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People pleading:
New Mexico State Government

HELP US
TAKE CARE OF
OUR WATER!

We respectfully demand that the New Mexico State Government prioritize Water. Our State Government must prioritize its protection of New Mexico’s water for us, our children, and future generations of New Mexicans.

This score card shows how much money the 2024 legislature has approved for each of the NM Water Ambassadors urgent priority funding needs listed in the left column. This report card will be updated as the FY25 state budget advances and bills are passed.

  • Photos from the January 2024 Water Dialogue Statewide Meeting
    “An Unprecedented Water Crisis: A Time to Act” 

Score Card

The columns across the top indicate the dollar amounts presented in the initial Governor’s budget, the Legislative Finance Committe’s budget, House Bill 2 (the main budget bill for FY2025), the Senate’s revisions to the budget and other money bills, followed by the Final Legislative Budget and the Final Governor’s Budget. The last column shows the money that is needed for the project, according to agencies or NM Water Ambassadors, who have studied each issue.  Additional information on each project can be found by clicking on the red flag in the top right corner of the project cell.

The cells in the report card are green, yellow, or red based on the dollar amount requested for a project versus the dollar amount the 2024 legislature actually appropriated not considering potential line item vetoes. 

Green = >67%

Yellow = 33% to 66%

Red = below 33%

R—recurring appropriations pay for additional agency staff

NR-non-recurring appropriations are for one-time expenditures, like drilling aquifer monitoring and research wells or cleaning up water data

Appropriations Request to the 2024 New Mexico Legislature to Secure Our Water Future

Click on the thumbnail to view the January 26th NM Ambassadors  consensus recommendation to the 2024 Legislature by the 20 NM Water Ambassadors that are not state government executives. The use of the Water Ambassadors logo above does not imply endorsement of this website, the score card, or the report card grades.

The editor is working with others to complete the report card.  It has proved impossible even for water agency executives to track real time through the 30-day legislative budget session.

Note 3/2/24. New color-coded table will be posted next week in replace of the January 24 version available by clicking the thumbnail above.

Score Card

The columns across the top indicate the dollar amounts presented in the initial Governor’s budget, the legislative finance committe’s budget, House Bill 2 (the main budget bill for FY2025), the Senate’s revisions to the budget and other money bills, followed by the Final Legislative Budget and the Final Governor’s Budget. The last column shows the money that is needed for the project, according to agencies or NM Water Ambassadors, who have studied each issue.  Additional information on each project can be found by clicking on the red flag in the top right corner of the project cell.

The cells in the report card will turn green, yellow, or red based on the dollar amount requested for a project versus the dollar amount funded by the 2024 legislature for each project. 

Green = >90%


Yellow = 50% to 90%


Red = below 50%

Water Ambassadors

Appropriations Request to the 2024 New Mexico Legislature to Secure Our Water Future

Click on the thumbnail to view the January 26th NM Ambassadors  consensus recommendation to the 2024 Legislature by the 20 NM Water Ambassadors that are not state government executives. The use of the Water Ambassadors logo above does not imply endorsement of this website, the score card, or the report card grades.

After the 2024 Legislature is over, a Water grade, green to red, will appear along the color grade each Legislator earns with their support or not of Water is Life! The Legislature, Legislative Leadership, the Governor, and the Executive are earning their grades now. The grades will show whether or not they get that Water is Life, without Water there is Nothing, and we are all in this urgent moment together.

Editorial Opinion

Editorial Policy

Funding and Purpose Statement:

Grassroots donations to the Water Advocates for New Mexico and the Middle Rio Grande funded the creation of this non-partisan website. We and our allies seek to hold the Legislative and Executive branches of NM State Government accountable to fulfill the State’s constitutional duty and be a good steward of New Mexico’s precious water, in order to provide for the public health, safety, and welfare of all.

Ownership and Transparency Statement:

The Water Advocates for New Mexico and the Middle Rio Grande own this website and are responsible for its content pending appointment of an editorial board including NM Water Ambassadors that volunteer as individuals. The Water Advocates are dedicated to full transparency and attribution for all supporting donations and website content, and seek to transfer control of the website to a diverse editorial board of statewide volunteers.

Fair, Fair, Legal, Nonpartisan

Water in New Mexico transcends partisan lines, as demonstrated by the unanimous passage of the 2023 Water Security Planning Act. This Act underscores the importance of collaboration and integrity in water planning, ensuring a nonpartisan approach to safeguarding water resources for all.

Funding Water Data is Essential

The 2023 Water Security Planning Act mandates high-quality data as the cornerstone of water planning. It compels state funding decision-makers to prioritize the comprehensive needs for water data funding, emphasizing the role of good data in developing effective water management strategies.

Objectivity, Professionalism, Honesty, Transparency, Integrity

Aligned with the Act’s requirements, this website commits to maintaining high standards of data quality and scientific integrity. Our advocacy for water security is grounded in principles of honesty, objectivity, and transparency, aiming to support informed decision-making and sustainable water management efforts.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License:

All content featured on this website is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are granted the freedom to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as adapt, remix, and build upon it for any purpose, including commercial endeavors. The only requirement is that you provide appropriate credit, include a link to the license, and indicate if any modifications were made. This attribution should be done in a manner that does not imply endorsement by the original licensor. There are no additional restrictions beyond these terms. For a detailed version of the license, please refer to the link to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. We extend our gratitude to the contributors who have enriched this platform, and their attributions can be found below. If you have inquiries about content usage or wish to contribute, feel free to reach out to us at info@h2oreportcardnmgov.com.

Phil King, Ph.D., P.E., New Mexico water professor (ret.), NM Water Ambassador, special technical advisor to the OSE/ISC, consulting engineer, and contributing author Climate Change in New Mexico Over the Next 50 Years: Impacts on Water Resources

Produced by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, winner of a prestigious national award by the Bureau of Geology’s peers.

Slightly edited from a verbatim transcript of Dr. King’s presentation at the Water Advocates 3rd Thursday evening workshop held January 18, 2024.  The video recording is available at nmwateradvocates.org

“We are confronted by an insurmountable opportunity.” – Walt Kelly (attributed)

“We have been keenly aware of the detrimental anthropocentric influence since the industrial revolution for at least 40 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been issuing scientifically backed dire reports for 34 years now. We actually had IPCC scientists threatening to go and strike because their work was being so roundly ignored by policy makers and governments around the world. So, it’s not like we didn’t know. Our response has been abysmal and continues to be abysmal.”

“If you’ve got an asteroid headed for the Earth and you intercept it out at Neptune’s orbit, if you just breathe on it hard, it’ll miss the earth by tens of thousands of kilometers. If you intercept it inside Mars’s orbit, you’ve got to set off a nuclear bomb. If you intercept it inside the moon’s orbit, you’re done. We’re probably somewhere in the asteroid belt about now, but action is critical. The earlier we act, the greater the effect will be. We need to do this with proper scientific foundations in parallel with this principled regional water planning. In fact, the scientific investigations can very much support and interact with the regional planning process. And we’ve got to develop consensus on shared community vision.”

“What we are looking at now is not cyclical. There will still be a cycle, but the climate change we’re talking about is a downward trend. Our upward trend is our temperature, while a downward trend persists in our water supply. Since we have failed as a species at mitigation, this is already a full-blown crisis. Adaptation is the best we can do.”

“However, even in the most optimistic scenario, there is catastrophic climate change that calls for immediate mitigation. That 1% increase of Evapotranspiration (ET) is not at all out of the question. 1% increase in ET leads to a 29% reduction in runoff and recharge. If you crank that ET increase up to 3.5% the percent decrease is 100%. We may find the way we come out of this drought is not by getting more water into the system. It’s bringing our average and our median down. Basically, lowering our standards for what constitutes a usable water supply.”

“We’re such a diverse state, there is no such thing as one size fits all. Not by a long shot. We’re going to have to develop local, administrative schemes in this more permanently arid environment. State water planning must integrate local planning into some sort of a coherent whole. But the real priority is finding what works at the local level.”

Take Action

  • Familiarize yourself with water planning recommendations and needs. Read news and updates on this site and visit mrgwateradvocates.org for the latest information on water planning actions and related issues.
  • Contact your legislators. We have made it easy for you to contact your legislators with a pre-written letter; all you need to do is find your legislators, customize the letter with your information, and mail it to the NM Capitol or send it via email (preferred.) 

Please follow the instructions below. Thank you for taking the time to tell your legislators that Water is a Priority. Let’s ensure the NM Legislature funds Water in 2024. 

  • Please find your legislators HERE. (Name and/or email addresses)
  • Open our pre-written letter HERE. (One letter with a two-page attachment)
  • In the top menu, select FILE and MAKE A COPY to customize (or copy the text into your preferred editor)
  • Please customize with your address, email, legislator name, and any personal comments at the end of the letter. 
  • Copy the content of your letter into the body of an email and send (PREFERRED METHOD)
  • OR Save, Print, and Mail your letter to your legislators.

BE SURE TO WRITE A LETTER TO BOTH YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR.

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Fueled by the collaborative spirit of New Mexicans, for New Mexicans. Initiated by the Water Advocates for New Mexico and the Middle Rio Grande in collaboration with New Mexico Water Allies.