershed, and I think we need to push forward for the federal government to keep their word to us as a state.”
There are still a lot of unknowns around state costs, Rep. Patricia Lundstrom (D-Gallup) pointed out.
“If we get millions of dollars from the feds, it’s still state land,” she said. “It’s still a state responsibility at some point.”
Rodriguez wondered if the Legislature will see funding requests in January for wildfire recovery efforts.
Hamilton didn’t have a definitive answer but said millions in federal mitigation funds will help with rebuilding projects. He suggested that this is an opportunity for the state to build infrastructure back even better.
But who will foot that bill? Rep. Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena) volleyed. “We say build back better. Well, what is the cost of building that back?” she said.
Sen. Pete Campos (D-Las Vegas) said the state needs to work as a whole rather than through separate agencies to recover from the fire’s damage and pull down federal reimbursement.
“We still don’t have a state plan that is going to be, if you will, the charge from all of us,” Campos said, “not only to the federal government but also to our delegation, so that we’re in unity when it comes to what we’re finally going to be justly owed for the damage that has been done.”
Courts decide DNA test results gets Roswell man a new trial - Associated Press
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously affirmed a district court's decision granting a new trial for a Roswell man after DNA evidence raised questions about his 2013 conviction.
The state's high court outlined a process for judges to follow in deciding whether to grant a new trial or other relief based on DNA test results obtained after a person was convicted.
The opinion addressed legal issues that hadn't previously been decided by the court concerning a state law for postconviction consideration of DNA evidence.
The justices reversed the state Court of Appeals and reinstated the district court's order for a new trial for Gregory Marvin Hobbs, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for a 2012 fatal shooting.
Hobbs contended that DNA test results showed the victim touched the handgun, supporting his testimony that the shooting occurred during a struggle over the weapon.
The Supreme Court concluded the test results were exculpatory because they corroborated Hobbs' contention that he acted in self-defense.
Drought drives Las Vegas to cap size of home swimming pools - By Ken Ritter Associated Press
Limiting the size of new swimming pools in and around Las Vegas might save a drop in the proverbial bucket amid historic drought and climate change in the West.
Officials are taking the plunge anyway, capping the size of new swimming pools at single-family residential homes to about the size of a three-car garage.
Citing worries about dwindling drinking water allocations from the drying-up Lake Mead reservoir on the depleted Colorado River, officials in Clark County voted this week to limit the size of new swimming pools to 600 square feet of surface area.
"Having a pool in Las Vegas is like having a second car. It's that common," said Kevin Kraft, owner of a family custom pool design company that has been in business since 1942.
Clark County figures show there are about 200,000 residential swimming pools in the area of 2.4 million people. Another 1,300 are added annually.
"When you're in the desert and it's 100 degrees outside on a regular basis, it's part of life to have a pool," said Kraft, who derided the new regulations as more about "optics" than saving water.
But Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson lamented before voting in favor of the cap Tuesday: "If the trends continue and the lake continues to decline, then this may be one of the least of the tough decisions that we'll be making over the course of time."
On Thursday, the Southern Nevada Water Authority voted unanimously to send the restriction to a vote by city councils in neighboring North Las Vegas and Henderson. Authority officials and an industry trade group, the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, said they think the Las Vegas-area restriction is a first in the U.S.
The estimated 3,000 glimmering "commercial" pools familiar to the 40 million tourists who visit Las Vegas resort hotels, motels and water parks annually, or live in apartments, will not be affected by the limit.
Water use, abuse and scarcity have been hot topics during the scorching summer of 2022. Temperatures are projected to top 110 degrees Fahrenheit this week in Las Vegas, which averages a little more than 4 inches of rainfall per year.
Television ads urging water conservation are as common as theories about the history behind sunken boats and bodies that have surfaced in the mud as the crucial Lake Mead reservoir behind Hoover Dam recedes.
The lake providing about 90% of the Las Vegas water supply bears a telltale white mineral bathtub ring on steep lakeside cliffs showing the water line has dropped more than 170 feet since the reservoir was last full in 1983. It's now below 30% capacity, raising the possibility it could fall so low that Hoover Dam could be unable to generate hydropower or release water downstream.
The Colorado River provides water for millions of acres of irrigation and more than 40 million people in tribes and cities in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Wyoming, Utah and Mexico.
In the face of that, the penalty for building a pool bigger than allowed after Sept. 1 will be severe: Denial of water service.
Builders of big swimming pools and spas for custom homes in far-flung neighborhoods complained the cap could cripple their companies, and that lap pools and diving boards may become a thing of the past.
"It's easy to show pictures of lavish swimming pools and say, 'That's the problem why we have less water,' " Dustin Watters, whose family business, Watters Aquatech, started installing pools in 1985, told lawmakers Tuesday.
The water authority general manager, John Entsminger, said 23,000 gallons evaporate annually from the average 470 square foot Southern Nevada home swimming pool. About 75% of recently constructed pools were already under the proposed size limit, he said.
The authority projects the pool size restriction will save 3.2 million gallons of water the first year, increasing to 32 million gallons by 2032, still just a fraction of the nearly 91 billion gallons the region draws from the lake per year.
Kraft and others in the pool industry told lawmakers the estimated savings under the pool size cap of one-tenth of a gallon per person per day was insignificant. The water authority could impose fees on owners of large pools, he suggested, and use the money to hire more water restriction enforcement agents.
The authority estimates that "enhanced watering compliance" could save 5.7 gallons per person per day. But water authority board member Cedric Crear, a Las Vegas City Council member, said "the philosophy that you can pay your way out of it is not a sound strategy."
The vote to limit home pool sizes is the latest step by the authority to promote robust water reuse and conservation. It already encourages the removal of front lawns, and in recent months expanded patrols to identify and fine violators of landscape watering restrictions.
A new Nevada law that takes effect in 2027 bans "non-functional" or ornamental greenery at office parks, in street medians and entrances to housing developments. It excludes single-family homes, parks and golf courses.
Those measures put Southern Nevada years ahead of places like Los Angeles, where the regional water supplier declared a water emergency in April and imposed a one-day-per-week outdoor watering schedule for 6 million customers.
In Arizona, irrigation districts, water agencies, state entities and cities including Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale and Tempe have said they'll find ways to use less water.
Kraft, the owner of the pool design company, said Las Vegas-area officials didn't fully consider a study commissioned by the pool industry or other business recommendations. He predicted that multimillion-dollar home projects will be delayed or scrapped because of the new rule.
"The tone we got was that rich people shouldn't be able to have big pools," Kraft told The Associated Press. "All this work that people do on these big custom homes is usually around the pool. The pool is a big part of the design of the project."