After hot debate, county backs anti-diversion bill Written by Geoffrey Plant on March 15, 2021
Copious time was again spent on the Gila River diversion group’s fate at last week’s regular meeting of the Grant County Commission.
Discussion at the Thursday meeting was dominated by arguments for and against a nonbinding resolution in support of legislation that seeks to place the state Water Trust Board into the role currently played by the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project, advising the state on how $80 million in water project funding
should be spent throughout Grant, Catron, Hidalgo and Luna counties.
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Rio Grande River, March 2009 (CC BY-SA 2.0) by gardener41
A bill that would require the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (OSE) to consider climate change implications when making water rights decisions narrowly passed the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee Thursday.
HB 95, sponsored by Santa Fe Democratic Rep. Andrea Romero, would require the State Engineer to conduct analyses on climate change-related impacts to the state’s water resources when approving or denying permits. The bill mandates the OSE to develop climate change impact rules based on the best available science to inform permit approvals.
Dr. David Gutzler, a climate science expert and professor at UNM, speaking on behalf of the bill, pointed to a water resources study being conducted by the Interstate Stream Commission. Gutzler said he believed the study “could be leveraged as input to the development of a robust and science-based climate change assessment that could be used o