NM Cities Pondering
Suit On Water Uses

ALBUQUERQUE — A number of cities, including Albuquerque, are debating whether to join the State of New Mexico and an irrigation district in the lawsuit they filed this month to force federal biologists to analyze and state the costs of protecting the habitat of a minnow in the Rio Grande.

New Mexico officials say they are planning to include additional claims that the rules under which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are operating violate the Endangered Species Act.

"The reason I'm doing this," says New Mexico State Engineer Tom Turney, "is the people have a right to know. People who live in cities, will they have water to drink? Will farmers have water to grow alfalfa and chile? Will anybody's water rates increase as a result of this?"

Turney and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District predict the federal government's plan for protecting the officially "endangered" Rio Grande silvery minnow will bring catastrophe.

"It would dry up every farm in the valley," says John Utton, the lawyer for the conservancy district.

Forest Guardians and Defenders of Wildlife, who claim farmers waste water from the river, have indicated they will intervene in the lawsuit, opposing the state and irrigation district.

Several cities along the river, including Los Lunas and Socorro, are considering joining the state and conservancy district in their suit. A spokesman for Albuquerque's mayor says no decision has been made on whether the Duke City will join in the lawsuit, but it is being considered.

The Rio Grande silvery minnow was listed as an endangered species in 1994. During a drouth in 1996, officials say the river dried up near the San Acacia diversion dam north of Socorro, killing 10,000 minnows, about 40 percent of the estimated population of the fish.

Authorities say the river occasionally dries up between Socorro and Elephant Butte reservoir.