Brief by Central Staff
Water – August 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Water issues in the West could get even more complicated after a June 12 ruling by a federal appeals court in New Mexico.
The court upheld an earlier ruling that, as far as the federal government is concerned, the Endangered Species Act takes precedence over water-delivery contracts made by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
At issue is the Rio Grande and its endangered silvery minnow — endangered because there’s not enough water in the river to support it. Environmentalists went to court in 1999, suing to force the federal government to follow the act and protect the fish.
That means leaving more water in the river. But the ESA covers only federal actions, and most of the water was under state control, not federal.
Not all the water, though. Back in 1963, the City of Albuquerque signed a contract and paid $47 million for water from the Bureau of Reclamation’s San Juan-Chama Project. It takes water from the San Juan River on the Western Slope, and puts it in the Chama River, a tributary of the Rio Grande. Area farmers also get Bureau water through the Middle Rio Grande project.
The trial court, and then the appeals court, held that even though there are valid water delivery contracts, federal water managers are obliged to obey the ESA. That means the water goes into the river, not to the city or the farmers.
The ruling was denounced by just about every elected official in New Mexico, with Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chàvez leading the counter-attack. It will likely consist of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a request that the federal government convene the “God Squad” — a special panel which can over-ride the ESA.
While this will certainly make for some interesting politics in New Mexico, it could have some effects in Colorado that extend beyond water-delivery contracts.
The easy solution to the New Mexico problem would be to put more water into the Rio Grande. And there’s the Closed Basin Project in Colorado that is designed to do precisely that: pump water out of the ground in Saguache County, and deliver it to the Rio Grande. It’s designed to handle up to 100,000 acre feet a year, but the most it has ever transferred is 60,000.
Then observe that the federal government is in the process of buying the 100,000-acre Baca Ranch east of Moffat, much of which sits over the Closed Basin (the sale has been postponed again; the current closing date is March 31, 2004).
It isn’t hard to imagine Interior Secretary Gale Norton making the announcement one of these days, that she has come up with a solution to insure that Albuquerque, New Mexico farmers, and the Rio Grande silvery minnow all have water: transfer more water from the Closed Basin of Colorado.
