The Pecos River in New Mexico: Lessons for the Rio Grande (or Not?)

The Pecos River in New Mexico has a long and storied (and contentious) history extending over 100 years. Although small in flow volume, the Pecos embodies the management challenges faced on many larger western rivers, including: (1) interstate compact water delivery requirements, (2) junior groundwater pumping depleting downstream senior surface water supplies, (3) endangered species issues requiring substantial changes in water management practices, and (4) uncertain, but likely reduced, future water supplies due to climate change. Owing to its long history of legal, political, and hydrologic challenges, the Pecos is arguably the most administratively mature river in New Mexico. In the late 1980s, after losing to Texas in the U.S. Supreme Court over compliance with the 1948 Pecos Compact, New Mexico no longer had the option of under-delivering water to Texas. Out of contention comes innovation, and in 2003 the Pecos Settlement was entered between the Pecos Basin’s principal water management entities. Implemented in 2009 at a taxpayer cost of roughly $100 million, the settlement was intended to ensure New Mexico’s long-term compliance with the Pecos Compact, to result in an increased and more reliable water supply to senior surface-water irrigators, and help bring the Pecos Basin into hydrologic balance. The settlement’s implementation coincident with the onset of New Mexico’s drought of record made compliance with all of the settlement’s terms, and expectations, unachievable. Accordingly, the contention, while somewhat muted, continues. Unique hydrologic, economic, and political factors combined to allow creation and implementation of the Pecos Settlement. While imperfect, it has averted the catastrophe looming on the horizon. But are the lessons from the Pecos portable? Can aspects of the Pecos Settlement provide a model for looming scarcity issues on the Rio Grande’s main stem? Like all water management issues, “it’s complicated.”