Technical Resources on Stream Corridor Restoration

The Natural Resources Conservation Service Stream Corridor Team Workgroup has put together a collection of on-line resources on stream restoration. The site contains a wealth of information on this topic, including NRCS policy and guidance documents, useful links, publications, photographs and drawings of various practices and treatments, workshop information, and spreadsheet tools.

Check it out at: http://www.ndcsmc.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/Stream/

Climate change will cost New Mexico, especially if we don't reduce emissions

Our own Janie Chermak and Kristine Grimsrud, Professor and Assistant Professor, respectively, at the UNM Department of Economics, and Bob Doppelt, Director of Resource Innovations and the Climate Leadership Initiative at the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, published an Op-Ed in Sunday's Albuquerque Journal titled Climate Change Will Cost, No Matter What.

The article summarizes conclusions from a new study that estimated the costs of climate change to New Mexico.

If no action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is taken, the minimum annual cost to each New Mexico household is estimated to be $3,430 by 2020, $5,410 by 2040, and as high as $12,000 by 2080. The costs of climate change include the wide-ranging economic impacts that would result from decreased surface water flows.

The take-home message is that the longer we wait to confront the problem of climate change, the more costly climate change becomes to New Mexicans.

The full article is highly recommended.

Otero County to grow cattails in wastewater effluent for use as biofuel

The Otero County Commission voted on July 16, 2009, to provide $20,000 to a feasibility study on using cattails for biofuel. As part of the study, Sustainable Technology Systems, Inc., will grow test beds of cattails near the Alamagordo and Tularosa wastewater treatment facilities. According to the company's proposal, the feasibility study objectives are to:

• Confirm remediation of effluent in the growing beds through water testing samples
• Evaluate water and soil levels for optimum stalk growth
• Evaluate water and soil levels for optimum rhizome growth
• Confirm remediation of effluent in the growing tanks through water testing samples
• Standardize a data collection protocol for evaluating remediation

For more details on this project to use wastewater for energy crop development, see the article Cattails to fuel? in the Alamogordo Daily News, or the Otero County Commission's July 16th Agenda.

MRGCD Board election results

Unofficial results from yesterday's Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Board elections are in - challengers roundly beat out incumbents, bringing significant change to the board's composition. Here are the results:

BERNALILLO COUNTY DIRECTOR:

Bill Turner - 1,062 (37.73%)
Karen Dunning - 1,753 (62.27%)

BERNALILLO COUNTY DIRECTOR:

Adrian Oglesby - 1,609 (55.66%)
Jim Roberts - 1,282 (44.34%)

SOCORRO COUNTY DIRECTOR:

Cecilia Rosacker-McCord - 172 (24.68%)
Glen Duggins - 122 (17.50%)
Chris Sichler - 269 (38.59%)
Joe M. Lopez - 134 (19.23%)

SANDOVAL COUNTY DIRECTOR:

Jimmy W. Wagner - 491 (29.60%)
Derrick J. Lente - 1,168 (70.40%)

See today's article "County challengers win in MRGCD election" in the New Mexico Independent for more details.

Aquifer recharge projects catching on in water-strapped cities

On April 2, the NY Times featured an article focused on our own own Bear Canyon Arroyo Recharge Demonstration Project:

"For about a mile, a steady stream of water flows down Bear Canyon before finally petering out in the sand near a golf course. The arroyo is not supposed to be wet this time of year; the spring snowmelt does not usually occur until later in the season. But under a new demonstration program, local water managers are diverting water from the Rio Grande and sending it down the arroyo, where it seeps through the riverbed into the aquifer 500 feet below."

Click here to read the full article.

Hiring in Hydrology Resists Slump

Guest post by Dr. Bruce Thomson:

While the focus of this article is on hydrologists, I think it's a great time to be a water professional. Lots of REALLY interesting water challenges, though at the moment not enough money to address them properly. That'll change.

Remember - there are alternate sources of energy, carbon, most metals and other natural resources, but there is no substitute for water.

See "Hiring in Hydrology Resists Slump," by Eilene Zimmerman in the NY Times.