New director to head Stream Commission

An agenda mistake from a 2018 meeting of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission regarding the New Mexico CAP Entity’s Gila diversion project sparked a telephonic special meeting of the state commission Tuesday — but the big news to come out of the meeting was Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s appointment of a new director for the ISC. It was revealed during the meeting that the governor had selected Rolf Schmidt-Petersen as director. Schmidt-Petersen told the Daily Press that he “was offered the position and accepted the position” on the afternoon of June 20 — meaning his appointment took place immediately after the last meeting of the ISC held that same day, when John Longworth was still acting director of the agency. Tuesday night, the ISC website had still not been updated to reflect the change, perhaps because the governor’s appointment of new commissioners to the ISC is imminent. Schmidt-Petersen is the former ISC Colorado River Basin bureau chief, where he oversaw work related to the N.M. CAP Entity’s Gila diversion project. The ISC is the gatekeeper for the New Mexico Unit Fund money that the Entity depends on to pay for the National Environmental Policy Act study process — known as the “NEPA” — and pay its bills...MORE