Advocates laud new Clean Water Rule; critics fear high costs for NM

A new interpretation of the Clean Water Act exponentially increases the amount of surface water in New Mexico subject to federal protections, and while environmental advocates herald the change, water and land managers, and some of the state’s biggest industries, are bracing for additional bureaucratic burdens. Bruce Thomson, a professor emeritus of civil engineering at The University of New Mexico who also sits on the board of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, said that while the EPA’s ruling requires sweeping changes nationwide, New Mexico and other arid states are especially impacted. A 2014 New Mexico Environment Department review of national hydrology data found that 93.6 percent of the state’s surface waters are intermittent or ephemeral. Explained Thomson, “They flow only when we have a rainstorm and may only flow for a few hours once or twice a year. Are those waters of the U.S.? The ruling released yesterday says that if it has an identifiable stream channel and a high water mark, it is.” The ruling’s intentions are good, Thomson said, but he also predicts its implementation across the state will pose serious — and costly — challenges. He points to the work of Albuquerque’s flood control authority: Under the rule change, the agency may have to set up pollution monitoring systems in dry tributaries that only have water flowing through them for several hours a few times a year. Or if an arroyo clogged with sediment needs a work crew to muck it out, it’ll now also require a permit from the Corps of Engineers. “We’re concerned that we’re going to be swamped with regulatory constraints,” Thomson said. “It’s a classic unfunded mandate.” The state Secretary of Agriculture Jeff Witte could not be reached for comment Thursday, but he testified before a House subcommittee in March that “the impacts of the rule are so potentially harmful, it should be withdrawn.” He said farmers who use water that falls under the new rule could face delays in crop production if they have to learn how to navigate new federal permitting processes. Ranchers also could be affected, Witte said, and landscape restoration projects could be jeopardized by the increasing time and money required for permitting...more