New Mexico’s rivers, which include the Rio Grande, Gila, San Juan and Pecos, are America’s most jeopardized waterways, according to a new report. This is mostly due to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision not to provide federal protections to more than 90% of the state’s surface waters.
New Mexico, New Hampshire and Massachusetts are the only states that do not have access to the power to regulate how much pollution is in their top water, forcing them to depend on federal safeguards from mining activities, wastewater production, agricultural runoff, and industrial pollution.
The United States has approximately 4.9 million kilometers of rivers and streams that will not be considered under the Clean Water Act, according to the Supreme Court’s Sully v. Environmental Defense Agency decision issued in May of last year. In New Mexico’s arid zones, most creeks and rivers are only available in the rainy season or the winter season.
New Mexico’s more than 100,000 miles of rivers and streams provide drinking water for the majority of the state’s population. The majority of the state’s cities and towns rely on these waterways to provide drinking water for their residents. These rivers also deliver life to a wide range of wildlife, fish, insects, and plants, as well as decrease erosion and maintain water quality.
In the wake of Sackett ruling, New Mexico state legislators introduced legislation that would safeguard the fragile rivers, streams, and lakes in the absence of federal safeguards. In March, the state allotted $7m. Seven million dollars have been invested in improving groundwater monitoring, as well as the establishment of a permitting program that would enable the discharge of pollutants into surface water.
“It is up to Congress to protect and to defend the Clean Water Act,” said Melanie Stansbury, a US congresswoman from New Mexico, who last fall introduced a bill to restore the federal wetland protections the Sackett ruling stripped. She said: “The only way to restore them, now that the court has acted at the highest level, is for Congress to act.”
