Increasing pressures on Colorado River water in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state.

But Colorado River and reservoir management was designed during a much wetter period.

And now, water officials are grappling with how to make do with less.

State Engineer Mike Hamman, New Mexico’s top water manager, said the state “really feels the shortages” because it doesn’t have the big reservoirs of other states in the Colorado River Basin.

“That’s the dilemma — looking at how we can reduce demand with as soft a blow as possible,” Hamman said.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton this year tasked Colorado River states with creating an ambitious conservation plan.

Touton said the states need to conserve an additional 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water next year to protect levels at Lake Powell in Arizona and Utah and Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona.

A basinwide conservation plan had not materialized by the mid-August deadline.

Nevada, Arizona and Mexico will all receive less water from the Colorado River next year because of rapidly-declining reservoirs, the Interior Department announced on Aug. 16.

Interior officials did not issue any mandatory water cuts for New Mexico.

But the state’s existing water conservation programs could be under increased scrutiny.

The Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming did release a five-point plan this summer that points to the region’s “limited” conservation options.

For two years, the states have released additional water from at least three reservoirs — including New Mexico’s Navajo Reservoir — to prop up Lake Powell levels.

Those Upper...