New Mexico’s Water Future: Equitably managing our water in a drying climate
The NM 50-Year Water Plan, Water Task Force recommendations, and the 2023 Legislature
Three Part Series
Nov. 29 at 6:30 pm. 350 NM hosts. Webinar summarizes our water resource problems under climate change and the task force water management and planning recommendations.
TUESDAY, November 29, 2022
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Register for a free Zoom link here.
December 8 at 6:30 pm. Mid Rio Grande Water Advocates host. Webinar will summarize task force recommendations pertaining to helping communities plan, fund, design, build, operate, and maintain drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure, and to recommendations to improve watershed, river, and aquifer health.
January 11, at 6:30 pm. Mid Rio Grande Water Advocates host. Webinar will focus on other water bills and appropriation requests that require the 2023 Legislature’s and the Governor’s approval.
Contacts
Norm Gaume 505 690-7768; normgaume@gmail.com
Ann McCartney (505) 550-3045; mccartney.ann07@gmail.com
Sponsored by 350NM, Mid Rio Grande Water Advocates, Valencia Water Waters and NM Interfaith Power and Light
“New Mexico enters 2023 in a water crisis.” “New Mexicans face hard choices about tradeoffs in a water-constrained future.” “But with unprecedented peril comes unprecedented opportunity.”
These sentences from the Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force report are the theme of a presentation and discussion between two New Mexico water professionals.
The Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force, appointed by State Engineer Mike Hamman in June 2022, has finalized its report with recommendations for the Governor, the Legislature, and all New Mexicans. The report will be published soon.
Kyle Harwood, water attorney, and Norm Gaume, president of the Mid Rio Grande Water Advocates, are water task force members. They will summarize scientific projections of how water supplies will shrink due to climate change and the challenges this brings to New Mexico water use and management.
Even if precipitation remains the same in New Mexico, rising temperatures from historical and continuing greenhouse gas emissions mean much less water available for wildlife, agriculture and us all. Our state is one of the driest in the nation, with a highly variable surface water supply and increasing dependence on irreplaceable fossil groundwater. Water required for New Mexico’s resilient future is further challenged by growing aridity, unsustainable and growing water demand, competing interests, and interstate litigation. Climate change is upending the historical trends on which water use practices and interstate water compact agreements are based.
Water scarcity is already here and will become much worse. State policy changes and targeted investments are essential for us to equitably adapt to these water realities. Without a new approach, the status quo will create economic insecurity and hardship for many and the loss of water-dependent cultures, traditions and industries that have defined New Mexico for centuries.
Climate Change in New Mexico Over the Next 50 Years: Impacts on Water Resources
New Mexico Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force