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2003 Most Endangered

Most Endangered Places in New Mexico 2003

The Waters of New Mexico, Statewide

Significance: From the first human?s entry into present New Mexico until now and into the infinite future, water has been and will be the primary determinant of where, how, and whether people will live. The earliest known structure in this State is a well made perhaps 10,000 years ago at Blackwater Draw, and is evidence of the profound human drive to take action with regard to water in order to live here. Human recognition of water as giver of life made it a cultural, as well as a natural resource. Blue Lake, Zuni Salt Lake, and other waters are held sacred by indigenous cultures. Water sources are focal points that both enable and limit human activity. Acequias?more than mere distribution systems, became human associations, cultural traditions, and the foundations of legal systems. The significance of water is evident in the locations and distribution of ancient habitation sites; road and trail routes; farms and field patterns; greenlines and tree rows; windmills and the cattle they support; and the locations of villages, towns, and cities. Water has become so completely a ?cultural? resource that many people now consider its natural sources mere utilities, forgetting their greater roles in shaping human activity and supporting the interlocking systems upon which all life depends.

Threat: The famous spring that gave Portales its name has been dried by wells into a crusty rock shelf. The Hope that named an Eddy County town is poignantly memorialized in dry ditches and dead orchards. The mighty Rio Grande, fourth longest river in North America, is sometimes dry less than half way to the sea. Institutions and legal systems that governed water use in earlier times have ceased to be effective, ignoring links between surface sources and aquifers and allowing water rights to exceed actual water. Public officials and private enterprise, focusing on short-term gain rather than sustainable possibilities, have not confronted the facts. Growing profligate uses threaten acequias, small farms, and other uses deeply rooted in heritage. As New Mexico prepares to address these problems, there is danger that a crassly utilitarian approach may reduce her waters to a simple element of economic production or a component of infrastructure. The true value of New Mexico?s waters can only be understood, and humane solutions found, within the context of her history and cultures.