URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/2OP7-07.HTM
Water Research Key To New Mexico's FutureAll content copyright © ABQJournal.com and Albuquerque Journal and may not be republished without permission. Requests for permission to republish, or to copy and distribute must be obtained at the the Albuquerque Publishing Co. Library, 505-823-3492.
In dry New Mexico, rainfall is usually cause for celebration. When clouds fill the sky and water pours, if just for a day or night, worries of drought seem to wash away.
But not really. New research on the effects of drought in New Mexico indicates today's water woes were decades in the making -- perhaps rooted in the drought that hit the state back in the 1950s.
According to scientist Christopher Duffy, the cycle by which rain and melted snow travels to the Rio Grande and underground aquifers takes many years to complete.
If scientists are able to better predict how the effects of past weather patterns will affect today's water availability, a more efficient system of water management could be in store.
Duffy's research, and budding research into desalination, are the kinds of scientific endeavors needed as water becomes more scarce and more valuable in the arid West.
The Tularosa Basin National Desalination Research Facility, a joint venture of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Sandia National Laboratories, will soon begin testing various methods of reclaiming brackish ground water.
It's a wise use of time and resources, one that can help make better sense of this simple, yet complicated liquid upon which everything else depends.