Santa Fe – Livestock grazing, urban development and disappearing riverside plants – not industrial polluters – are responsible for the poor quality of New Mexico’s rivers.
More than 60 percent of rivers in northern New Mexico fail to meet state water-quality standards, which is nearly double the national average, according to a nationwide report.
The River Research Science Synthesis report – published last month in the journal Science – said that nationwide, nearly a third of rivers and streams are listed as impaired or polluted.
In New Mexico at least, stream-restoration projects being organized by the state and carried out by local volunteers are being praised by federal regulators as a potential model for the West.
But conservationists say they want to see state regulators use even more authority to stop the extensive problem.
For example, nearly every stream that flows out of the Jemez Mountains fails state water- quality standards.
The Rio Grande, the Pecos, McCrystal Creek in the Valle Vidal, the Rio Chama, the Vermejo and a portion of the Rio Santa Barbara in Taos County – the state’s only designated Outstanding National Resource Water – all have sections that don’t meet state standards.
The poor water quality is contributing to the decline of the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout, the state fish. Once common, the cutthroat trout can be found in only about 7 percent of its historical range.
The contaminants threatening the northern rivers and streams are not coming out of industrial pipelines.
They are from nonpoint source pollution, which is more difficult to regulate. They include too much sediment on the stream bottom and suspended in the water, high water temperatures and high levels of naturally occurring aluminum leached from soil no longer anchored in place by plants.
Jennifer Ickes of the state Surface Water Quality Bureau, said the cause is excessive erosion caused by people, roads, developments and livestock grazing.
A state analysis shows that livestock grazing is the largest contributor to nonpoint source pollution, accounting for about 15 percent of water-quality impairments statewide.
Next on the list is urban runoff at 12 percent. Eleven percent of water-quality problems are due to the loss of streamside habitat, such as shade plants and vegetation that anchors the soil.
Caren Cowen, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, said ranchers are sensitive to the impact of grazing but that many current problems stem from historic overuse.
Conservationists say the state should have started working on the problem sooner.
John Horning, executive director of the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians, has been trying for years to get the state to be more aggressive about enforcing stream-water protections. He advocates a government buyout of federal grazing permits from ranchers to permanently keep livestock off some federal land.
