As the new home of NMPIRG's environmental work,
Environment New Mexico can be contacted with any questions regarding this
news release.
NMPIRG Education
Fund teamed up with farmers to release a new report that examines how urban
sprawl is eating up New Mexico's landscape, inefficiently consuming our scarce
water supplies, damaging our environment and weakening the economy. The report,
entitled Water
Fuels Sprawl: An Analysis of Water Transfers and Inefficient Growth in New Mexico
looks at how water transfers have emerged as the source of "new" water
to fuel urban sprawl.
"While access to agricultural
water rights remains a relatively inexpensive 'new' water source, cities have
little incentive to enact strict water conservation or growth planning measures,
even in a desert. Our largest city, Albuquerque, is the most inefficient water
user of any city of comparable size in the Southwest," stated Jeanne Bassett,
Executive Director of NMPIRG Education Fund.
The New Mexico Acequia Association
was also present at the release of the report to discuss some of the other impacts
water rights transfers have on rural agricultural areas. The impacts include:
- Environmental degradation
through the loss or fragmentation of riparian habitat and the dust bowl conditions
that can result from retiring cultivated fields.
- Economic loss resulting
from the loss of agricultural lands and productions, and corresponding impacts
on agricultural communities.
- Social resulting from
the loss of water rights and economic downturn in the area of origin. In Bernalillo,
Valencia, Sandoval and Torrance counties, 90 percent of water rights purchased
have resulted in retiring of irrigated lands, the remaining 10 percent came
for other municipal and industrial uses.
The report also made the
following recommendations to put urban growth on a sustainable course and reduce
the demand for water transfers and their corresponding impacts.
- Connect growth management
planning and water planning.
- Make conservation the
focus of urban water management to reduce the need for water transfers.
- Work to prevent the impacts
of water transfers on third parties and make the transfer approval process
more democratic.
"New Mexico must decide
how to plan for its growth and water consumption. It is time to pursue a sustainable
path that will preserve the quality of our urban areas, our water supply, our
environment and our rich tradition of agriculturally based communities",
added Bassett.
