AWSA Stakeholders Provide Input on “Desired Future Conditions"

What is your vision of a water future for Southwestern New Mexico? About 30 stakeholders from the area spent a beautiful Saturday morning at a recent workshop that solicited input on this key question. The meeting was held as part of the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA) water planning process, established to find consensus on utilizing the Act in a cost-effective manner in order to balance historical and future water demands against uncertain supply while simultaneously protecting the environment. The AWSA provides New Mexico with consumptive use of an additional 14,000 acre-feet of water per year from the Gila and San Francisco Rivers and a federal subsidy of $66-million to meet water supply needs regardless of whether additional water is developed in the Upper Gila Basin.

A definition of Desired Future Conditions (DFC) is a first step in outlining planning objectives, strategies and alternatives for the Act’s water planning process. It addresses, for instance, strategies that might be used to obtain a dependable supply of water that would meet the needs of various interests in the region. These might include conservation, groundwater management, water reuse ideas, and so on.

During the October 25 workshop, stakeholders representing municipal and state governments, businesses, irrigators, the conservation community and the general public were alloted five minutes each to present a DFC statement and supporting information. Not surprisingly, there was common ground among most stakeholders around the theme of ensuring a sustainable balance of water resources, with many mentioning the need to do this in a costeffective manner. Water conservation within the municipal, agricultural and industrial sectors also was highlighted as a critical need.

Allyson Siwik, speaking on behalf of GRIP and the Gila Conservation Coalition, said the groups envision communities working together to live within their means, balancing present and future human water use with the available supply and needs of the environment. She described a “water budget” — an inventory of supply and demand, combined with an understanding of the relationship between them — as one useful tool. She stressed that water needs of the environment, such as ecosystems associated with springs, streams and rivers, need to be factored into the equation. Siwik said balancing the regional water budget in a practical and cost-effective manner is vital, emphasizing that municipal and agricultural water conservation provides the greatest opportunity for cost-effectively increasing the available water supply.

As an example, Siwik noted a Town of Silver City estimate that conservation measures could reduce its total municipal water demand by 30 to 45%. (A Gila Conservation Coalition economic analysis has shown municipal conservation to be a more economical alternative than drilling new wells or a diversion project. See “Potential Economic Costs of a Gila River Diversion: Meeting Future Water Supply Needs in Silver City and the Central Mining District” at www. gilaconservation.org/resources.shtml.) Silver City’s Water Utilities Department already has reduced per-capita demand by fixing leaks, upgrading its distribution system, and implementing a pricing structure that charges more for increased water use.

Meanwhile, in the agricultural What is your vision of a water future for Southwestern New Mexico? About 30 stakeholders from the area spent a beautiful Saturday morning at a recent workshop that solicited input on this key question. The meeting was held as part of the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA) water planning process, established to find consensus on utilizing the Act in a cost-effective manner in order to balance historical and future water demands against uncertain supply while simultaneously protecting the environment. The AWSA provides New Mexico with consumptive use of an additional 14,000 acre-feet of water per year from the Gila and San Francisco Rivers and a federal subsidy of $66-million to meet water supply needs regardless of whether additional water is developed in the Upper Gila Basin. A definition of Desired Future Conditions (DFC) is a first step in outlining planning objectives, strategies and alternatives for the Act’s water planning process. It addresses, for instance, strategies that might be used to obtain a dependable supply of water that would meet the needs of various interests in the region. These might include conservation, groundwater management, water reuse ideas, and so on. During the October 25 workshop, stakeholders representing municipal and state governments, businesses, irrigators, the conservation community and the general public were alloted five minutes each to present a DFC statement and supporting information. Not surprisingly, there was common ground among most stakeholders around the theme of ensuring a sustainable balance of water resources, with many sector, farmers in Luna County have made great progress over the past five years in reducing water use through implementation of drip irrigation. According to the SWNM Regional Water Plan, irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of water in Luna County (95% of all withdrawals in 2000). Tom Bates, a spokesperson for the City of Deming, reported that local conversion from flood to drip irrigation is saving 30,000 acre-feet per year (afy), or roughly the same amount of water currently “mined” from the Mimbres Basin aquifer.

The Town of Silver City’s Community Development Director, Peter Russell, identified integration of the water distribution system between Silver City and the Mining District as a means of realizing efficiencies in management of the resource. But he described New Mexico’s administrative Critical Block System as an impediment to effective water management, noting that mining giant Freeport-McMoRan owns 40,000 afy of water rights in the area whereas the municipalities of Silver City and the Mining District combined own just 6,000 afy. Ending the Critical Block System, Russell said, would allow rights to be transferred to municipalities where water is needed. Russell also speculated about the possibility that our area’s water might be targeted for export once the mines cease operations, potentially threatening the water supplies of local communities.

Todd Schulke, speaking on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and the Gila Conservation Coalition, stated his desire for protection of rivers in southwestern New Mexico. He outlined a vision for balancing agricultural use and environmental flows on the Gila River. Schulke described a ditch-head design that would keep water in the main channel of the Gila while delivering water to irrigators. During most years with low flows, all of the Gila is diverted into irrigation ditches, leaving the main channel dewatered for up to two miles. Re-engineering the ditch-heads, according to Schulke, would help maintain instream flow and riparian ecology.

Dutch Salmon, Gila Conservation Coalition chair, described a future that would include improved watershed health for the Gila, San Francisco and Mimbres watersheds, thereby providing healthier habitats, boosting wildlife resources and increasing recreation benefits. He stressed that the aura and mystique of the Gila as New Mexico’s last wild river make it a unique recreational resource. He referred to a Department of Game and Fish estimate that wildlife resources yield $1-billion to the state annually, with revenue from such “appreciative users” as birders accounting for half that total. Watershed improvement and Gila River protection. said Salmon, can play a key role in enhancing the region’s rural economy.

Topper Thorpe, representing the Gila Basin Irrigation Commission, described his group’s vision of a dependable, adequate water supply in the Gila River for irrigation, fire protection, recreation and the environment. He believed it was essential that the 14,000 afy of proscribed AWSA water be used. He said that, according to the Office of the State Engineer, irrigators lost water rights in the Gila and San Francisco Rivers as a result of the Arizona v. California adjudication in 1964 and argued that those water rights need to be restored to irrigators. An irrigator and Cliff resident, Mary Burton Riseley, took issue with this interpretation and asked that a legal analysis be done to verify its accuracy.

GRIP and its partners in the Gila Conservation Coalition will continue to participate as stakeholders in the AWSA planning process to ensure that the range of water supply and demand management alternatives are analyzed. We seek to see that the area’s needs are met cost-effectively while also protecting the environment. One-page summaries of all Desired Future Condition statements will be posted on-line at www. awsaplanning.com. The next scheduled meeting of the Stakeholders Group will be Saturday, December 6, from 8:30 am to 1 pm at the Grant County Administration Building in Silver City.

From the Summer07 GetAGRIP Newsletter:

New Mexico's Last Wild River Gets A Second Chance
Governor Richardson Redirects the Gila River Planning Process

While the whole community celebrates this summer's rejuvenating monsoon, we can also celebrate New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's recent policy statement recognizing the importance of the Gila and San Francisco rivers and his desire to protect them as New Mexico realizes its benefits under the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA). The governor's redirection of the AWSA planning process makes us hopeful that we can find a way to balance our future water needs with conservation of these important riparian areas.
Signed into law in December 2004, the Arizona Water Settlements Act settles long-standing Native American water rights claims in Arizona. The Gila Settlement, which is an amendment to the AWSA, specifies New Mexico's right to use 14,000 acre-feet per year of Gila River water originally promised to the state under the 1968 Central Arizona Project authorizing legislation. (An acre-foot is a vast amount of water: the amount that would cover one acre of land in a foot of water.) The Act also provides up to $128 million in federal subsidy for construction of a water project.

The Gila and San Francisco rivers already carry less water than they did historically due to the demands of irrigation and mining, as well as the recent drought. Additional withdrawals from a water development project would alter the rivers' hydrologic cycle and likely unravel the ecological integrity of the Gila and San Francisco. Flow reductions due to global warming may compound the impacts of a project.

In spite of the fact that local communities in southwestern New Mexico have not identified the need for any water project on the Gila, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission has been moving ahead with efforts to study water withdrawals from the river. This has been done without examining the range of water supply alternatives available to the region. The groundwater supply of the Silver City area, the intended beneficiary of any diversion project, is estimated to last centuries as things stand now, even taking into account projected growth. Thus, diversion of the state's last wild river is unnecessary from a human standpoint.

According to a report conducted for the Gila Conservation Coalition (GRIP is a partner in the GCC) by the economics consulting firm ECONorthwest, the cost of extracting water from the Gila River would cost upwards of $300 million, which is 16 times higher than the costs of purchasing unused water rights and developing new wells. Even if partially subsidized by federal coffers, it makes no economic sense for local governments to buy into infrastructure development that would provide water they don't need and at such high cost to water users and taxpayers.

During this year's legislative session, Governor Richardson recognized this reality: he vetoed a $945,000 appropriation for "Gila Basin Water Development" in response to hundreds of calls from throughout the conservation community. The Governor's Office stated, "The appropriation language was problematic and didn't include the proper balance. The different parties have not reached consensus yet on this issue, and, until that happens, it's going to be hard to move forward. The governor remains committed to helping the parties reach consensus in the months ahead."

GRIP and its partners in the Gila Conservation Coalition (GCC) believe that the Gila-San Francisco Coordinating Committee, the entity overseeing the current planning process, has been biased toward potential water withdrawals from the Gila River. We therefore applaud the Governor's veto, which underscored the need for a new process that examines the full range of water supply alternatives that meet the water needs of the communities in southwestern New Mexico and that is not focused solely on Gila River diversion and consumption. In other words, no diversion at all must be an option considered by the coordinating committee.

In late June, the conservation community's efforts to reform the planning process bore further fruit. Governor Richardson issued a policy statement regarding water resources planning under the AWSA, stating his desire to protect the Gila and San Francisco Rivers for future generations and to make conservation of these rivers a top priority in the state's response to the Act. In addition, the Governor's statement redirected the Gila-San Francisco Coordinating Committee process to study the range of alternatives to meet water supply needs, "with the 'no diversion' option as an essential part of the analysis."

While we recognize this positive step forward, there is still work to be done. Along with our partners around the state, GCC will continue to promote an open and transparent process and a common-sense approach that can satisfy the future water needs of the region while also maintaining the free flow of the Gila. The AWSA allows for $66 million of the $128 million federal subsidy to be expended for any "water utilization projects that meet a water supply demand." This funding could go to improving municipal conservation, increasing irrigation efficiency, buying water rights, digging new wells, or to a host of other practical measures that would meet the future needs of the entire region in a cost-effective manner and conserve the Gila and San Francisco rivers.

With river systems around the globe increasingly under threat from water development, the Arizona Water Settlements Act provides New Mexico with a rare opportunity to find a balance between human and environmental needs. We believe that the $66 million federal subsidy from the AWSA should be used to meet the region's future water demand at least cost and keep the Gila a wild, free-flowing river.

To download the Governor's policy statement, visit www.gilaconservation.org

Coming soon…..Gila Conservation Coalition e-newsletter. Send an e-mail to info@gilaconservation.org if you would like to sign up to receive periodic e-mail updates on the Gila River issue.

ACTION ALERT
Governor Richardson needs to hear from you!
Please thank Governor Richardson for his commitment to protect the Gila and San Francisco rivers for future generations and for his directive to the Gila-San Francisco Coordinating Committee to study all water supply alternatives and not just the Gila River diversion alternative. Analysis of the full range of water supply and demand management options will identify the best way to meet the future water needs of our area at least cost and with no or minimal environmental impact.

The Honorable Bill Richardson
Governor of New Mexico
Office of the Governor
State Capitol, Room 400
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501