William Melhado
Movies, June 1: “Top Gun: Maverick Review”
After-burn
Zing! This is why I love the Reporter.
Doug Wolf, via Facebook
News, June 1: “Muddy Monitoring”
A Living Lower River
It surprised me to learn that, so early in the growing season, the lower Santa Fe River flow at La Bajada has already dropped to zero. Even as Santa Fe residents enjoy the benefits of Santa Fe’s Living River ordinance with a sweet trickle watering cottonwoods in our urban reach, the lower reach, where traditional farms need it, runs dry. This and earlier articles illustrate the ongoing conflict between La Bajada and Cochiti over scarce river flow and Santa Fe’s role in it.
Now the City proposes to take an additional 2,500 AFY from this system and pipe it to the Rio Grande in exchange for more imported San Juan–Chama water to support future growth.
City attorneys assert we can legally divert Paseo Real effluent with no minimum flow commitment to the lower river communities or ecosystem. It may be true that downstream communities don’t have the legal foundation to compel us to release effluent. But that does not mean we should ignore the long-standing complaints of lower river communities or the riparian environment. The City has not allowed a single public hearing. That’s an unnecessarily hardball stance.
The City and County have the supply, the infrastructure and an obligation to manage Santa Fe’s water for the benefit of the entire watershed. They should not ignore ecosystem services or agriculture and the traditional communities downstream of the Paseo Real plant.
Neil Williams, Santa Fe
CORRECTION
A story in last week’s edition gave the wrong title for Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.”
