Use it or lose it: Across the West, exercising one’s right to waste water
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“Use it or lose it” clauses give farmers, ranchers and governments holding water rights a powerful incentive to use more water than they need. Continue Reading
Thirteen years and counting: anatomy of an EPA civil rights investigation
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Deborah Reade filed a complaint with the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights in 2002. It still hasn’t been resolved. Continue Reading
Gold King Mine spill hits Navajo Nation hard
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While the Colorado governor drank water from the Animas River on Wednesday to demonstrate that conditions are improving, downstream, people on the Navajo Nation continue to deal with the very real effects of an environmental disaster. Continue Reading
Officials pledge to ‘make the EPA pay’ for Animas River spill
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Government officials from New Mexico and the Navajo Nation were among those working through the weekend to try to understand and respond to the Environmental Protection Agency’s inadvertent triggering of the spill of an estimated 3 million gallons of toxic waste into the Animas River last week. Continue Reading
Agriculture’s role in our state economy, culture, and water cycle
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National Farmers Market Week last week got me thinking about the economic and cultural importance of not just the state’s 75 farmers markets, but of New Mexico agriculture more broadly. Continue Reading
Less Than Zero: Despite decades of accepted science, California and Arizona are still miscounting their water supplies
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If these states stopped effectively double-counting their resources, they would have to change laws, upend traditional water rights and likely force farmers and cities to accept even more dramatic cuts than they already face – a political third rail. Continue Reading
NM leaders rightly call for strong methane venting and flaring rules
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It’s important for the BLM to introduce a strong rule on methane before more gas is wasted, affecting our land, our health and our economy. Continue Reading
County commission should listen to objections to Santolina project
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The Bernalillo County Commission was remiss in its refusal to listen to the people who live here and who have voiced their objections to the Santolina project and its potential for stripping the Augustin Plains Basin of its water. Continue Reading
About the economic impact of the Navajo Generating Station
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A ProPublica article we published Thursday focused on the environmental impact of the West’s largest power-generating facility. But the economic impact is also great for Navajos and others. Continue Reading
End of the miracle machines: Inside the power plant fueling America’s drought
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The Navajo Generating Station is more a caution than a marvel, showing how much energy it takes to move water through an artificial river system, and the unforeseen damage produced by doing so. Continue Reading
The ‘Water Witch:’ Pat Mulroy preached conservation while backing growth in Las Vegas
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Today Las Vegas is on the brink of a new building binge, and Mulroy remains uncompromisingly bullish. Water can be found, she says. Continue Reading
Holy Crop: How federal dollars are financing the water crisis in the West
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The federal subsidies that prop up cotton farming in Arizona are just one of myriad ways policymakers have refused, or been slow to reshape, laws to reflect the West’s changing circumstances. Continue Reading
Protecting rivers is vital to our economy and way of life
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We have an opportunity to restore the health of the Colorado River and its tributaries, including the San Juan River in New Mexico. Continue Reading
Setting the record straight
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I would love to discuss the work we are doing to create jobs for New Mexicans, support our public schools and protect the health of our lands. However, Pat Lyon’s recent Op-Ed was so filled with inaccuracies and untruths that I must set the record straight. Continue Reading
Pearce wrong about Little Bear firefighting efforts
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If Congressman Pearce thinks that the U.S. Forest Service should be able to respond to fires faster than on foot, he and his fellow Republicans should stop cutting the Forest Service budget. Continue Reading