U.S. Water News Online
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The muddy water of the Rio Grande that meanders through this Southwest metropolis is liquid gold to many.
Farmers rely on it for crops. City leaders, both here and in Texas, need it for their residents and count on it for urban growth. The pinky-sized silvery minnow and other species depend on it for life.
Recent drought and surging population have complicated the fight over Rio Grande water. But so does a fact that draws less attention -- namely, that the river winds along a long stretch of the U.S. border with Mexico.
With that in mind, a plan is in the works to bring the governors of New Mexico, Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas together to draft a water agreement. The goal: to help future generations on both sides of the border manage the basin.
``I'm very concerned by the lack of attention Mexico's federal government and the U.S. government are giving to water issues at the border,'' said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is behind the effort.
Richardson wants the five governors to draft an agreement that would cover water use, conservation and management of the river. He hopes to rally the leaders as chairman of the U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference.
If successful, Richardson and others say the agreement would be a breakthrough for the border.
The effort is in its infancy. Richardson staffers and a University of New Mexico research center, which has been tapped by the governor to help, are still months away from making formal contact with other states.
But in the meantime, the Utton Transboundary Research Center is drafting a comprehensive briefing report on the basin's water issues for the governors to review. The report is expected early next summer.
Richardson's Mexican counterpart in the effort is Alberto Szekely, a former Mexican diplomat who has worked as a special negotiator for transboundary water issues and adviser to the foreign minister.
``The most critical issue is that we don't have a law of the river,'' Szekely said. ``The water has been given on the basis of concessions instead of water law.''
That creates a problem, especially given that the bilateral institution created as a referee for treaty disputes over water -- the International Boundary and Water Commission -- has a limited mandate, he said.
``It only distributes the water and manages the hydrology infrastructure that holds that water,'' Szekely said. ``... But it has absolutely no mandate to deal with the sustainable management of the resource.''
Sally Spener, a spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the commission, argues that her agency is increasingly taking a more proactive role on water management issues, especially given the drought.
She points to language in recent agreements between the United States and Mexico in an ongoing fight over Mexico's water-sharing obligations under a 1944 treaty. The pacts, which called for transfers of water to the United States, also addressed water conservation and the commission's drought management role.
The pacts are amendments to a 1944 treaty stipulating that the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River. Mexico has not been meeting its commitment to send the 350,000 acre feet annually and now owes the United States 1.3 million acre feet.
Mexican officials have said their states simply don't have enough water to send. But Texas officials cite recent heavy rainfall and point to satellite images they say prove there is now enough water for Mexico to pay a sizable portion of its water debt.
The Texas fight shows the need for state-level cooperation on border water management, said Bill Hume, Richardson's director of policy and issues.
The question is whether it's feasible to get five governors to sit down and agree on an issue that already has produced bitter battles.
Hume acknowledged ``it would be naive to believe this would be easy.''
However, ``with the alternatives being litigation and hard feelings or negotiation and comprise, clearly it's worth seeing if we can have more of the latter,'' he said.
A complicating factor that has stalled previous efforts is a difference in governance between the United States and Mexico, said Marilyn O'Leary, head of the Utton Transboundary Resources Center. Water rights are governed at the state level in the United States but are a federal issue in Mexico, she said.
``So you haven't had a fit in terms of who talks about it or how it gets talked about,'' O'Leary said.
The Mexican and American federal governments would have to sign off on an agreement, which could take the form of an addendum to an existing water treaty, if it were to be binding, Hume said.
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