Brackish water information resources

Recently, I've been trying to get a grasp on the many issues surrounding the drilling and potential uses for brackish water in Albuquerque and around the state. After reading some great pieces I decided to compile a list of recent resources available on the subject:

Joan Price has a recent piece in the Alamogordo Daily News about the Desalination issues swirl around Otero County. Of the 550,000 applications giving notice to deep, non-potable groundwaters, Price says:

"These include two permits in Otero County, one in the far southeast just north of Dell City, Texas, and one in the far southwest, northeast of Chaparral, Fort Bliss and El Paso, for 15,000 acre feet each per year, enough for 30,000 households per year... The permit applications include other potential uses(besides municipal water use) such as irrigation, mining, oil and gas development and geothermal."

David Alire Garcia of the New Mexico Independent and NM In Focus had a great article and video last month speaking with John Fleck of the Journal as well as state engineer John D'Antonio:

"Overlooking California-based SunCal Companies’ large track of land, Fleck and I talked about the new push to give State Engineer John D’Antonio jurisdiction over an estimated 15 billion acre-feet of brackish water believed to be deep under New Mexicans’ feet. That’s a ton of water, but it won’t last. Once it’s pumped, it’s done — no recharge from snowpack melt or other precipitation can get that far down."

Fleck also had a great piece about managing brackish water and growth:

"I've written in the past, with all the energy I can muster, about the importance of putting regulatory mechanisms in place to ensure a rational approach to our use of reservoirs of brackish water lying beneath a vast swath west of Albuquerque. (See, for example, Flaw in Law Drives Water Rush.)

I think UNM's water resources chair Bruce Thomson is making a critical point (and doing with more energy than I've mustered) when he says that the lack of regulation in the management and use of this water "is approaching a crisis.""

Last November, Bruce Thompson of the UNM Water Resources Program had a great editorial in the Abq. Journal warning that brackish water can't sustain New Mexico:

"It was recently estimated that the deep brackish ground water resources in Sandoval county will support a population of 300,000 for 100 years. What happens then? Do proponents of this development think that the demand for water elsewhere in the state will have decreased so that other water sources will be available? That the cities of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Rio Rancho won't have also grown? That irrigated agriculture will no longer need river water for crops? Or perhaps that scientists and engineers will develop magic technologies to create water from nothing using only renewable energy sources?...

Where do we go from here? First, we need to establish a dialogue that includes water managers, the development community, water scientists and engineers, and the public regarding the management of these resources.

More immediately, the Legislature needs to give the state engineer authority over all water resources in the state, including deep brackish ground waters. Responsible planning cannot proceed without it."

Here's a link to the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo.