A new study of the Rio Grande basin has confirmed what many researchers have been saying for a while: Our current rate of water usage in New Mexico isn’t sustainable. Organizers of an online workshop Thursday evening will discuss the latest findings and present possible solutions.
Water usage from river basins is governed by interstate or international compacts. When one party doesn’t abide by the terms of the compact, the court system steps in. That’s what happened in South Texas, where water usage in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. A deal in that case is awaiting approval from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Could that same thing happen in New Mexico? That’s the direction we’re headed, according to Norm Gaume, formerly the director of the Interstate Stream Commission and currently president of New Mexico Water Advocates.
“We now know that our supplies cannot be sustained,” Gaume said. “We have to cut back. That's really the only thing that we can do . . . the first step is doing that voluntarily, and I think the next step is probably with state engineer regulations. They're talking about that now.”
Researchers with Sustainable Waters and the World Wildlife Fund will present Thursday about why half of all water consumed from the Rio Grande and its basin aquifers cannot be sustained.
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority stopped drawing from the Rio Grande on April 24. The metro area is currently using groundwater from wells. Increased groundwater use leads to sinking aquifer levels.
“The water table is lowered, the river's running over the top of the aquifer, think about it that way, and the more you lower the groundwater, the more the river leaks into the aquifer,” Gaume said. “It'll never catch up with pumping, but it leaks a lot.”
The state of New Mexico can still regulate use in order to deliver enough water downriver to comply with existing compacts, according to Gaume. But such an effort would begin with enforcing existing rules, such as those laid out in the 2019 Water Data Act, which mandates the publication of water data online.
“The act passed unanimously, but once again the legislature didn't fund its implementation,” Gaume said.
Lawmakers also passed the the Water Security Planning Act in 2023, which mandates a long-term planning effort.
“But again, the legislature has not funded its implementation,” Gaume said.
The Thursday meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. online and the forum is open to the public.
