OPINION: Cutting you carbon footpring: The tale of two rivers

Most every week I drive north to Angel Fire. After Velarde, it is a beautiful drive, perhaps one of the most beautiful anywhere. In any season the Rio Grande as it winds its way south from the Rio Grande Gorge is spectacular. I usually stop to stretch my legs and let the dog wet her feet and get a drink of water. I chat with the fishermen who are fishing for trout and smallmouth bass. We watch folks carrying their kayaks into the water. This is an area where rafters load and unload, so all through the spring and summer the parking lot is packed with people enjoying the river. There are tons of picnickers and on some Sunday mornings we’ve even seen church services that take place at the edge of the river. The river is of course filled with ducks and geese and bird life of every type. It’s a living river, a dynamic ecosystem. Through the summer the water flows change. The river is at times rushing and overflowing its banks. In lower water there are more sand bars but it’s still a vital living river.

Like everybody else I was shocked to see the photos of the dry Rio Grande in Albuquerque. While we may have known that much of New Mexico was still under drought conditions, and that the Rio Grande has been under a water crisis for some time, the reality seemed to hit home in August when 18 miles of the Rio Grande through Albuquerque went dry. This happened in 2022 when the river ran dry for a 5-mile stretch in Albuquerque.

What happens when a river runs dry? Fish and other creatures that live in the river die as the shallow pools lose water. The entire bosque is more prone to fires. The farmers along the middle Rio Grande can no longer get the water they need to sustain their crops, householders must cut back on water use and groundwater sources are depleted.

So how did this happen and why did we not prepare for it? We have been told for years that we can expect less snowpack in Colorado and elsewhere. We know that because of climate change there will be more dry years. And yes, there will be some wet years.

This spring there was less snowfall in Colorado and northern New Mexico and the melt happened early. But that’s only part of the story. To the south the huge Elephant Butte reservoir is now at 3.8%. It’s never been that low. We know that historically there are sections of the river south of Socorro that dry regularly, but Albuquerque?

Alice Fordham writing for KUNM reported in 2023 that agriculture uses 80% of New Mexico’s fresh water, citing a report by Food and Water Watch. New Mexico’s dairies, alfalfa farming and pecan growers waste enormous amounts of water every year. The report asked the state to deny new permits for these businesses. The new water settlement, if it’s approved, means that when water flows are low, these farms cannot continue to rely on pumping groundwater. If these industries are going to continue to thrive in New Mexico they need to find efficient ways of using and reusing water.

And in the middle Rio Grande the future of farming is entirely uncertain, Paul Tashijan, director of Audubon’s Freshwater Conservation, recently explained.

Audubon Southwest tries to keep the river alive by leasing water from local municipalities and releasing it. But in dry years this is very difficult and is made worse when irrigators are out of stored water. Tashjian says there are no easy answers. At a minimum we need better infrastructure, more storage and more conservation.

But more importantly I think we need a change in attitude. We need to stop thinking of the middle and lower Rio Grande as a water delivery mechanism rather than a living vital ecosystem. We cannot let large sections of the Rio Grande, one of the most beautiful and famous rivers in our country, turn into the Rio Grande Arroyo.