New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

"The 21st Century will force many communities to [implement] alternative water-resource management strategies; in particular the ones that can divert a nearby smiace-water resource, such as Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and Santa Fe. All of these cities have plans to better manage or take advantage of surface-water supplies and become less dependent on diminishing ground-water supplies. It appears that many smaller communities that do not have an existing central water distribution system or a water right for a community water supply will be left high and dry. For all of you consultants, bone up on your hydrogeology and water-resource management strategies, because every entity will be staking their claims until the last drop is gone." Steven Finch, March 1997, Newsletter, AWRA New Mexico Section.

As we approach the obscene mobscene of the Third Millenia the lead role of hydrogeology in efficient exploitation (read mining) of nonrenewable groundwater resources in the Rio Grande rift basins of New Mexico region is gaining more attention and respect. I predict robust prospects for this field of economic and environmental geology for at least 50 years as communities seek out new sources of water to sustain "growth"; although interest will wane when the wells start running dry. We will obviously continue to use "politically correct" expressions such as conservation and sustainable consumptive use when we describe development of aquifer systems in this and other arid to semiarid regions. From the perspective of 6000 years of recorded human history, however, the concepts of irreversible depletion and desertification more often come to mind. Both Hayduke and Darth Vader live in the minds of men.

I, therefore, foresee a very active and productive near future for those geologists, geohydrologists, geophysicists, and geochemists who choose to closely collaborate in research and development activities that focus on economic extraction of the large quantity of fresh to slightly saline groundwater in the vast basin-fill aquifer system that is locally recharged by the Rio Grande fluvial system between the San Luis Basin of Colorado and the Big Bend region of Chihuahua and Texas. After all, truly efficient exploitation of any entity requires detailed knowledge of its composition. Hydrogeologic framework and , derivative numerical groundwater-flow models recently developed for the Albuquerque and Mesilla Basin areas, which are briefly described in this talk, are illustrative of approaches that will allow present and future political systems in the region to choose how to use or abuse our precious groundwater resource legacy.