Bill aims to overhaul stream commission
Measure’s goal is reduce politics, increase diversity of 9-member board
When the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission ended work on the Gila River diversion in 2020, it was a complete about-face.
The previous commission had spent years and $16 million for plans to divert the river for southwest New Mexico farmers.
Senate Bill 212 would amend the makeup of the nine-member body that oversees interstate water compacts.
Sen. Majority Leader Peter Wirth, a Santa Fe Democrat and the bill sponsor, said the ISC’s duty to craft a long-term water plan calls for a commission that represents different political affiliations and state regions and avoids the “political pendulum swing” of changing administrations.
“The ISC is no longer just about enforcing compact rights and legal issues. It also has a really important policy purpose,” Wirth told the Journal. “When we’re asking this body to put together a water plan ... that protects the ‘diverse customs, culture, environment and economic stability of the state,’ as the statute says, a diversity of appointments on the board makes sense.”
The bill has cleared two Senate committees and now moves to the full Senate.
The governor currently appoints eight commissioners, and the state engineer serves as the ninth. Members must represent “major irrigation districts or sections,” with no two from the same district or section.
SB 212 would require Senate approval of those appointments.
No more than five members could be from the same political party. The legislation would mandate at least one commissioner be a member of a New Mexico tribe or pueblo.
The commission would include the state engineer, four representatives of irrigation districts, one representative of an acequia or community ditch, one person from a drinking water utility, one member of the state water resources research institute or a New Mexico State University or University of New Mexico engineering faculty member, and one New Mexico Tech hydrogeologist or other engineer.
The bill would also limit how many members can be from the same congressional district.
ISC director Rolf Schmidt-Petersen said the “layers of requirements,” including a 10-year minimum of New Mexico water experience, are too restrictive.
“The ISC as it exists today is probably some of the most highly-qualified individuals in water in the Southwest,” he told lawmakers at a Senate Conservation Committee, adding that Commissioner Tanya Trujillo just left for a top water job in the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Four current commissioners would not qualify if all the bill’s measures passed, Schmidt-Petersen said. The bill was amended so that the current commission members could finish their terms.
“Water policy is too important for our state, and we don’t want to have wild swings in water policy based on politics,” Wirth said.
The Legislature has debated versions of the ISC bill since 2015. A similar bill cleared the House and Senate in 2019, and would have divided appointments between the governor and the legislative council. That bill was pocket-vetoed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Do you have a question for the Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent finalists? APS has launched an online form for students, parents, staff and others to submit their Qs. You can find it at APS.edu. The four finalists will be addressing some of the community’s topics at upcoming virtual forums.
People are being asked to submit their form by Monday at 5 p.m.
WEIGHT OF WORDS:
The district had been grappling with bringing students back on to campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic and, earlier this month, during an hourslong discussion on school reopenings, Board of Education member Peggy Muller-Aragón rallied for in-person learning to begin.
At one point, when she was talking about students failing to have their needs met, she said, “the ramifications to these children are going to last a generation. I mean, we just cannot commit ‘educational genocide’ on any of our kids.”
Asked about her choice of words, Muller-Aragón told the Journal, “I don’t know if I should have said it in a different way.” “I think a lot of people put ‘genocide’ with what happened in the Holocaust, which is a horrible genocide of a whole group, a whole ethnicity and so that is how people think of it, but what I’m talking about is the decimation of children’s education,” she said.
She stressed that she is seeing kids who are suffering academically, mentally and emotionally, but she said, “who knows, maybe there could have been a better term and ‘decimation’ could have been a better term, but (genocide) is what I used and you can’t unsay something that you said and people can’t unhear it.”
SCHOLARSHIP OPEN: The Arc of
New Mexico has a scholarship opportunity for New Mexicans with intellectual and developmental disabilities to help boost higher education, especially for those pursuing special services and occupational training.
Eligibility requirements and the application can be found at Arcnm.org. The deadline is March 1.
APS CLOSES ON BUS DEPOT: In November, APS closed on a deal to buy a building and land on Osuna Road for $11.7 million, money generated through a mill levy and bonds. Formerly used by Wagner Equipment Co., the depot will be used as a hub for school buses, allowing the district to move out of leased locations.
APS officials said that will save the district some $700,000 annually. It was a long time coming as the district has been waiting for this 127,290-square-foot building for about five years, standing by for Wagner to move out. Additional transportation hubs are also in the works.