CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER RESOURCES IN NEW MEXICO- SHAPING LEGISLATIVE AGENDAS THROUGH EFFECTIVE SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

The impacts of climate change on water resources in the Desert Southwest are myriad and must be presented as a holistic picture to the decision-makers who can effect legislation to respond to current water scarcity. In New Mexico, a gubernatorial mandate to create a 50-year water plan triggered the need to develop an integrated and rigorous assessment of the impact of climate change on water resources. This project was carried out by a team of 10 scientists who collaborated to produce a comprehensive, peer-reviewed work following the style of National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus studies. Following the response to the peer-reviewer comments, the document was opened for public comment, finalized, and widely circulated. The final report, New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Bulletin 164, titled “Climate Change in New Mexico Over the Next 50 Years: Impacts of Water Resources” won GSA’s 2023 Frye Award. Following publication and the associated kickoff webinars, major New Mexico newspapers published front-page summaries of the findings. The report authors engaged in a wide range of outreach and education activities, and two were invited to serve on New Mexico’s Water and Infrastructure Task Force, which was charged with developing recommendations for our lawmakers to implement during the 2023 legislative session. The outcome of this task force was to identify four areas of vulnerability for New Mexico Water Resources, including water supply, state government capacity, community capacity, and watersheds and aquifers at risk. A number of recommendations were made to the legislature in the key areas of “community drinking water, wastewater and stormwater capacity, infrastructure and finance,” “water resources management and planning,” and “river, aquifer, and watershed health.” The legislative response was to introduce 15 separate bills during the 2023 legislative session, plus several other funding initiatives, to address problems highlighted by the task force. The strong scientific foundation provided by the climate change report, along with wide-ranging outreach activities, allowed the task force to effectively engage lawmakers and strongly express the urgency of New Mexico’s water challenges, and then experience the reward of positive legislative changes.