In 2015, farmers in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District could comprehend the effective board's reasoning, even if they didn't like the result.
Rio Grande streams were dropping fast. Compact limitations on native water storage and the rehabilitation project on El Vado Dam implied the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project was providing the Conservancy District's only kept water.
The scenario was dire.
When the San Juan-Chama Project water was gone, MRGCD-- which supplies watering for about 60,000 acres, consisting of 6 pueblos-- would be completely dependent on natural Rio Grande flows.
The Conservancy District told irrigators to anticipate extended periods without water. Agencies were timing water releases to secure sensitive fish from the quickly drying river.
Last June, farmers depending upon irrigation were cautioned the MRGCD could be out of water in a couple of weeks. The Rio Grande will go dry. Then we got lucky when heavy monsoon rains filled the river and allowed the season to be extended.
This year, the river is running high with spring overflow. Farmers are asking questions about water allotment, but no one seems to have any answers, much less a strategy.
Dozens of farmers, primarily from south of
Albuquerque, drove tractors with signs reading "No farmers, no food, no future" and "Save our farms" to the MRGCD workplace in
Albuquerque last Monday in protest.
Farmer Mark Garcia of Tomé stated farmers were getting water on a 21-day rotation, not enough in some cases. Garcia stated in past years, his household farm about 5 miles northeast of Belen received irrigated water by the 2nd week in March.
The Conservancy District's water circulation department manager stated the 21-day rotation was a result of miscommunication with irrigation service officers and watering would now be on a supply-on-demand basis. Water is livelihood on a farm.
Numerous farmers think the Conservancy District, which is responsible for flood, drainage and irrigation control over a 150-mile stretch from Cochiti Dam to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, is mismanaging irrigation water, incorrectly maintaining irrigation ditches and suffering from a puffed up administration.
When you're responsible for water in the desert in a dry spell, it's not a great appearance.
MRGCD's primary engineer stated the district had 10 significant facilities breaks in its aging watering system this season. All home owners within the Conservancy District's boundaries, irrigators or not, will be evaluated a portion of $4.3 million a year for irrigation system improvements, costing the owner of a property examined at $200,000 an extra $67 a year.
It's a drop in the container. The MRGCD says it needs $175 million for priority tasks.
In the meantime, farmers want answers about why water isn't streaming as the Rio Grande swells.
New Mexico's water issues run much deeper. New Mexico becomes part of the Rio Grande Compact, an arrangement validated in 1939 indicated to guarantee the fair circulation of Rio Grande Basin water amongst Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
New Mexico owes Texas water, that state desires it, and N.M. farmers do not get it.
"You are sending our valuable gold down to Texas," one farmer yelled out Monday. "You are making contributions to a compact that is eliminating farmers," another screamed.
New Mexico is also part of the Colorado River Compact of 1922. Colorado River tributaries serve reasonably little portions of northwest and southwest New Mexico, however the basin's water is important for
Albuquerque. Rio Grande circulations are carefully connected to the Colorado via the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project, which diverts Colorado River Basin water into the Rio Grande.
New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada are receiving less water from the Colorado River this year due to the fact that of quickly decreasing tanks at Lake Powell in Arizona and Utah and Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona.
And it's only going to get worse.
The report anticipates in the next 50 years, Rio Grande streams in New Mexico will decrease by 30% and N.M.'s general water supply might shrink by 25% to 30%. Higher temperatures in 50 years could prompt a 22% increase in water needed to irrigate crops.
Farming presently accounts for 77% of New Mexico's water use. Which was prior to the explosion of nurseries to grow leisure marijuana inside.
The bottom line is there is insufficient water to walk around now. Since of environment modification, we can expect more droughts like the 20-year dry spell affecting the entire western United States.
Conservation is no longer enough.
Proposals like diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River and Rio Grande systems have no traction. Desalination efforts to make the most of New Mexico's adequate underground brackish water reserves are in their infancy, though nations like Israel and cities like
El Paso have been doing it for many years, if not decades.
New Mexico needs a plan to bridge the gap in between present supply and future need, which consists of dealing with the running debt of water owed to Texas. The MRGCD and other water managers owe them that much.
This editorial first appeared in the
Albuquerque Journal. It was composed by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the viewpoint of the paper rather than the writers.
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