Archived Water News Headlines | Transfers

The following news stories were published during 2003 and 2004. Since a few years have passed since publication, you may find some link decay when clicking a headline.

Instate Transfers

Colorado River Water Wars (Maryland National Sun - 8/17/03) - Thirsty California, desperate for water, is willing to pay reluctant farmers billions to get some of their surplus

Much more flow may be sent south - Plan envisions 27%
By FROM OAKLAND TRIBUNE STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS (August 9, 2003)

SAN DIEGO -- Up to 27 percent more water could flow from the Delta to Southern California under a draft plan hammered out last month over days of closed-door meetings in Napa. Environmentalists and others who were upset they were kept out of the talks said the proposal was a way for Southern California to make up its looming water losses from the Colorado River.

Interstate and International Transfers

Group discusses forming regional water authority (Silver City Daily Press, Mary Alice Murphy, 3/30/04) - A group of representatives from county and municipal governments in southwestern New Mexico met Monday to discuss forming a regional water authority to deal with 18,000 acre-feet of Gila River flow. Robert Scavron, attorney for the town of Silver City, directed by the mayor and council to research issues surrounding the Central Arizona Project water, gave a history of the allocation. Legislation passed by Congress in 1968 created CAP and addressed Colorado River water. It was recognized that although the river did not pass through New Mexico, two rivers, the San Francisco and the Gila, contributed to the flow of the Colorado. The drafters of the legislation provided that 18,000 acre-feet of Gila water could be diverted from the river annually and put to use in New Mexico. Two conditions were attached. First, an exchange had to be negotiated between New Mexico and an authorized downstream user, so the user would get water from another point of diversion from the Colorado to make up for the intercept of upstream water. Secondly, there must be no impairment in water flow to downstream users.

Mexican officials, farmers reject U.S. water commissioner’ s proposal (The Brownsville Herald, 3/19/04) - A proposal made by the commissioner of the U.S. sector of the International Boundary and Water Commission faces opposition from Tamaulipas lawmakers and Matamoros farmers. During his first trip to the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday, IBWC Commissioner Arturo Duran proposed that Mexico pay its one million acre-foot water debt to the United States in cash. “Water for water isn’t working,” said Duran, who suggested the two countries negotiate a dollar figure to assign to the debt. Gustavo Cardenas, who chairs the Mexican senate’s tourism committee, reacted angrily to the IBWC’s proposal, saying that both countries should abide by the international treaty and not involve monetary figures. The dispute stems from a 1944 treaty between the countries that requires Mexico to release at least 350,000 acre-feet of water into the Rio Grande per year from six Mexican tributaries. In exchange, the United States delivers 1.5 million-acre feet of water per year from the Colorado River. But during the 1992-1995 cycle, Mexico accumulated a 1,023,849 acre-foot deficit, according to documents from the IBWC.

ISC seeks water pact backing (The Daily Times, Farmington, New Mexico - 3/18/04) - The Interstate Stream Commission is trying to improve political support for the proposed Navajo Nation water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin. However, an executive session Wednesday may have violated state law, an open meetings advocate said. The 10-member commission went into executive session at 9:10 a.m. at the Farmington Civic Center. The agenda lists the closed door session ending at 11:10 a.m. Instead the commission remained in executive session through lunch and opened the doors at 1:30 p.m. The agenda says the executive session was for discussing “current and threatened litigation and the acquisition of real property and water rights,” without going into any further detail. That is a violation of the Open Meetings Act, said Bob Johnson, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation For Open Government in Albuquerque.

Return of Rio Grande water is unsatisfying (Las Cruces Sun News, 3/15/04) - What last week was the biggest sandbox in the area became a river once again Sunday as water released from Elephant Butte filled the dry bed of the Rio Grande just west of Las Cruces.

Water commission looking into getting agreement (Silver City Daily Press, Mary Alice Murphy, 2/24/2004) - Jack Hiatt, Grant County attorney, chaired an informal meeting to discuss and possibly sign a joint-powers agreement for a water commission, tentatively named the Gila-San Francisco Water Commission. The commission will represent entities interested in securing the approximate 18,000 acre-feet "of water supplies from the New Mexico allocation of water from the Central Arizona Project." Arizona Sen. Jon Kyle [sic, Kyl] has already introduced a bill, the Arizona Settlement Act, to claim the water for his state. Henry Torres, representing Grant County, chaired previous meetings to discuss the issue, but was out of town. The JPA draft reads that the agreement will be "by and between the San Francisco Water Commission and the counties of Grant, Hidalgo and Luna and the communities of Bayard, Deming, Hurley, Lordsburg, Santa Clara, and Silver City." The San Francisco Water Commission represents Catron County, the village of Reserve, and the Catron Soil and Conservation District. The draft JPA was written by John Utton, counsel to the Interstate Stream Commission. Hiatt, in consultation with Utton and Robert Scavron, attorney for Silver City, had "serious issues" with the document.

District Keeps Pecos Pact Alive (Argus - 8/15/03) - The Pecos River Compact requires New Mexico to send Texas its share of water from the Pecos River. If the state does not have enough water, it could shut down the river until it meets the compact requirements. Landowners in the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District exceeded the state’s goal in meeting a settlement that could avoid a shut down of the Pecos River by offering to sell the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission more than 18,900 acres with associated water rights, exceeding the state’s goal of 11,000 acres.

Calif., Nev. ask Ariz. for water (The Arizona Republic - 03/10/03) - California and Nevada want to claim up to 29 billion gallons of water stashed away in Arizona's aquifers, but officials here aren't sure they can honor the request, even though the other two states already own the water.