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Water Availability and Usage on the New Mexico/Mexico Border

Posted on: Saturday, 15 October 2005, 03:01 CDT

By Li, Yongmei; Arnold, Stephen D; Kozel, Charles; Forster-Cox, Sue

Abstract

New Mexico, one of four states on the U.S./Mexico border, is faced with a pressing concern-lack of water. Since the region is either arid or semiarid, it is chronically short of continually available surface-water resources. Groundwater resources are used beyond their capacity to be naturally recharged, and most surface- water resources are used to the maximum. The quality of groundwater varies widely. As a result of nonpoint- and point-source contamination, as well as natural occurrence, water in some areas is too salty or has high levels of natural uranium, fluoride, or arsenic. To date, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has recognized 1,400 cases of groundwater contamination, and 1,907 water supply wells have been affected (NMED, 2001a). Of approximately 4,000 miles of continuously flowing rivers and streams in New Mexico, 92 percent are affected by nonpoint sources of pollution (NMED, 2001b). Numerous critical water issues exist along the New Mexico/Mexico border as a result of the impending critical issue of water availability, usage, and quality, as well as the fast-growing population. Related public health problems along the New Mexico/ Mexico border are indicative of the need for a holistic, concrete, and sustainable solution to meet water demands in New Mexico. In order to accomplish the goals and objectives of Border XXI, Healthy People 2010, and Healthy Border 2010, a comprehensive statewide water management plan is needed. Solutions to the water demands of the region will be addressed in a subsequent manuscript.

Introduction

New Mexico is one of four U.S. states that share a border with Mexico. The other states are California, Arizona, and Texas. Population along the U.S./Mexico border is increasing exponentially. Population growth of 50 percent along the border by 2020 is, short of war, natural disaster, or some incredible unforeseen change in patterns of birth and death, a certainty (Peach & Williams, 20Of). The border population could grow from about 10.6 million in 1995 to more than 24 million by 2020. On the Mexico side of the border, population could grow from 4.8 million to almost 13.5 million, with today's metropolitan areas becoming very large cities (Peach & Williams, 2001). The population growth rate is 35 percent along the U.S./Mexico border, in contrast with 10 percent in other parts of the United States. Rising temperatures, an arid climate, and economic and social development add to demands on water supplies. As a result, there is an increasing need to explore the availability and usage of water for current and projected needs.

Sources of Water in New Mexico

Ground-water

Groundwater is a highly significant part of water resources in New Mexico. Approximately 90 percent of the population depends on groundwater for its drinking water, and nearly one half of the total water used for all purposes in the state is groundwater. In addition, in many locations, groundwater is the only available water supply (NMED, 200Ia). The magnitude of groundwater supplies in the state is estimated to be 20 billion acrefeet. Out of this amount, an estimated three billion acre-feet of fresh water and 1.4 billion acre-feet of slightly salinated water are recoverable (NMED, 200Ob). In some areas with significant ground water use, groundwater levels have already declined because of withdrawal rates in excess of recharge rates.

FIGURE 1

Groundwater Use in New Mexico

New Mexico's hydrogeology is highly variable and complex, and the availability of groundwater also varies from place to place. Sedimentary deposits (mainly sandstone, limestone, or unconsolidated sand and gravel) are the most productive aquifers. Valley-fill aquifers of major importance occur along the Rio Grande, the Rio Chama, the San Juan, and the Pecos rivers. These aquifers are typically less than 200 feet thick and commonly provide water containing less than 1,000 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids. A major basin-fill aquifer occurs in the Rio Grande Valley, where basin-fill deposits attain thickness up to 20,000 feet. This aquifer provides the source of water for Albuquerque and is a partial source for Santa Fe (NMED, 200Ob). The Rio Grande Basin is bounded along the eastern side by mountains. Total mountainfront recharge along the eastern side of the Middle Rio Grande Basin has been estimated to be about 11,000 acre-feet per year by the chloride- balance method and about 36,000 and 38,000 acre-feet per year by two wateryield regression equations. Mountain-front recharge ranges from 0.7 to 15 percent of total annual precipitation in the sub-areas (Anderholm, 2000). At present, groundwater in the Rio Grande aquifer is rapidly dwindling.

Other aquifer systems include the Roswell Basin aquifer system, which extends through an area of about 12,000 square miles in southeastern New Mexico; the Pecos River Basin alluvial aquifer system, which yields large quantities of water mostly to irrigation wells; the Ogallala aquifer, which includes Clovis and Portales; and the Mimbres Basin near Deming, in the southern part of the state (U.S. Geological Survey, 2001).

Approximately 2,500 public-supply water wells serve 97,000 New Mexico households, while approximately 266,000 individual New Mexico residents are served by privately owned individual wells (National Ground Water Association, 2001).

Another important groundwater source is the Hueco Bolson, from which both El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico, pump water. This aquifer essentially is not being recharged, and at current rates of pumping, water shortages will soon become a problem, perhaps within the next 30 years (Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, 2000). The Mesilla Bolson is a deep aquifer that extends down the entire length of the Mesilla Valley. It serves as a source of municipal and industrial water to Las Cruces, New Mexico, which has only enough water resources from the Mesilla Bolson for the next 20 years (Jackson, 2001).

Apart from the problem of quantity, the quality of groundwater is also a public health concern. In some groundwater basins of this sparsely populated state, such as the Northwest Chihuahua Basin, no water quality sampling or monitoring has been done.

Surface Water

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has issued a preliminary estimate of 110,741 total miles of rivers, streams, ditches, and canals in New Mexico. Of the total, 8,682 miles are classified as perennial, 99,332 miles as intermittent, and 2,727 miles as ditches or canals. The state of New Mexico has identified approximately 175 publicly accessible freshwater lakes and reservoirs, approximately 50 of which have over 200 acres of surface area. According to U.S. EPAs preliminary estimate, New Mexico has a total of 1,256 lakes (NMED, 200Ob). The state has 11 water quality basins, and its surface waters include headwater portions of three of the nations principal drainage systems: Drainage from the San Juan River Basin and the Lower Colorado River Basin contributes to the Colorado River; drainage from the Arkansas-White-Red River Basin contributes to the Mississippi River; and the three Rio Grande basins and the Pecos River Basin contribute discharge to the Gulf of Mexico. Other streams in the state are in topographically closed basins and drain internally.

New Mexico's total annual stream flow averages over 5.7 million acre-feet, to which precipitation falling within the state boundaries contributes 3.3 million acre-feet. Other states, principally Colorado via the Rio Grande and the San Juan River, contribute the rest. Downstream areas outside of New Mexico receive 3.6 million acre-feet from New Mexico (NMED, 200Ob).

Beginning in Colorado, the Rio Grande flows through New Mexico, marks the border of Texas, and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, providing drinking water along the way for over 13 million people. It is the fifth longest river in North America, and along with its tributaries, it serves as the TexasMexico region's main source of water. By the time it reaches the sea, however, it has been reduced to a trickle, compared with pre-1962 average flows of almost 2.4 million acre-feet per year. It has been overexploited to provide a year-round supply of water for agriculture, industry, and the border's growing municipalities. On the U.S. side, the river is already over-appropriated: Allocated water rights exceed the amount of water available (Kelly, Solis, & Kourous, 2001). In many places, the river channel is steadily narrowing and deepening; it is unable to mobilize and move its sediments. At present, the environmental condition of the Rio Grande is a state of drought. A relatively fixed amount of its water is available to supply 200,000 acres of farms and about 1,000,000 human residents.

According to the Middle Rio Grande Water Supply study, water supplies in the greater Albuquerque area are barely adequate to meet current demands in the middle Rio Grande Region (S.S. Papadopoulos & Associates, Inc., 2000). This tenuous water supply has existed for some time, despite the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's trans-basin diversion, known as the San Juan/\Chama Project. Since 1971, the project has diverted surface water through a series of pipelines from the Colorado River Basin into the Rio Grande Basin. Tunnels dug under the mountain run the water into northern New Mexico reservoir for storage. It is kept for future municipal and industrial use, and to supplement existing agricultural demands in the Rio Grande Basin.

The Ute Reservoir of the Arkansas River basin, as well as the Costilla reservoir, the Nambe Falls reservoir, and Bluewater Lake in the Rio Grande Basin, contribute to surface-water supply in New Mexico. Most major reservoirs in the state serve multiple purposes, although they are designed primarily for irrigation and flood control. The water supply is highly variable, because of the high variability in Otowi inflow and the high variability in evaporation from all reservoirs, including Elephant Butte reservoir, which provides water for New Mexico users, water for Texas users in El Paso and Hudspeth counties, and 60,000 acre-feet per year to Mexico (Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, 2000).

Annual Amount of Recharge from Precipitation

The climate of New Mexico is arid or semiarid. Average annual precipitation ranges from less than 8 inches in desert valleys to over 30 inches in the mountains. Statewide, the annual average precipitation is much less than the amount lost to evaporation from open water surfaces (NMED, 200Ob).

Water Usage in New Mexico-Current and Projected

New Mexico is a desert state and the third most arid state in the nation, with only 234 square miles of open water (lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams). Agriculture accounts for over 75 percent of the statewide total water usage. At current growth and consumption rates, the water supply for many border communities is expected to be exhausted in 20 to 30 years, and New Mexico is no exception.

With Current Population

The current population of New Mexico is approximately 1.8 million. Water users in New Mexico are dependent on both surface- water and groundwater supplies. In 1990, surface- and groundwater withdrawals totaled 4.2 million acre-feet. Depletions (that portion of withdrawals permanently removed from the water supply) amounted to almost 2.6 million acre-feet. Agriculture, excluding reservoir and stock pond evaporation, accounted for 3.4 million acre-feet (80 percent) of withdrawn water and just less than two million acre- feet (75 percent) of the depletion. Public and private water supply wells extracted 0.3 million acre-feet, accounting for only 8 percent of total withdrawals. Groundwater represented 89 percent of the public and private water withdrawals and of agricultural withdrawals (NMED, 200Ia).

TABLE 1

New Mexico Water Use

Irrigation consumes by far the most ground-water, about 75 percent, or 1,280 mega-gallons (Mgal) per day, which is higher than the national level of 64 percent (National Ground Water Association, 2001; U.S. Geological Survey, 2001). As indicated by the chart in Figure 1, irrigation consumes by far the most groundwater, about 75 percent, or 1,280 Mgal/day, which is higher than the national level of 64 percent (U.S. Geological Survey, 2001). This has led to indiscriminate mining of limited groundwater supplies, especially on the High Plains of New Mexico, where practically all irrigation water comes from wells. This overuse has produced rapidly falling water tables in the state, as well as in neighboring states.

The second largest use of groundwater is for public supply, 277 Mgal/day, which has increased from 241 Mgal/day in 1990 (U.S. Geological Survey, 2001). Some areas of New Mexico are beginning to recognize the challenges of limited water supplies and have adopted a water conservation policy. One example is Albuquerque, which has a goal of reducing water use throughout the city by 30 percent. Albuquerque's per capita usage is 204 gallons per day, down from a previous 250 gallons per day.

The relationship between total water use and groundwater use in New Mexico is shown in Table 1. This table indicates the same result- that the largest water user is agriculture. While livestock, industry, and power account for only a small percentage of total water withdrawals, they depend so much on groundwater that they cause very high percentages of groundwater depletion. Depletion is that part of withdrawal that has been evaporated, transpired, or incorporated into crops or products; consumed by people or livestock; or otherwise removed from the water environment. It also includes the portion of groundwater recharge resulting from seepage or deep percolation (in connection with a water use) that is not economically recoverable in a reasonable number of years, or is not usable (Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments, 2001). If the considerable total groundwater depletion of 72.76 percent continues, it will pose a large threat to the already strained groundwater supply in the state.

Both groundwater and surface water are utilized for drinking water, whose quantity and quality are closely connected with public health. New Mexico currently has over 1,300 active public water systems regulated by the New Mexico Environment Department Drinking Water Bureau. In 2000, a total of 1,274 water systems served a population of 1,732,033 in New Mexico (U.S. EPA, Office of Water, 200Ia). As indicated in Table 2, groundwater supplies a high percentage (91 percent) of drinking-water systems in New Mexico. Most of these (1,090) are small in scale, serving fewer than 500 people. These systems are owned by various individuals and entities, and provide inconsistent quality. In sparsely populated rural southern New Mexico, a key issue related to water quality arises from the limitations of the small water systems, which are unregulated and possess limited resources (Kourous, 1998).

TABLE 2

Drinking-Water Systems in New Mexico

Population Growth Projections in New Mexico

Both natural growth and migration contribute to population growth along the U.S./Mexico border. Peach and Williams (2001) have developed three different population growth projections in the United States and Mexico, with immigration as the principal variable (Table 3).

Population growth on both sides of the border has been noticeably rapid, growing far faster than that of the population as a whole in either country. This circumstance results from higher birth rates and life expectancy. The growth phenomenon is not the result of a rich natural resource base offering opportunities for exploration. Rather, the opportunities that have drawn this population to a largely desolate part of the continent have been a combination of political and economic factors (Peach & Williams, 20Of).

New Mexico's population projections are provided in Table 4 (numbers indicate thousands of persons). This population projection forecasts a significant growth in population, which may possibly more than double over the next 20 years. This growth will certainly exacerbate the water situation. The impact of a sprawling population on public health goes beyond the increase in water demand. The larger amounts of generated wastes add burdens to treatment facilities and intermix with the water supply, resulting in more threats from waterborne diseases.

One of the best examples of how population can affect water supply is the Rio Grande River, a chief water source in New Mexico. It has been heavily altered by human activities, particularly with the construction of dams to allow utilization of the water for agriculture and urban uses, for recreation, and for the generation of hydropower. These usages have literally reduced the river to a trickle in some locations. Nevertheless, the response to the growing water demand and the finite underground supply has been to pull even more from the Rio Grande River for urban purposes. This overuse has resulted in insufficient supply, which has caused a decline in agricultural activities in some regions and reductions in the amount of land cultivation.

With fast-growing populations, the supply of additional water needed for the growth of cities, agriculture, and industry is becoming more and more strained. In eastern New Mexico, where the foundation of the economy is agriculture, farmers are already restricting their water use in the dairy industry. In the Sandia Mountains community of Madrid, the lack of water has translated into insufficient water for proper flushing of toilets (Bushey, 2001). In these situations, the quality of life is fundamentally influenced in terms of health care, sanitation, and nutrition.

To make matters worse, in May of 2001, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that directed the Texas Attorney General to "vigorously represent the State of Texas in all litigation involving water rights disputes with the State of New Mexico, including but not limited to issues relating to the Elephant Butte Reservoir" (Madrid & Turney, 2002). The bill appropriated $6.2 million for the Texas attorney general to carry out that directive. In 1938, New Mexico and Texas, along with Colorado, entered into the Rio Grande Compact, "to remove all causes of present and future controversy among these states and between citizens of one of these states and between citizens of another state with respect to the use of the waters of the Rio Grande." Nevertheless, the politics of water in the region are intensifying, and new disputes between states appear to be a possibility (Madrid & Turney).

Water Use on the Border

The binational situation is that the U.S./Mexico border region is both arid and experiencing rapid population growth. For Mexico, ensuring an adequate water supply has emerged as a critical issue for the coming decades. Figures from Mexico's National Water Commission indicate that the nation's current water supply is less than half of what it was in the 1950s (Kelly et al., 2001). In the dry border region, the situation is especially dire. Booming U.S./ Mex\ico trade, under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has accelerated the growth of border manufacturing centers and sparked a rise in export-oriented agriculture in certain dry northern states of Mexico, like Sonora. As a result, the region's rivers are being more heavily tapped than ever before, and the area's aquifers are being mined at dangerously high rates. One example is the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso area, whose groundwater supply has been predicted to run dry in 20 years. While El Paso has begun to develop water rights in rural counties to the east, it has also increased its dependence on surface waters taken from the Rio Grande/ Rio Bravo (RG/RB), the region's main waterway. Currently El Paso gets about half of its annual water supply from the river by leasing or otherwise acquiring irrigation water rights in El Paso County. This switch to surface water has not been easy; barriers have included difficulties in negotiating acquisition of irrigation rights and poor water quality from the upstream Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs. The reservoirs are used to store about two million acre-feet of RG/RB water, and their releases almost completely determine the flow of the river through the El Paso/ Juarez area.

TABLE 3

Border County and Municipal Population Projections

TABLE 4

New Mexico's Population Projections

Irrigation is by far the largest use of water on the U.S. side of the border, with municipal consumption as the next largest category, ranging from 10 percent to 45 percent of use. In Mexico, about 83 percent of water goes to agriculture while 12 percent is used for municipal consumption and 5 percent is utilized by industry (Kelly et al., 2001).

A major factor affecting water use on the border is inefficiency in both municipal and irrigation systems, which leads to water losses. Clearly, reducing these water losses will be critical to meeting future water demands.

Together with water quantity strain, compromised water quality gives rise to public health problems on the border, with water as a mode of cross-border transmission for diseases including amebiasis, hepatitis, shigellosis, and typhoid fever (U.S. EPA, Office of Water, 200Ib).

Water Quality in New Mexico

The quality of water is related to all substances contained within it other than the water itself. A water contaminant is any substance that alters the physical, chemical, biological, or radiological qualities of water. A contaminant becomes a pollutant when it exceeds an acceptable concentration or standard.

Groundwater

The quality of groundwater in New Mexico varies widely. Mountain aquifers yield highquality water. Some groundwater in the southern part of the state, however, is too salty to be used for drinking, and high levels of natural uranium, fluoride, and arsenic occur in various areas around the state.

Groundwater contamination most frequently occurs in vulnerable aquifer areas where the water table is shallow. Between 1927 and 2000, more than 1,400 cases of groundwater contamination were identified (NMED, 200Oa). Groundwater contamination results from nonpoint sources and point sources. The former, predominantly by domestic septic tanks and cesspools, account for more than half the contamination. An estimated 208,000 septic-tank systems and cesspools discharge about 78 million gallons of wastewater per day to the subsurface (NMED, 200Oa). Point-source contamination of groundwater occurs from accidental spills, leaks, illegal discharges, oil and gas production activities, mining and milling, sewage disposal, dairies, and miscellaneous industrial sources. At least 1,907 water-supply wells have been affected as a result. In 1999-2000, there were 1,235 cases of point-source groundwater contamination. Until now, 363 groundwater contamination sites have been or are currently being remediated (NMED, 200Ia).

The pollution sources listed above have released a wide variety of chemical and biological substances into the groundwater, including inorganic, radioactive, and organic contaminants. Inorganic contaminants that have been detected are nitrate, sulfate, chloride, iron, and manganese. Most groundwater contains low levels of one or more naturally occurring radioactive elements like uranium, radium, or radon. Excess concentrations are found at uranium mines and mills. Human-made radionuclides, like tritium and plutonium, also have been detected. Organic contaminants of concern include a complex variety of chemicals, including petroleum hydrocarbons (e.g., benzene), chlorinated solvents (e.g., trichloroethylene), and pesticides and high explosives.

The long-held assumption that groundwater is less vulnerable to contamination than surface water faces scrutiny. A 1996 study of wells in southern New Mexico found that arsenic levels in 20 percent of 99 sampled wells exceeded recommended consumption levels. A "significant proportion" of sampled wells contained nitrate levels exceeding the maximum contaminant level, 19 wells had concentrations of fecal coliform above recommended levels, and 34 wells were found to contain lead (Inter-hemispheric Resource Center, 1998).

Surface Water

New Mexico has approximately 4,000 miles of continuously flowing rivers and streams. Nonpoint sources are responsible for over 91 percent of the degradation in 2,435 impaired stream miles; point sources contribute very little to surface-water pollution (U.S. EPA, Office of Water, 1998). These impacts on streams range from slight increases in turbidity, temperature (due to loss of vegetation), and sediment deposition to other problems in streams and lakes, including pathogens, nutrients, siltation, and metals. Sources of impairment are agriculture, hydrologie and habitat modification, and recreational activities.

Drinking Water

New Mexico currently has over 1,300 active public water systems regulated by the NMED Drinking Water Bureau. The water quality of these systems is generally very high. Shallow water depth and a high poverty rate in southern New Mexico, however, mean that low-income families without access to municipal water systems frequently obtain cheap water via hand-dug wells. The water quality of such wells is not assessed.

The primary concern with drinking-water quality is bacteriological contamination. There is a small but increasing amount of chemical or nitrate contamination, as well as contamination from fluoride, drugs, parasites and viruses, uranium, radon, and arsenic.

As for water quality on the U.S./Mexico border, the situation is exacerbated by pollution generated by industrial zones, agricultural runoff, and wastes emitted by borderland boom towns.

U.S. EPA has determined that 23 percent of borderland drinking water contains fecalcoliform levels exceeding recommended limits. This situation results in high rates of diseases. In 1994-1997, rates of occurrence of hepatitis A on the northern side of the border ran between two and five times the national average (Inter- hemispheric Resource Center, 1998). Other diseases include skin rashes and gastrointestinal infections.

Along the Texas/Mexico border, the lack of adequate wastewater treatment for a growing population is a big concern. A 1992 study estimated that the major Mexican cities discharged 175 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater into Rio Grande or Laguna Madre, of which about 112 MGD was entirely untreated, with the remainder receiving only primary treatment (Inter-hemispheric Resource Center, 1998). In the Rio Grande basin, most water is used for irrigation purposes, generating return flows with high levels of chlorides, phosphorus, and total dissolved solids.

BinationaL National, and Regional Goals

Binational 2012 Objectives

During the past two decades, several key groups, from both the United States and Mexico, have been actively involved in working toward improving border-related environmental issues. Beginning in 1983, the Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area (La Paz Agreement) empowered both U.S. and Mexico federal environmental authorities to develop and implement cooperative agreements and implement binational programs (U.S. EPA, 2002b). The agreement was followed by the U.S./Mexico Border XXl Environmental Health Workgroup in 1996, which worked with state and tribal governmental partners and local community stakeholders to address how best to improve U.S./Mexico environmental plans as they affected the border region. From this group evolved Border 2012, which is composed of health, environmental, and tribal governmental agencies and representatives from the United States and Mexico, along with border-state governments representing the four U.S. and six Mexican border states, to address environmental concerns with the bottom-up approach. The goal of Border 2012 is "To protect the environment and public health in the U.S.-Mexico border region, consistent with the principles of sustainable development" (U.S. EPA, 2002a; United States-Mexico Border Health Commission [USMBHC], 2003).

Four objectives identified by Border 2012 focus directly on water. The major goal is to reduce water contamination. The following objectives were identified as furthering this goal:

1.By 2012, promote a 25 percent increase in the number of homes connected to potable-water supply and wastewater collection and treatment systems.

2. By 2012, assess significant shared and transboundary surface waters and achieve a majority of water quality standards whose limits are currently being exceeded in those waters.

3. By 2006, implement a monitoring system for evaluating coastal water quality at the international border beaches. By the end of 2006, establish a 2012 objective of meeting the coastal water quality standards of both countries.

4. By 2005, promote the assessment of water system conditions in 10 percent of the existing water systems in the border cities to identify opportunities for i\mprovement in overall water system efficiencies.

Three of the four objectives noted above are directly relevant to New Mexico and the water situation. The third objective, addressing coastal water quality, does not affect New Mexico because of the state's inland status.

Threats to water quality in the New Mexico/Mexico border region include contamination from mining operations, maquiladora waste discharges, and inadequately treated municipal effluent. On the whole, water quality is becoming a more and more serious issue in New Mexico and along the V.S.Mexico border.

Border XXI Goals for Water

The principal goal of the Border XXI Program is to promote sustainable development in the border region by seeking a balance among social and economic factors and the protection of the environment in border communities and natural areas.

Special attention has been drawn to water. In 1996, the Water Workgroup of Border XXI established the following five-year objectives (U. S. EPA, San Diego Border Liaison Office, 1998):

1. Develop and rehabilitate infrastructure for drinking water, wastewater collection, and wastewater treatment.

2. Develop and implement pretreatment programs.

3. Establish binational watershed planning and management priorities and develop a program to systematically map and characterize key transboundary surface and groundwater basins.

4. Continue and expand programs for monitoring the quality of surface waters and groundwaters and store the data for temporal comparisons.

5. Develop personnel training and development programs related to water management issues.

6. Develop consciousness about water and promote its efficient and rational use.

7. Encourage public participation in water infrastructure decision-making processes.

Specifically, as Rios and Valdez put it (2000, p. 32), "The colonias along the U.S./Mexico border usually lack potable water, sewage, drainage, electricity and paved roads. As a result, colonia residents engage in unsanitary hygienic practices which are exacerbated by exposure to water-borne diseases primarily due to contaminated water."

Healthy Border 2010-Objectives for the Environment

The document Healthy Border 2010-An Agenda for Improving Health on the United States-Mexico Border (USMBHC, 2003) was developed under the auspices of the USMBHC. While much of the document deals with health issues such as diabetes, cancer, and access to care, one section addresses environmental health. One objective addresses household sanitation with specific objectives for each country identified:

* For Mexico: Reduce the proportion of households not connected to compliant public sewage systems or septic tanks (reduce from 21.3 percent).

* For the United States: Reduce to zero the proportion of households without complete bathroom facilities (from 1.1 percent to O percent) (USMBHC, 2003).

Because of the poverty and rurality of New Mexico, increasing the number of homes with complete bathroom facilities remains an ongoing objective. Addressing this objective supports the objectives established for both Healthy Border 2010 and Border 2012. In New Mexico, although adequate household sanitation and clean drinking water are perceived as commonplace for many, progress toward these objectives remains a formidable challenge in certain sectors of the state.

As one of the border states, New Mexico shares water problems with other states, both in the United States and Mexico, because of similar geological, social, and economic situations, and-more important-the connection through rivers and streams. Guided by the Border XXI goals and objectives, New Mexico could find its own specific targets for addressing its water problems.

Healthy People 2010 Objectives for Water

Water quality and availability are directly related to the health of the public. One of the Healthy People 2010 goals for the nation is To increase years of healthy life and eliminate health disparity. Concerned with the people's health status on the U.S./Mexico border, the document attaches great importance to water in this region. One of the objectives for water in Healthy People 2010 is to increase the proportion of the population along the U.S./Mexico border region having adequate drinking water and sanitation facilities (USDHHS, 2000).

Conclusion

Water is exceptionally important in this arid state. Population growth, urbanization, industry, agriculture, and economic development exert continued demands on the already limited water resources. Temperature rise, consumptive use, groundwater depletion, and lack of ideal water prioritization and allocation will contribute to more pronounced water shortages in the near future. Water scarcity is a problem of water quantity as well as quality, both of which have direct impact on public health. Water contamination is also a concern in this state. In order to abide by the goals and objectives of Border XXI, Healthy People 2010, and Healthy Border 2010, a comprehensive statewide water management plan is needed, and efforts are required to address the key issues outlined below.

Water resource research, management, and service fall within the responsibilities of a multitude of federal, state, and local agencies, with a great deal of overlap. There should be an institutionalized structure overseeing and coordinating all these efforts. For example, health data from the New Mexico Department of Health should be associated with water supply of individual localities. A mechanism for translating research findings contributed by USGS work needs to be established.

Information about water availability and quality should be circulated among various related agencies and made available to the public. A consensus regarding water shortage issues needs to be reached among all societal sectors and the public. Effort needs to be exerted in education about water conservation.

There is a need to determine if disparity exists in water delivery service and sanitation between the urban and the rural, between the rich and the poor, and among ethnic populations. A concrete endeavor needs to be made to promote water supply equity coupled with economic and environmental sustainability.

Public participation in water management should be encouraged. The state should be open to novel initiatives such as local management and market-based approaches.

The state should work on minimizing the tradeoff between the roles of water in health and entertainment. Consequent policy changes should be made with respect to limiting golfcourse construction.

Interstate academic research should be encouraged to address health outcomes related to water availability and quality.

The benefits of fulfilling these recommendations will extend beyond water shortage alleviation itself. Public health, economic growth, and environmental sustainability are all critical for the development of New Mexico, and their indispensable foundation is water

Acknowledgements: The assistance of Jane Boykin and Becky Perea in the preparation of this manuscript is gratefully acknowledged.

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Yongmei Li, M.P.H.

Stephen D. Arnold, Ph.D. ,

Charles Kozel, Ph.D., C.H.E.S.

Sue Forster-Cox, Ph.D., C.H.E.S.

Corresponding Author: Stephen D. Arnold, Professor and Academic Department Head, Department of Health Science, New Mexico State University, Room 102, Health & Social Services Building, 1335 International Mall, P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3HLS, Las Cruces, NM 88003. E-mail: sarnold@nmsu.edu.

Copyright National Environmental Health Association Oct 2005

Source: Journal of Environmental Health

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