Susan Morée talks to Gretel Follingstad, senior manager in the Climate Resilient Water Systems Program for the Environmental Defense Fund and one of the lead writers and researchers on the New Mexico 360 Groundwater Report. Here is a transcript of the first of their two-part conversation.
Susan Morée:
Were there any findings that surprised you or that you found to be particularly concerning?
Gretel Follingstad:
I think the most important component around the report is that when we look deep into what's happening due to climate change in New Mexico, we understand that New Mexico's water resources are declining due to climate change. The aridification due to increased heat is consuming a lot of the historic water supply that the state has used over the past millennia. And what that means is that our surface water size is diminishing because there's less snowpack, which means there's less runoff into our rivers and streams and less precipitation across our landscape. This means that our aquifers are also receiving less recharge and less infiltration. And all of this equates to the 25% to 30% less water supply that the state is facing by 2050. And what that means is that we need to manage what we do have better so that we can best adapt to these changing conditions.
Susan Morée:
And what happens in 2050? Can you talk about that?
Gretel Follingstad:
The projections for 2050 is that our water supplies and our snow pack will be significantly less because of increasing temperatures. And that means is that our reservoirs will have less water in them because our streams will be flowing with less water. And that stored water will become much more scarce, which requires more efficiency. There will also be wet years as we move forward in time. And if we're actively managing our water based on supply and the hydrology that is occurring, then we won't end up in a place of peril which would be where we don't have enough water in our aquifers to sustain our communities, our economies, and our environment.
Susan Morée:
One thing that I noticed in looking at the report was that Doña Ana County in particular was, literally, in the red. Can you talk about that and how southwest New Mexico, in particular, could be impacted by these water shortages?
Gretel Follingstad:
Doña Ana County is in the red, and part of that is because you have one of our biggest cities in the state, and you have a large economy that is supported by agriculture. The Lower Rio Grande Groundwater Basin is actually one of the examples within the report of active groundwater management in a very information-rich or data-rich area of the state. And while it is in red, it is also one of the areas, partially because it's in red, where we are actually managing our groundwater resources very acutely. And part of the reason why that is, is because of the Rio Grande Compact and the Supreme Court settlement agreements for Texas v. New Mexico. This is one of the things that Doña Ana County can be very proud of because it serves as, in some ways, a blueprint of where you have good aquifer characterization and understanding of the supplies of the aquifer and the variation and the changes in that supply, either because of use, which is metered, so you understand what's being drawn out of the aquifer, as well as infiltration or recharge for when there are wet years and water is recharging those groundwater levels. So that monitoring and management framework that is already taking place in the Lower Rio Grande and Doña Ana County serves as an example of what statewide groundwater monitoring and management could look like for each of the basins across the state. So yes, you are in the red. However, you are also managing those supplies diligently based on data.
Susan Morée:
One thing I noticed was that the report also focuses on water quality. Can you talk a little bit about that and concerns or issues of things like so-called forever chemicals and other environmental impacts on the water supply in New Mexico?
Gretel Follingstad:
So New Mexico has very interesting, beautiful, and complicated geologies, and that means that our hydrogeologies are also equally complex. So, we have naturally occurring contaminants in some of our aquifers that need to be treated in order to create safe drinking water. And so, we talk about some of those occurrences across our aquifers of the state. And in addition to that, we have other areas where we have large industrial uses and runoff from some of those industrial uses that can leak into or infiltrate in when you have precipitation events into our aquifers, especially the shallow aquifers. And some of the chemicals involved in some of those industries end up in the water supply and need to be treated. And those water supplies need to be treated in order to create safe groundwater supplies for communities in particular. And we cite this because there are also many, many, many domestic wells across the state. And domestic wells are a small water use, but there are a large proliferation of them, hundreds of thousands of them in across the state. And not every domestic well is being monitored for the water quality because that's on the domestic well owner to do so. And so knowing that there are both, you know, chemicals that can be naturally occurring in your groundwater resources, but also chemicals that can occur or infiltrate into your aquifer and into the water that should be treated out or filtered out, depending on what they are. We wanted to raise awareness of this water quality component of New Mexico's groundwater. So, it's not just about how much water is actually in the aquifer. It's about what is the quality of the water.
Susan Morée:
You know, climate change is very scary and the potential of aridification also feels very frightening. Is there any hope?
Gretel Follingstad:
Yeah, climate change is a very big problem, right? It's a global problem. The sources of climate change and climate data are complicated and hard to understand sometimes. I think one of the most important things to understand about aridification for New Mexico and that impact of increasing temperatures globally is that it requires a very pointed and acute and localized strategy on what it means for our land and water resources. And so climate change can have impacts on land resources, such as wildfires or long term droughts, or when precipitation comes, it comes in patterns that are much stronger or less. And sometimes that precipitation then is less available because you have a flooding event versus a gentle rain or snow pack that can slow the flow, if you will, so that it ends up in our aquifers and in our reservoirs. And what we can do about that is adapt our systems, adapt our infrastructure, adapt our land uses so that we are mitigating these impacts and safeguarding our communities, and in particular for New Mexico, our water resources. And one of the best ways that we can do that is by active groundwater resource management that is at the local scale. When you have localized groundwater management, then you're really looking at that basin and the hydrology and the hydrogeology of each basin to understand the dynamics of what's happening with that water. So, New Mexico has many shallow aquifers and alluvial aquifers that are connected closer to the surface and connected to our stream systems. And those aquifers are going to behave a lot differently than deep aquifers, which are usually called confined aquifers, where infiltration into confined aquifers is very, very slow. And so, using the water resources from these really deep, deep aquifers generally is considered more mining of that water versus a sustainable use of groundwater because there really isn't any surplus or deposits, if you will, into those aquifers. So, when you take it out, you're, for all intents and purposes, taking most of it out forever. And so, figuring out what is the character of the aquifer? What is the quality of the water? What is the longevity of that supply? And what is the best way to plan for that level of supply so that we're not depleting these aquifers for our future generations, but that we are conserving and responsibly using that water so that our economies and our communities for future generations still have that resource.
To read the report: https://www.edf.org/media/new-report-groundwater-details-data-gaps-opportunities-protect-critical-water-supply-new
