Paso del Norte Water Task Force
Draft Workplan for Project 1:
Develop Capacity for Basin-Wide Water Planning

The Issue

The Paso del Norte forms a single water basin. Politically the basin is divided between the US states of New Mexico and Texas and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The basin is home to some of the fastest growing desert communities in the world. About 2.5 million people live in this border region and five to seven million people are projected by 2050. Both ground and surface water are used for irrigation and municipal/industrial supplies. Future water supply in the region is threatened by population growth, depletion and deterioration of aquifers, degraded water quality, and disputes about access to water among farmers, cities, states, and countries.

The majority of the Paso del Norte population resides on land overlying the Mesilla and Tularosa-Hueco aquifers (bolsons). The Mesilla Bolson provides the city of Las Cruces with its potable water supply. Ciudad Juárez depends entirely on ground water from the Hueco Bolson for drinking water, while El Paso depends on this water for more than half of its municipal water supplies. The City of El Paso also takes water from the Mesilla Bolson and uses surface water from the Rio Grande. Pumping from the Hueco Bolson has increased six-fold since the 1960s; Juárez alone has increased its take by 12.5 percent between 1990 and 1994. These rates far exceed the recharge. At current withdrawal rates in Mexico and Texas, the Hueco Bolson is expected to run out of potable water by 2030. As water levels in the Hueco Bolson continue to drop, the quality of its water has become a major concern, since the water in the lower parts of the aquifer has high concentrations of salts and minerals.

The Rio Grande (called Río Bravo in Mexico) is the main source of surface water and the only through-flowing system in the area. Snowmelt from Colorado’s and New Mexico’s Rocky Mountains is the principal source of water for this part of the Rio Grande. The flow of the river in the Paso del Norte is controlled by the tandem operation of the Elephant Butte and Caballo Reservoirs located in Southern New Mexico. Irrigated agriculture is a major economic activity in this region and most river water is released during the growing season in response to irrigation demand.

Both river and aquifers are shared by the United States and Northern Mexico. Institutional capacity to manage water for the entire basin does not exist. Limited water supply, combined with rapid population growth driven by cross-border development, have created an array of water problems in the binational Rio Grande basin that are as complex as anywhere in the world.

Currently, water in the Paso del Norte is subject to different state and national laws and management is divided among many agencies. Groundwater is managed by the State Engineer in New Mexico, by individual landowners in Texas (i.e., without governmental regulation), and by the federal government in Mexico. CILA and IBWC–the joint U.S.-Mexico International Boundary and Water Commission–oversee the binational management of surface water. Under the 1944 treaty, the authority of this binational border organization was focused on the management of Rio Grande/Río Bravo waters. The treaty specifies an annual delivery of 60,000 acre feet of water from the United States to Mexico. However, the treaty did not cover groundwater and water quality issues. A joint 1972 "minute" of CILA/IBWC treaty allows for steps toward joint management of ground water resources, but this authority has remained unused.

Role of the Paso del Norte Water Task Force

In 1998, with support from the Hewlett Foundation–a small planning committee from the Houston Advanced Research Center, the Environmental Defense Fund, the State University of New Mexico, and the Autonomous University of Cd. Juárez contacted water managers, water users, experts and community leaders to explore the usefulness of a binational water initiative in the Paso del Norte. We found that binational water consultations had been tried on several occasions but had rarely led to joint projects and policy recommendations. We further concluded that effective water planning in the Paso del Norte requires information, consultation and policy advice that are tri-state and binational in scope. At the present time, however, there are few such systems.

To fill the urgent need for comparable information from both sides of the border, as well as joint forward-thinking planning the Paso del Norte Water Task Force was established. The Task Force is a binational (and tri-state) participatory group that seeks to establish sustained cross-jurisdictional dialogue, outreach, and joint development of policy recommendations regarding the region's critical long-term water issues and sustainable development. With equal representation from Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, members of the Task Force include the managers of the city water utilities from El Paso, Cd. Juárez and Las Cruces, managers of the major irrigation districts, large water users, experts and citizens at large. The U.S. and Mexican Commissioners of the IBWC serve as ex-officio members of the Task Force.

Task Force members defined their mission as follows:

There was strong agreement that joint Task Force projects should address important water issues in the region. For this purpose the Task Force identified and ranked a short list of priority projects. The Task Force firmly believes that these projects will also serve as vehicles by which trust, cooperation, mutual understanding and other forms of vital social capital can be created among participants and the larger community. This social capital in turn can provide the foundation upon which future regional water planning efforts can be built. The first of these projects is described in detail below.

Project 1: Develop capacity for region-wide water planning

At present, only sub-regional water planning activities are conducted by the cities of El Paso, Cd. Juárez, and Las Cruces. The Regional Council of Governments in West Texas is coordinating an eight-county planning effort in response to a Texas legislative mandate (Senate Bill 1). The resulting plan will be submitted to the Texas Water Development Board in 2000. Texas and New Mexico are conducting a joint study of future water demand. Regional water planning in Mexico involves the Comision del Agua, the Junta Municipal del Agua, and, possibly, the new water basin council. The research will determine if other agencies, such as irrigation districts, perform water planning tasks..

Project 1 is designed to document current efforts in water planning in the basin and to use this information to develop a framework for region-wide water planning. The Task Force describes this project as follows: "Assess ongoing water plans and projections prepared by the main political subdivisions of the Paso del Norte. Identify and describe key components of water planning including (1) population growth, (2) land use, (3) water resources infrastructure, and (4) water demand. Identify the assumptions and methods used in developing these plans or projections. Discuss what steps are needed to develop region-wide integrated future plans and projections."

To implement project 1 the following tasks will be performed:.

Task 1: Assessment of Current Planning Efforts

We shall begin by identifying, analyzing and comparing ongoing planning efforts by water management and user agencies in the various segments of the Paso del Norte. The major agencies to be contacted include: the city water utilities in Las Cruces, El Paso and Cd. Juárez, the West Texas Regional Water Planning Committee (Senate Bill 1), and the three major irrigation districts (Elepant Butte, El Paso, and Distrito de Riego 009). Other agencies will be contacted as needed. Written materials will be collected first. Interviews with agency staff will follow. Information will be sought on all aspects of water planning with a special emphasis on the process used.. A detailed checklist of information to be collected will be developed. This list will include such items as:

This information will then be summarized to identify similarities and differences between the various planning efforts. The results of document analysis, interviews and data comparison will be summarized in a report to the Task Force. The report will be organized in the following sections:

1. Brief definition of regional water planning (based on literature review)
2. Brief description of current water planning efforts in the Paso del Norte
3. Discussion of critical variables used in Paso del Norte water planning activities
4. Similarities and differences in Paso del Norte water planning activities

Task 2: Task Force Dialogue on Multi-jurisdictional Water Planning

A series of three or four Task Force Dialogues will held over a three-month period. At each meeting a carefully selected speaker from outside the region facing similar conditions (arid climate, rapid population growth, need to provide for both agricultural and urban water needs) will be invited to share with the task force his/her experiences concerning multi-jurisdictional issues and regional water planning. Potential invitees may represent the following regions: Chile, Egypt, Israel, California, Colorado, and Spain. These meetings will provide a venue in which Task Force members can consult with the invited speaker and among themselves raise topics they feel are important to regional water planning in the Paso del Norte.

Task 3: Develop Protocol for Area-Wide Water Planning.

Using the results of tasks 1 and 2, the Task Force, or a subcommittee thereof, will work with individuals from the Support Team to develop a detailed protocol for region-wide water planning using unified methodology. By identifying common ways to approach common water problems and planning activities, the development of a region-wide water planning protocol will lay the foundation for building capacity in the region to jointly address water issues. The protocol will describe best available water planning practice that makes sense for the Paso del Norte, given resource constraints and agency capacities. A phased plan with gradual improvements over time may be proposed.

Task 4: Water Planning Protocol Workshop

Once the Task Force has produced a draft water planning protocol a workshop will be convened at which a wide spectrum of stakeholders in the region will be invited to provide input, criticism, and suggestions for improvement. The draft protocol will incorporate revisions based upon the stakeholder input from this workshop.

Conclusion

Project 1 is the Paso del Norte Water Task Force’s first step in moving beyond quarterly meetings to actively involving its members in projects aimed at achieving joint water management in the Paso del Norte. These efforts will form the cornerstone by which trust, cooperation, mutual understanding and communications can be created among participants and the larger community. The Task Force believes that this process and resulting recommendations will provide the foundation upon which future regional water planning efforts can be built.