Environmental Project

Pecos River Basin study looks water supply under various climate change storylines

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As climate change impacts water supplies across the southwest, farmers in the Pecos River Basin could face challenges. 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a study on Oct. 12 looking at how climate change and agriculture will impact the Pecos River Basin under five different storylines. Reclamation’s study manager Dagmar Llewellyn said the challenges are significant as the basin is arid with a limited and highly-variable water supply. During a webinar on Wednesday, she said the Pecos River Basin is already seeing less snowfall in its headwaters. These headwaters are located in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range to the northeast of Santa Fe.

Animas River

Monsoon rains open some forests, but aren’t enough for the state’s rivers

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Afternoon storms have started spreading across the state, dropping rain, and even causing flooding in some places. After being closed for more than a month, the Santa Fe National Forest opened, with fire restrictions, on Monday morning. Several days of rain, plus higher humidity has forest officials optimistic about monsoon season and the drought outlook. The Carson and Cibola national forests will likely re-open soon, too. Editor’s Note: This story was originally published July 8, but a website error deleted the story.

Environment

NM Environment Review: drought, ‘stokes,’ new studies and more

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On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall joined fellow Democrats to question U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt about his ethical and spending decisions. As reported by the Washington Post, Udall grilled Pruitt:
Udall, describing Pruitt’s management of the agency as “disastrous,” again called on Pruitt to resign. The former Oklahoma attorney general, he said, has treated his “position of public trust as a golden ticket for extravagant travel and fine dining.”
Irrigators in northwestern New Mexico are worried about the drought, prompting New Mexico State University to offer a workshop on water conservation, according to the Farmington Daily Times. Noel Smith also reports that the filing period has started for Navajo Nation elections. The Carlsbad Current-Argus has an update from the city’s mayor on efforts to remediate the area’s brine well.

Featured

Obama admin finalizes sweeping water protection rule

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The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finalized a rule that environmental groups say restores protections to streams and headwaters while Republicans called it another example of President Barack Obama’s executive overreach. Obama said that the action will help protect streams, lakes and other smaller bodies of water with connections to rivers and larger bodies of water that are already covered by the Clean Water Act. “This rule will provide the clarity and certainty businesses and industry need about which waters are protected by the Clean Water Act, and it will ensure polluters who knowingly threaten our waters can be held accountable,” Obama said in a statement released on Tuesday. “My Administration has made historic commitments to clean water, from restoring iconic watersheds like the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes to preserving more than a thousand miles of rivers and other waters for future generations,” he continued. Essentially the Waters of the United States rule, as it is known, formalizes what the Clean Water Act means for “navigable waters.”