The Pecos River during a partial solar eclipse in North America. Swallows fly above the water hunting for insects. Lake Arthur, New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
Not many people should be living in the western USA. It is just too dry. But millions are calling it home and they demand the utmost of its water supply in a time of extreme drought fuelled by climate change.
I followed the Pecos River in New Mexico, a precious, dwindling water supply. The Pecos, as even the United States Supreme Court has noted, is a complicated river.
It starts simply enough in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of northern New Mexico as a bubbling stream. The water flows roughly north to south through eastern New Mexico and western Texas, eventually joining the Rio Grande along the U.S. border with Mexico. It is an important water source for both American states.
It is the 1948 Pecos River Compact that makes the river so complicated. Central to the deal is the idea that the Pecos River should stay as it was in 1947. Each year, Texas is supposed to get the amount of water that the 1947 river would have released past the state line. Texas fought a fourteen years' court battle over the division of water rights, with the Supreme Court in 1988 finally deciding New Mexico had stolen $14 million worth of water.
The entrance of the Double V ranch, a large cattle ranch on the Pecos Plains, along the western margins of the Pecos River valley. The cows roam free here year round to graze. Water is scarce and it hardly rains. At certain spots it is pumped from wells into water tanks to provide the cattle with drinking water. Fort Sumner, New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
Near Carlsbad the Pecos River is just a trickle, so water is pumped from aquifiers and brought into irrigation channels or drinking troughs for beef cattle. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
In 2002, when I visited communities along the river, people worried mostly about centuries old water rights, spillage by people in other counties and cities, and the unfairness of the Pecos River Compact. Nobody yet worried about climate change arriving on the banks of the Pecos.
That is different now. A recent study by American climate scientists shows that global warming has pushed what would have been a moderate drought in southwestern North America into megadrought territory. It is the most extreme dry spell in the Southwest in 1,200 years, and the past 24 years rank as the driest period since at least 800 A.D. Drought and climate change-induced aridification is ongoing already in the Pecos River Basin, with less snowfall in the headwaters and more winter precipitation falling as rain.
Water managers of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, whose mission is to manage, develop, and protect U.S. water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner, describe the basin as arid with a limited and highly variable water supply. About 80% of the water in the Santa Rosa Reservoir, located at the top of the system, goes to agriculture, but in 2021 the peak flow of snowmelt runoff into it amounted to only a trickle of about 5 cubic feet per second. The total volume during the runoff period was about 700 acre-feet, or 56 times less than the historical average. That means less water for all downstream users.
A claim on the water by the New Mexico oil industry is also threatening the state’s ability to meet its water-sharing obligations to Texas. Other concerns include having enough water in the system to support threatened species, like the Pecos bluntnose shiner, which needs a certain river flow. Population growth in Roswell, Carlsbad and other communities along the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico could also impact future demands.
Lewis Williams and his daughter Tia are fishing for rainbow trout in Monastery Lake, part of the Pecos River water system. The father prepares the fishing rod for his daughter. The water level of the Pecos River is extremely low due to continuing drought. There is also a high danger for forest fires so tourists are not allowed to enter the Santa Fe National Forest further upstream to fish and swim in the river. Pecos, New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
At San Miguel the Pecos River has been dammed to make its water available for agriculture by means of a reservoir and irrigation canals. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
Fresh water is scarce in large parts of the American state of New Mexico because of prolonged drought. At a gas station in Artesia one can buy drinking water from a vending machine. Just bring your own bottle. The town's name refers to the artesian wells it gets its water from. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
In the Roswell Basin, a desert area in the Pecos River watershed, agriculture and livestock breeding is made possible by water from artesian wells. Corn, grown for cattle feed, is sprayed with water by an irrigation system on wheels. Roswell, New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
A woman waters her garden next to her house in Lake Arthur on the Pecos Plains, a desert area. It has not rained here for a long time and residents are only allowed to water their plants and grass after 6 PM. This is the watershed of the Pecos River, but in most seasons the river water is just a trickle, so water is pumped from aquifers. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
Two girls, one carrying her little brother, attend an open house in the former girls’ school of Villanueva, which has been converted into the El Valle (the valley) Community Centre. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
Three boys amuse themselves in the playground of the former girls’ school of Villanueva, which has been converted into the El Valle (the valley) Community Centre. The villagers of Villanueva depend on the Pecos, and use the water according to customs dating back to the days when the state was called Nueva Mexico and their ancestors were subjects of the Spanish crown. They divert it by a dam into an acequia or irrigation ditch, access to which is governed by their water official, or mayordomo. During Holy Week, everyone comes and clears the acequia. And during droughts such as the present one, they water vegetable gardens first, pastures last. Which makes life hard on cattle farmers. If they can't grow feed and their cows can't find grass, they have to sell them. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
A lonesome cow walks on the barren Pecos Plains. The ranches here occupy large areas which are fenced off with barbed wire. Cars can enter driving over stock guards. The cattle roams free year round to graze. Branding tells which cow belongs to which farmer. Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA. June 2002.
The earliest European settlement along the Pecos River was founded by the Spanish in about 1636 at San Miguel del Vado (Saint Michael of the Ford) in the upper reaches of the river. After the Anglo-American occupation of Texas, the middle and upper Pecos Valley became the chief western cattle trail to the north, as well as the site of several famous cattle ranches. New Mexico, USA. June 2002.