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Sandia Technology logo A quarterly research and development magazine

Summer 2007
Volume 9, No. 2

SANDIA TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE

river bed
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What to do about water

gila river scene
In southwestern New Mexico, just north of the Mexican border, lies a river basin in limbo. Last June, flows in the Rio Mimbres were insufficient to meet the demands of farmers. It had irrigators — those whose families have farmed the land along the river for centuries — wondering how they could keep their fields green until fall. Then the rains came.

Another couple of dry weeks and the courts would have refereed a water rights dispute whose outcome would satisfy few. The conflict pitted farmers on the “senior ditch” (flanked by senior water rights holders) with upstream farmers and domestic well owners, who would have had to severely curtail their water use to allow the downstream users access to water.

The worst did not come to pass last summer, though all agree that at some point the junior rights holders in the Mimbres river basin will be ordered to cut back.

land use map Map of the Gila/San Francisco river basin

It is a scenario that is playing out across the western United States, portions of which are in an extended drought, says Sandia researcher Vince Tidwell. Surface water and groundwater rights are being contested, suits are being filed to protect aquatic and riparian habitat, and communities and companies are scrambling to assign limited water rights to future demands.