WSP09398

• File Number: 8507
• Description: Rio Grande Project
• State: CO
• Basin: Rio Grande
• Date: 7/1/1997
• Title: Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin part 3
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin

fragmented management structure. Initiation of the Bosque Management
Plan elicited significant opposition and did not evolve through the normal
activities of resource-management agencies, but required extraordinary
political intervention and leadership. Many close observers believe there has
been a lack of commitment to follow-through on the plan. The past year saw
some movement toward an integrated approach, with representatives from
multiple agencies developing a draft paper on management issues in the
Middle Rio Grande Valley (Whitney et al. 1996), for example, but
considerably more must be done to expand these efforts into a comprehensive
assessment of ecological and economic conditions.

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Given the deep antagonism toward what many in this Basin perceive to be
hostile federal efforts to restrict conventional consumptive use of water and
other resources, we recommend that the assessment process not be included
as part of a larger effort to develop and evaluate management alternatives.
Merging the .assessment with planning likely would trigger fears that federal
agencies were trying to dictate management policies for state, local, and
private entities and might elicit enough political opposition to scuttle even
the most rudimentary assessment efforts.2 Hence, the assessment should
stand alone as an effort to improve understanding of the consequences of
management decisions, the potential for ecosystem changes that would be
either irreversible or very costly to reverse, and the potential opportunities
for increasing the net economic benefits derived from the ecosystem.3 The
voluntary participation of non-federal entities should be encouraged. It is
essential, however, that the participation of others, whether formal or
informal, should not distract the agencies from taking a broad view of the
ecosystem and its relationship to the economy.

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2 Research, alone, can be controversial in the Basin. Advocates of diversionary use of
water often oppose research proposals from agencies interested in investigating instream
issues, and instream advocates reciprocate by opposing proposals related to increasing the
supply of water for diversionary use. The governor of New Mexico intervened to calm disputes
over research agendas in the Middle Rio Grande Valley by appointing a research coordinator
generally seen as neutral.
3 It is important to recognize that water and the water-related ecosystem will be the focus
of this assessment. This will distinguish this assessment from others, such as in the interior
Columbia River Basin, which focused on federal lands. Water is under state control, with
rights of use owned by private entities or local public bodies. Hence, the primary objective of
this assessment should not be to set the stage for federal land-management plans. but to
provide a body of knowledge potentially useful to all resource owners, managers, and
regulators.

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