WildEarth Guardians Calls for Shutdown of District's Water Bank

Oversight Needed to Protect Rio Grande

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—WildEarth Guardians today asked the New Mexico State Engineer and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to issue an order prohibiting the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District from operating its illegitimate Water Bank to protect flows in the Rio Grande. The group made the request in a letter to Scott Verhines, New Mexico State Engineer and Mike Hamman, Reclamation Area Manager.

The group’s letter highlights the fact that the State Engineer never authorized the Water Bank and further that the State Engineer actually opposed its operation unless the District submitted evidence of beneficial use to the State Engineer regarding its water rights. The original deadline set by the State for submission of such “proof of beneficial use” of the District’s water rights was August 20, 1935. However, after 80 years of extended deadlines, the District still fails to fulfill this responsibility and the State continues to ignore its obligation to administer water rights.

“We’re asking the State and Reclamation to finally intervene and protect the river, Pueblos’ water rights and other senior water rights,” said Jen Pelz the Wild Rivers Program Director at WildEarth Guardians. “Without some accountability, the Middle Rio Grande valley will become nothing more than a ghost river. The time to force a change is now.”

As further evidence of the absence of accountability to the rule of law, the letter also exposes the District’s violation of its own Water Bank rules. The District adopted Revised Rule 23, which requires specific conditions in the river and levels of reservoir storage before the Water Bank can operate. On two occasions over the past several months, the District opened the Water Bank when the threshold conditions in the river were not met and allowed diversions to Water Bank lessees to occur when the Rule should have prohibited them.

“Like the fox guarding the hen house, continued self-regulation of water use by the District will enrich the District and impoverish the iconic Rio Grande,” added Pelz. “The District has demonstrated time and time again that it has no intention of providing for sustainable and long-term water use in the basin or that it values a flowing Rio Grande.”

WildEarth Guardians emphasizes that continued deliveries under the Water Bank not only threaten the ability of state and federal agencies to meet their obligations to senior water users such as the six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos and endangered species, but also threaten the State’s ability to meet its obligation under the Rio Grande Compact.

“The Rio Grande serves as a cherished public resource that all New Mexicans should be entitled to use and enjoy,” said Pelz. “The days of District lawlessness must come to an end and the State must hold all water users accountable to ensure a living Rio Grande for future generations.”


 

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