-Gila Region Community News, Calendar, Forum-

April 30,2003
From Senator Tom Udall:
New Mexico is in the worst drought in more than half a century, but we must come up with solutions to adapt. Last summer, I was proud to co-host a water conference at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces with more than 500 participants, including farmers, ranchers, engineers and community members. Since the conference, my office has been compiling the policy proposals discussed, and today, I am pleased to release our Water Conference Report. Click below to download our proposed actions and share it with your friends. We need to continue this discussion because we can't control the weather, but we can -- and we must -- improve our response to it.
http://www.tomudall.senate.gov

http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1282
Link to full report is listed at bottom of text. It includes the proposed recommendations for NM.

Senator Udall's report also addresses the Gila:

Proposed Action: Encourage greater scrutiny from the scientific community,
water planners, and the public of the large water projects that involve intra- and
inter-basin transfers. This will better serve communities as well as provide more
opportunities for rigorous technical assessment by the scientists, engineers, water
planners and economists in the planning and evaluation, especially when such
large projects are subsidized by federal and state taxpayer dollars. Some future
projects are still potentially possible in New Mexico, such as within the Arizona
Water Settlement Act (AWSA) and Ute Pipeline Project. The Ute project has
been funded and is proceeding. However, completion is many years away. It has
local support, but ongoing concerns and issues remain.

While the Ute project, now underway, will likely continue, the trajectory of the
AWSA is uncertain. A transfer project under the Arizona Water Settlement
involving the Gila River has experienced halting progress. Locally preferred
options for watershed and river management to meet AWSA goals are being
promoted, yet larger scale water transfer projects have faced significant
controversy. While some funding is guaranteed for the Gila River water projects,
tens of millions of additional federal appropriations would be needed for a largescale
transfer project, and such funding is unlikely to be forthcoming in the near
term. Any Arizona Settlement project should not move forward without
cost/benefit analysis, feasibility studies, full exploration of economic need,
ecological study and full consideration of all proposed alternatives for use of
settlement funds and water.

"Any Arizona Settlement project should not move forward without
cost/benefit analysis, feasibility studies, full exploration of economic need,
ecological study and full consideration of all proposed alternatives for use of
settlement funds and water."

But that's not how decisions are made in New Mexico!!