H2O
Upcoming city election should focus on sustainability
As the mayoral election of 2009 approaches in the midst of the gravest economic crisis of last 75 years, I’m wondering if we’ll hear candidates parrot the old line about “inevitable” material growth, or if they’ll really start to explore steady state sustainability.
N.M. environmentalists saw big gains in ‘08
A sampling of New Mexico environmental leaders cites a wide range of what they consider the biggest issues for the year that was. They include Tax Increment Development Districts, the proposed Desert Rock power plant, river otters, the destruction wrought by all-terrain vehicles in national forests and a new law allowing concealed weapons in national parks. But mostly they wanted to talk politics. Like everyone else, environmentalists were consumed by the 2008 elections and the sea change coming to the Legislature, Congress and the White House.
TODAY’S BLOG ROUNDUP: Power, money, nukes and water — Happy Kwanzaa!
There are 15 to 20 people who’ve told Diane Denish they’re interested in the lieutenant governor job if/when Richardson is confirmed as Secretary of Commerce and Denish moves into the governor’s office, Kate Nash writes on her Green Chile Chatter blog. Nash lists some of the names we’ve all been tossing around then points at [...]
Highly technical water, land use issues need highly sophisticated reporting
Most urban consumers of news in New Mexico probably don’t know about the intensity and wide spread Native American opposition to uranium mining and the dread that is felt across Indian Country of another so-called uranium boom. And it’s clear that despite desalinization being in the news a lot these days, the controversy surrounding it is not a hot topic either.
Time to start planning for our future
We need a growing body of citizen experts to motivate and guide elected leaders in directions that serve the good of all, much like we had in the heyday of the environmental movement in the 1970s. A good example is something called the New Mexico Water Dialogue.
Funds drying up for N.M.’s new water sources
The economic downturn may do what the state cannot — slow the headlong rush for brackish water deep below the desert west of Albuquerque. It will take tens of millions of dollars to turn any of the three reported supplies of brine into water fit for human consumption, and neither private nor public sources of money appear to be overflowing these days.
Drip irrigation has drawbacks, N.M. study says
A New Mexico State University agriculture professor has some surprising news on the water front: Drip irrigation is not the water-saver it’s cracked up to be.
The study, co-authored by NMSU water resource economist Frank Ward and Manuel Pulido-Velazquez of Spain and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at the big [...]
Ski season’s coming … sort of
Baby, it’s cold outside, but will it snow? More important, can you ski on it? New Mexico’s $114 million ski industry sure hopes so, with Sipapu the first one to open this Friday. But if you believe the forecasters, maybe this isn’t the year to invest in that new pair of Rossignol Classic CX-80s.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES: Private pipelines show increasing value of water
A Roswell businessman is proposing to build a private 145-mile water pipeline from Fort Sumner to Santa Fe, through which water can be leased from Fort Sumner. Ron Green says in the Santa Fe New Mexican article that as a market for delivering water has become feasible as the the value of water has risen. [...]
Response a trickle to group’s survey of candidate water views
How do the central New Mexico candidates for state Legislature stand on water issues?
The Middle Rio Grande Water Assembly (MRGWA), an all-volunteer water advocacy group for a region that includes three large watersheds –- the Rio Puerco, Río Jemez and Middle Río Grande –- tried to find out. But only 19 of the 70 candidates [...]