Best worst Rio Grande forecast briefing ever
Ed Kandl from USBR: If you want the one-word synopsis, it’s going to suck pretty bad.
Archive of posts filed under the New Mexico category.
A border water fight – not over how much, but rather when
We’ve got a fascinating border water fight going on between Mexico and irrigators in the United States over water from the Rio Grande right now. But rather than the usual issue – who gets how much – this one’s over when the water is used. Under US-Mexico treaty, Mexican irrigators are entitled to a set …
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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: latest on Albuquerque jet fuel groundwater contamination
From the morning paper, the latest on efforts to corral jet fuel that leaked from Kirtland Air Force Base and is now spreading through Albuquerque groundwater: Kirtland Air Force Base’s efforts to determine the extent of jet fuel groundwater contamination are “inadequate,” according to the New Mexico Environment Department, which is demanding new, deeper monitoring …
unseemly bragging and links to my award-winning work
This feels a bit unseemly, but I’m frankly enormously proud to have won a Society of Professional Journalists “Top of the Rockies” award for my work last year on forest health, fire, politics and policy in the mountains of the West: The driest January through June in New Mexico history came down to this: For …
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“insufficient water to meet needs”
If Kelly Redmond had a nickel for every time I’ve quoted his definition of drought, he’s have enough money for lunch today: Wet years have a way of covering up a multitude of water management sins. Drought exposes them for all to see. Back in the 1990s, we had all the same underlying water management …
Did I miss the peak?
I’m kicking myself thinking I may have already missed the Rio Grande’s runoff peak. Earlier in the week, the river’s flow jumped up over 2,000 cfs through Albuquerque, which ain’t much as rivers go, but there’s at least a chance that’s the best we’ll see this year. The peak usually comes much later, late May-ish, …
Stuff I wrote elsewhere: lousy runoff on the Rio Grande
From the morning paper, a report on the April Rio Grande runoff forecast plunging off a cliff: Gary Esslinger’s chosen profession, delivering irrigation water to southern New Mexico farmers, looks like some sort of cruel joke these days. The latest punch line came this week in the form the federal government’s April Rio Grande runoff …
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New Mexico rural-urban groundwater project denied
From this morning’s newspaper, my story about the New Mexico state engineer’s decision to deny a proposal to pump rural groundwater from rural western New Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley: By failing to be specific about where the water was going, the project’s backers failed to meet the requirements of state law, Verhines ruled. …
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Stuff I wrote elsewhere: on our ability to cope with reduced water supply
My whole “what’s all the fuss? we can cope with far less water than we’re now using” agenda is on display in this screed in the morning newspaper about the implications of Albuquerque’s drop from 252 gallons per person per day a decade-and-a-half ago to 150 today: There are, I think, two key messages to …
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The importance of Albuquerque’s water conservation efforts
I had a story in the morning paper on Albuquerque’s success in reducing per capita water consumption below 150 gallons per person per day, a 40 percent drop from 1994, when our odyssey from water profligacy began. Here’s the bit I slipped in that shows the regional importance: Albuquerque’s reduced usage is a demonstration that, …
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