I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico has a stake in the increasingly heated debate over allowing a Canadian petroleum firm to build a pipeline across the Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico: table water.
The designs for the Keystone XL pipeline would have crude oil drilled from tar sands in Alberta run through a 2,147-mile arterial across parts of Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, then connect with the original Keystone pipeline through Kansas before hooking up with new expansions through Oklahoma and Texas. Environmentalists and public officials are fazed by the pipeline’s proposed proximity to the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies much of the ground water for the Plains states and makes up a substantial portion of the subterranean water supply for New Mexico residents living in the eastern portion of the state.
From the AP:
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has urged President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to deny a federal permit for the pipeline, which would carry Canadian oil through part of the Ogallala Aquifer that also supplies drinking and irrigation water to South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Heineman, a Republican, said he would support the pipeline project if TransCanada moved its route.
Doug McAda, a hydrologist at the USGS New Mexico Water Science Center, explains it is difficult to estimate what the consequences are for New Mexico table water if another corner of the large aquifer were affected. That’s because the underground body of water is divided into three portions — the northern, central, and southern high plains — and the way they feed into each other varies. “The connection between them is fairly limited where the pipeline crosses in the northern high plains and with the New Mexico [water system],” says McAda.
McAda said the water flows west to east in most portions of New Mexico, meaning “the direction of the flow is in the wrong direction from the areas of the pipeline.” He cautions currents can change on a more local level — that’s good news for residents worried of what might come their way from the east.
The aquifer system feeds into Lee, Roosevelt, Curry and Union Counties, with smaller amounts touching Quay and Harding. Combining the Texas Gulf and Arkansas White-Red River basins, the aquifer system hydrates less than [PDF] eight percent of the New Mexico population. A fact sheet on New Mexico water systems can be found here.
For much more information on the Keystone XL pipeline debate, refer to AINN affiliates in Michigan and Minnesota.
