A Southwest water dispute reaches the Supreme Court
Southern New Mexico’s #Mesilla_Valley is like an island: a fertile patchwork of farm fields and groves of pecan trees surrounded by the brown #Chihuahuan Desert.
For Mesilla Valley farmers, the metaphor rings true in other ways as well. Though they live in New Mexico, the residents of the roughly 90,000-acre-area are caught between their own state and Texas. The Rio Grande water they depend on is not technically New Mexico’s water, but rather part of the water that goes to Texas under the #Rio_Grande_Compact, a treaty ensuring that Texas, New Mexico and #Colorado get their fair share of the river. New Mexico’s delivery obligation to Texas hinges on collecting enough water in #Elephant_Butte_Reservoir, 90 miles from the Texas border and the neighboring Mesilla Valley. Unfortunately, that leaves the farmers downriver in a complicated no-man’s-land of interstate water management.
▻https://www.hcn.org/articles/water-a-southwest-water-dispute-between-new-mexico-and-texas-reaches-the-suprem
#eau #conflit #USA #Etats-Unis #désert_de_Chihuahua #Rio_Grande #barrage_hydroélectrique #Elephant_Butte_Dam #agriculture #Texas #traité #répartition_de_l'eau