{"id":1191,"date":"2007-02-01T18:03:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T00:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/richardson-amends-year-of-water-agenda-to-include-agriculture-and-dona-ana-county\/"},"modified":"2007-02-01T18:03:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-02T00:03:00","slug":"richardson-amends-year-of-water-agenda-to-include-agriculture-and-dona-ana-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/richardson-amends-year-of-water-agenda-to-include-agriculture-and-dona-ana-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson amends Year of Water agenda to include agriculture and Do\u00f1a Ana County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson today announced changes to his Year of Water agenda to improve its focus on agriculture and add projects in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>, which had been previously left out. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At a news conference in Las Cruces, Richardson announced a new capital outlay request of $2 million to help fund a high-tech metering system to track agricultural ground water use in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, in addition to a $500,000 executive grant he has already approved to fund the pilot project of a system designed to clean up and reuse dairy wastewater.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson said the $2 million request came from someone he called an expert on water issues \u2013 State Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, who was one of a bipartisan group of lawmakers complaining that the governor\u2019s proposals didn\u2019t do enough for water conservation because they focused on residential use when 75 percent of the state\u2019s water use is agricultural.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201c(Cervantes) deserves credit. It\u2019s his initiative,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> told me after the news conference, adding that he does consider it an amendment to his Year of Water agenda.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said he met with Cervantes on Wednesday and agreed to the new proposal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Historically, in years of drought when farmers resorted to using groundwater to water crops, the water was not tracked. About a year ago, the state engineer announced that he wanted to start tracking that water use, and he wanted farmers to pay for costly meters to track it. Farmers, obviously, weren\u2019t happy with that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The system Cervantes and the governor propose would pay for the installation of solar-powered meters that send water-use information to a satellite. Water use can then be tracked on the Internet by the state engineer\u2019s office and farmers.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That will allow the state, for the first time, to track such groundwater use and begin to manage it. That\u2019s the first step toward conservation, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and Cervantes said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re then relying on satellite and solar technology that leads to high-tech water management,\u201d said Cervantes, who spoke by telephone from Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cleaning up dairies<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The $500,000 grant will fund a pilot program at Gonzales Dairy in Mesquite<\/st1:city> that will test a system developed by New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> researchers to clean up and recycle dairy wastewater. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dairies collect such wastewater in large lagoons, then let it evaporate and use the leftover material as fertilizer. The new system would capture the water before it evaporates, so it can be recycled and reused, and before it seeps into the ground and pollutes groundwater.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dairies, particularly those in the Mesquite<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> area, are notorious for increasing the nitrates in groundwater. Under pressure from area residents fed up with groundwater pollution, the state environmental department has been trying to deal with the problems with Mesquite<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s dairies in recent years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ramona Parra, an environmental chemist at NMSU\u2019s Physical Sciences Laboratory, said the system uses \u201crevolutionary\u201d technology to get around a common problem with trying to filter dairy wastewater: The solids in the waste clog filters.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The new system, which was developed by NMSU chemical engineer Robert Marquez, won\u2019t have that problem, Parra said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to help the dairies a lot. It\u2019s going to help with economic development. It will keep them in the state,\u201d said PSL Deputy Director Enedina Vazquez.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The money for the project doesn\u2019t have to be approved by the Legislature, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said, because it comes from a grant fund over which he has authority. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he has already signed an order giving the money to NMSU.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s Year of the Water plan also proposes $25 million for the Water Trust Fund, $10 million for statewide leak detection and repair, $10 million for water innovation projects, $15.3 million for a pipeline that will connect systems on the Navajo Nation, $12 million for Indian water-rights lawsuit settlements, $7.5 million to restore river ecosystems, $5 million to design a pipeline from the Ute Reservoir, $5 million for the Strategic Water Reserve, $2.2 million to study the Salt Basin, $1.5 million for new staff, and $1 million for agricultural easements, according to the news service. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Other announcement<\/span>s<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Also at today\u2019s news conference, Richardson<\/st1:city> highlighted capital outlay projects he had already proposed for this year\u2019s budget – $4 million for a sports complex in Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype>, $1 million to improve the water system in Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and $6 million for projects in area colonias. Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said the money was proposed by Sen. Cynthia Nava and Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, both Las Cruces Democrats.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sunland Park Mayor Jesus \u201cRuben\u201d Segura praised the governor, saying the projects were proof that he, unlike past governors, keeps promises he makes to Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the governor went down there he noticed the need, he made the promise and now he\u2019s committing the funding,\u201d Segura<\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The news conference revealed how times have changed. The mayor, who was once involved in a protest in which Sunland Park residents burned Richardson for Governor T-shirts in front of a television crew, today urged New Mexicans to support Richardson\u2019s bid for president.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThis individual is a great, formidable American,\u201d Segura<\/st1:place> said. \u201cIf he can make this great state what it is, I think he can make this great nation even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson today announced changes to his Year of Water agenda to improve its focus on agriculture and add projects in Do\u00f1a Ana County, which had been previously left out. At a news conference in Las Cruces, Richardson announced a new capital outlay request of $2 million to help fund a high-tech metering system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}