Gov. Bill Richardson's administration is pushing ahead with a plan to give special protection to hundreds of miles of rivers and streams and thousands of acres of wetlands despite concern from some farmers and ranchers.
Richardson has been seeking a sweeping Outstanding National Resource Waters designation under the federal Clean Water Act since 2008. With the end of his second four-year term looming, he's now one step closer.
The New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission voted last week to consider the state's petition after much debate about whether the proposal contained enough scientific information to warrant protecting all of the waters in federal wilderness areas.
The commission has scheduled a Sept. 14 hearing on the petition.
Marcy Leavitt, head of the New Mexico Environment Department's Water and Wastewater Division, said Wednesday the petition meets the commission's standards and would enable New Mexico to better protect its most valuable surface water resources in the face of drought and a growing population.
"These are the state's headwater streams and they are important to people who use wilderness areas and they're also important to downstream communities," Leavitt said.
Critics say they don't dispute the need to protect New Mexico's water, but that the state should consider whether waters deserve protection on an individual basis only after thorough study.
They pointed out that some of the waters listed on the petition should not be considered "outstanding" because they are impaired by bacteria, metals, low flows or other problems.
"The focus of our concern on this petition is the sweeping nature of it and the lack of science that is contained," said Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association.
The Outstanding National Resource Waters designation has been used only twice in New Mexico — for the Rio Santa Barbara and for rivers within the Valle Vidal area.
Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming are among the other Western states that have used the designation to protect some of their waterways. In Wyoming, for example, all waters in wilderness areas and national parks have been classified as outstanding for more than three decades.
New Mexico's petition calls for designating as outstanding 1,450 miles of rivers and streams, 29 lakes and about 6,000 acres of wetlands in wilderness areas. The designation would protect the waters by prohibiting any activities that would result in degraded water quality.
Leavitt said the designation would allow existing activities, including grazing, to continue provided that landowners follow practices to ensure water quality remains high.
Critics argue that the designation will be costly for rural New Mexico, particularly ranchers, and that more work needs to be done to determine what the economic impacts will be before the commission considers the petition.
Comments submitted to the commission by the cattle growers' group show there are 105 grazing allotments in New Mexico's five national forests that contain at least some wilderness, and production from those allotments was valued at about $6.8 million in 2008.
