Course Description:
Our Water: Where it Comes From, Where it Goes, and Why (3 sessions)
These first three sessions will summarize (1) the “water budget” of inflows, outflows, and surface and ground-water storage for New Mexico; (2) the water budget for the Middle Rio Grande valley, past, present, and predicted; (3) the prospects for future water supply in north-central New Mexico under a changing climate, including projects to import water, desalination, oilfield produced water, and transfers from agriculture; and (4) recent developments to ensure Albuquerque’s supply.
How Water is Allocated and Re-Allocated in New Mexico - Theory vs. Practice (1 session)
This last session will cover the basics of water-allocation systems in the United States, water allocation in New Mexico under the acequia system before 1907, State Engineer water-rights administration in New Mexico since 1907, the Rio Grande Compact and its role in water allocation for the Middle Rio Grande, and developments surrounding the Texas litigation in the Lower Rio Grande. The Lower Rio Grande litigation is important to us in the Middle Rio Grande because the state as a whole will presumably contribute a lot of money, water, or both.
Facilitator Biography:
John W. Shomaker, Ph.D. has 60 years of experience in hydrogeology, including 4 years with the U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Division, 4 years with the (then) New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources (part of which was devoted to coal-reserve studies), and 52 years as a consultant in hydrogeology with John Shomaker & Associates, Inc. His education includes B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from University of New Mexico (1963 and 1965), an M.A. degree in the liberal arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe (1984), and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in hydrogeology from University of Birmingham, England (1985 and 1995). He completed the U.S. Geological Survey Training Program in Hydrology in 1966.
John is a registered geologist in Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, and Wyoming (geologists are not registered in New Mexico). He is certified by the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the American Institute of Hydrology, and the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers. He taught groundwater hydrology for several years as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and in the Master of Water Resources Administration program at the University of New Mexico, and continues to teach in the UNM Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.