Thrown on driveways ’round town last week:
The New Mexico Court of Appeals has turned into the state’s chief water policy nag.
Three times in a little more than a year, most recently last week, the court issued rulings tinged with exasperation at the need to apply 20th century New Mexico water law to 21st century water problems.
“The review gives us pause to consider that there are substantial issues awaiting consideration with regard to future policies governing water,” the court’s most recent opinion explained in a plaintive footnote.
The court seems to suggest the Legislature needs to step in and noted that its ruling in the most recent case involving the Albuquerque’s use of river water left “these issues concerning future overall management of the Rio Grande Basin and its water resources … largely unresolved.”
I can’t always place some of the water issues you write about in context. This one is nicely laid out, though. Even a dummy like me can see the dilemma and frustration and be a little baffled that the one legislative attempt mentioned to “clean things up” would actually remove the ability to borrow and return water from the river. I liked this pieces.
As an aside: this has to be the blog where I most often need to have Google maps open in another tab to place things in context. I may know more names of catchment areas and rivers around New Mexico and Colorado than in parts of my own region.