Water Woes

Demand exceeded supply a decade ago in the Colorado River Basin, source of drinking water for Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and a federal study now under way suggests the problem is only going to get worse. By 2035, according to new data released last month, annual demand for the basin’s water could exceed supply by 13 percent under the most likely scenario as use continues to grow while climate change reduces flows in the river. Such an imbalance is unsustainable, emptying the reservoirs on which the region depends, said University of Colorado professor Doug Kenney. “That’s enough to crash the system,” Kenney said. The risk for New Mexico, which is not yet using its full share, is that others may covet our underused allocation as supply-demand tension grows, said Estevan López, head of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission and acting state engineer. “We should be working with the other states to try and make sure that the other states aren’t looking at water that New Mexico is entitled to,” López said in an interview this month. López’s comments came as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation begins the final phase of a two-year study intended to quantify the problems faced by Colorado River users and lay out possible solutions. In a conference call for Western water managers last week, officials with the Bureau of Reclamation formally launched a search for solutions to try to close the gap between supply and demand...more