{"id":638598,"date":"2018-10-24T07:42:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T13:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=638598"},"modified":"2018-10-24T14:58:14","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T20:58:14","slug":"on-the-colorado-river-will-new-mexico-be-left-in-the-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/10\/on-the-colorado-river-will-new-mexico-be-left-in-the-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Colorado River, will New Mexico be left in the dust?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

Laura Paskus \/ New Mexico Political Report<\/p>

The Colorado River at the Hoover Dam.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Colorado River supplies water for more than 36 million people in two countries and seven states, including New Mexico. As river flows and reservoir levels decline due to drought, warming and over-demand, states are wrangling over how to voluntarily conserve water use \u2014 before reservoir levels reach critically low levels and trigger mandatory cutbacks.<\/p>\n

New Mexico is one of the states most vulnerable to the impacts climate change is wreaking on the river. Yet, it\u2019s unclear what the state is doing when it comes to drought management in the state and basin-wide negotiations on the Colorado.<\/p>\n

The seven states subject to the Colorado River Compact are divided into Upper Basin states \u2014 Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah \u2014 and Lower Basin states \u2014 Arizona, Nevada and California. The Lower Basin\u2019s planning has been sprawling and public, as the three states have tried to agree on a drought contingency plan that will keep Lake Mead\u2019s levels high enough to keep farmers in southern California and central Arizona and cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego from having their water supplies curtailed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Upper Basin states are working out a drought contingency plan, too.<\/p>\n

NM officials silent on Colorado River<\/h3>\n

Under the Colorado River Compact, New Mexico is allocated 11 \u00bc percent of the Upper Basin\u2019s annual allocation of 7.5 million acre feet. Though the Colorado River itself does not flow through the state, some of its tributaries do, including the San Juan River, which supplies the San Juan-Chama Project. That federal project delivers water to cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.<\/p>\n

Aztec, Farmington and Bloomfield also rely on water from the San Juan River, and both the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project and the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, which is still being built, rely on water from the Colorado River Basin.<\/p>\n