WildEarth Guardians

Saturday, October 28, 2006
Groups Target Water Pollution

Headwaters of the upper Pecos River petitioned for protection
Contact: John Arnold Albuquerque Journal

A coalition of environmental groups wants new pollution outlawed in hundreds of miles of rivers and streams that run through the state's 1.6 million acres of roadless forests.

The coalition, led by the Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, plans to ask the state Water Quality Control Commission to designate nine headwaters and watersheds across the state as Outstanding National Resource Waters, or ONRW.

The plan aims to protect more than 800 miles of perennial roadless area waterways statewide, said WildEarth Guardians program director Bryan Bird.

This week, the coalition petitioned the commission to consider the first of those nine areas- the headwaters of the upper Pecos River. The area, which includes part of the Pecos Wilderness and other federally inventoried roadless land, is located in the Santa Fe National Forest above the cities of Pecos and Las Vegas, N.M. It includes more than 100 miles of waterways, including the Pecos and Gallinas rivers and numerous tributaries, according to the petition.

"The rivers not only provide municipal drinking water but also vital water for traditional agriculture downstream," Bird said.

The ONRW designation, a provision of the federal Clean Water Act, allows states to prohibit further degradation of surface water quality and could mean more stringent requirements for future public land uses like logging, energy development and grazing.

The plan is already drawing fire from at least one industry group, which says the environmental groups are intent on dictating how public land should be used.

"It absolutely could affect the historic grazing that's gone on up in that area for hundreds of years," said Erik Ness, a spokesman for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau. "(The WildEarth Guardians') whole purpose in life is to shut down lands, take away water rights and put people out of business," he said.

Bird said Friday that the ONRW petitions don't limit current uses or prohibit future ones, and they aren't meant to put anyone out of business.

"But what (the ONRW designation) does do is create one more degree of protection. It says, 'you won't do those things without keeping those waters clean,' '' he said.

The ONRW petition is in part an effort to protect federally designated roadless areas that Bird says are in "legal limbo."

The areas had been protected from road-building and development under the Clinton-era "Roadless Rule."

But the Bush administration repealed the rule last year and replaced it with a process requiring states to petition the federal government for roadless protection.

Last month, a federal judge reinstated the Clinton rule, but its future status remains unclear, Bird said.

"We've been sort of in this legal back and forth where we don't really know what the fate of these forests is going to be, so really this (ONRW petition) is one more way to get protection for those forests," Bird said.

He expects the Water Quality Control Commission, which is responsible for controlling surface water pollution in the state, to hold hearings on the Upper Pecos petition next spring. His group plans to submit petitions for the other eight headwaters over the next two years.

Last year, the commission designated waters in the Carson National Forest's Valle Vidal as ONRW. The Rio Santa Barbara headwaters in the Pecos Wilderness has also received the designation.

Other state waters that the WildEarth Guardians are targeting include the Rio Grande headwaters, the middle Rio Grande watershed, the Chama watershed, the Canadian River headwaters, the lower Pecos, the Gila headwaters, the Mimbres headwaters and the Tularosa watershed.

The coalition seeking ONRW protection includes the WildEarth Guardians, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club Northern Group of the Rio Grande Chapter.

Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission