In water we trust
Government agencies and the corporate interests they represent have a history of creating problems so they can sell the solution. They helped create the drought apocalypse in the West by issuing permits for excessive pumping of aquifers, overgrazing of grasslands, the clear-cutting of public forests, and starting catastrophic wildfires from their “controlled burns.” Developers, industrialists and huge corporations exert relentless pressure on government officials in order to reap enormous profits from the exploitation of natural and human communities. Every devastated watershed, overgrazed rangeland, polluted river and threatened species represents the failure of our elected officials to do their sworn duty — to protect the Earth’s resources held in trust for future generations from damage and privatization.
With the Abeyta Settlement and the proposed deep aquifer wells, the government is once again selling us all a solution, but is it in the best interest of the people and the ecosysytems of the Taos Valley?
When the water quality of the deep aquifer was tested by Glorieta Geosciences in 2004, they found that much of the deep aquifer had levels of arsenic and fluoride that are not safe for humans, livestock, soils or our streams. The deep aquifer is fossil water that lies below the elevation of the Rio Grande and is considered non-tributary water — not connected to a surface stream. Tributary water in the Taos Valley represents the surface streams and shallow aquifers that eventually join the waters of the Rio Grande. Tributary and nontributary water are very different, both legally and in terms of their chemistry.
All tributary waters in New Mexico are protected. The laws governing the extraction of non-tributary water are not clearly defined. Ask any water lawyer to define non-tributary water law. They can’t. The nebulous laws governing non-tributary water are cause for concern, but there are more serious concerns.
The water quality of the deep non-tributary water is very different in its suitability for human consumption and for agriculture. When asked by a concerned acequia member whether it is safe to irrigate with deep ground water, a senior geologist from N.M. Bureau of Mines said ‘no.’ Once heavy metals like arsenic and fluoride end up in the soils, they can never be removed. In addition to being added to the acequia systems, the plan for proposed deep wells is to pump a portion of the untreated water into our streams. This would have devastating consequences for the delicate stream ecologies.
You might ask, can’t they just filter this potentially toxic water? The answer is no. The cost of a reverse osmosis treatment plant to treat the water from just one of the numerous mitigation wells would run about $100 million and cost $1 million to operate. There is no plan to treat the deep well water. The good news is, there is a rapidly growing recognition that humans can be a positive force on the planet. Numerous examples of community driven solutions are appearing in every country, with powerful results for humans and nature.
The science of soil and watershed restoration is very clear. The best place to store water is in the soil. Drilling deeper wells is not the answer — it never will be! The answer that the government agencies refuse to acknowledge is literally beneath our feat. David Johnson, a senior research scientist at Chico State, states that every 1-percent increase in soil carbon amounts to an additional 25,000 gallons of water storing capacity per acre. In desert soils, this represents a fourfold increase in soil moisture. Holistic land management can achieve a 1-percent increase in soil carbon every few years or, in some cases, every year. Improved soil carbon and fertility translates into greater productivity, less runoff, reduced evaporation rates, and improved recharge of aquifers. Additionally, every 1-percent increase in soil carbon amounts to the sequestration of 37 tons or 74,000 pounds of C02 per acre. Through soil and landscape restoration, we can not only stop desertification, we can begin to reverse it and, simultaneously, help mitigate climate change.
Watershed renewal, soil restoration, acequia engagement and local agriculture build community resilience, create meaningful work, generate community income and help heal our relationship to the land, water and each other. Future generations will not be paying the debts for our mistakes, but reaping the dividends of land stewardship. Our precious underground aquifer is a collective resource. If we are wise, we will only live off the interest — not squander away the principal with nothing left to give our children or the land community.