Gila Diversion Moves Forward

Interstate Stream Commission votes to tell feds they want to use water from wild Gila River

Officials are eyeing Gila River water for southwestern New Mexico. (Laura Paskus)

By Laura Paskus

Today in Albuquerque, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission voted in favor of building a project on the Gila River that will divert the river’s waters in southwestern New Mexico for potential use by homes, farms and businesses.

With only one commissioner, Blaine Sanchez, voting against the diversion alternative, the state will now notify the Secretary of the US Department of the Interior. Commissioner Topper Thorpe, who is also chairman of the Gila Basin Irrigation Commission, abstained from participating in the vote. 

Although Sanchez voiced an opposing vote, he said during the meeting he could have supported a diversion project, had there been more information available involving how it would be funded or who will pay for it.

Moments after the vote was taken, outgoing State Engineer Scott Verhines, secretary of the commission, read a message that the commission now plans to deliver to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

In 2004, Congress passed federal legislation allowing New Mexico ten years to decide if it would meet future water needs in four New Mexico counties through conservation and efficiency or by diverting water from the Gila and storing it in off-river channels. The federal government has set aside $66 million for the project already, pledging up to another $62 million if the state decided on a diversion project by the end of 2014.

The vote was a surprise to no one, as the commission's staff had already voiced support for diversion. Most recently, its lawyers convinced a judge to allow deliberations to continue despite a lawsuit alleging the commission's planning process violated the state Open Meetings Act.

The next step in the project is that New Mexico must produce engineering designs and get ready for an extensive federal review environmental review.

"New Mexico's financial options will remain open for years to come," reads a statement issued by Acting Interstate Stream Commission Director Amy Haas. "If New Mexico determines down the road that our options are overly costly or no longer feasible, we have the option to change course. Today's vote is not a commitment to a short term obligation; it is a commitment to the long term health of New Mexico as a whole."

As news of the decision circulated, however, advocacy groups began to sound off. The New Mexico Wildlife Federation calls the plan "harmful, wasteful and unnecessary."

"The project would construct a permanent diversion of the Gila River, one of the nation's few remaining free-flowing rivers, damaging important wildlife habitat and negatively affecting hunting and fishing in a region whose economy relies on sportsmen," reads a statement issued this afternoon.

Allyson Siwik, director of the Gila Conservation Coalition, says of the vote: "I think the Interstate Stream Commission has had its mind made up for 10 years," she said.

See more details about the decision in Wednesday's edition of SFR.

Santa Fe Reporter

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