Water

Acequias were created and maintained by Native Americans before the Spanish settlers arrived. Centuries later, acequias remain a common conveyance for water all around our state in the face of an unpredictable climate and constant water rights battles. On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll highlight a new film showing how climate change is impacting the health of our acequias and agriculture, and, we'll check in with acequia users and legal experts. Should we be doing more to protect acequias?

Researchers are traversing Western mountains to better understand snow algae – and whether its blooms are hastening the melting of mountain snowpack.

The proposed funding is included in a draft omnibus spending bill that Congress could pass this week. The appropriation would be incorporated into the legislation passed earlier this year that promised to compensate victims of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire for everything they lost.

In the rush to build the nuclear arsenal that won the Cold War, safety was sacrificed for speed. Mining companies built dozens of mills and processing sites to refine uranium ore. But the government didn’t have a plan for the toxic byproducts, many of which are known to cause health problems. Reporters from the nonprofit ProPublica investigated the impact on water sources.

A new U.S. Forest Service report shows that while national forests and grasslands make up about 19% of the land in the West, they contribute about 46% of its surface water supply.

Introduced by Rep. Melanie Stansbury, the bills aim to improve water data nationally and facilitate better water management across the Rio Grande Basin.

The Environment Department says power outages that result in drinking water sitting in pipes and exposure to extreme heat can result in contamination from E. coli and other bacteria.

Airborne Snow Observatories flies planes over watersheds and beams masses of laser pulses each second to the snowpack below to create elevation maps. The maps help calculate snow depth and the water supply forecast across the West.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau said the New Belen Wasteway, a Bureau of Reclamation project that routes agricultural runoff back to the Rio Grande, is an example of an investment in water infrastructure that has huge impacts on surrounding communities.

A massive new infrastructure bill is slowly moving its way through Congress this summer. But a coalition of elected officials, farmers, conservationists and tribal leaders want to make sure it doesn’t include new big pipelines or dams along the parched Colorado River.