DALLAS, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The governors of Texas and New Mexico have agreed to a historic dialogue that could resolve critical water issues that have lingered for decades.
The announcement by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson at the recent 22nd Border Governors' Conference in Santa Fe comes at a time when many other states are engaging in new court fights over water issues.
This may be the first time the governors of Texas and New Mexico have agreed to discuss the issues that in the past have ended up in long court battles, and it comes at a time when both states are worried about growing water needs.
Water is scare in the Southwest, where experts are talking about the worst drought in hundreds of years. It's also the Southwest where cities like El Paso, Texas; Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Albuquerque, N.M., are trying to prepare for growing populations.
Water was a key issue at the conference. The 10 state governors from Mexico and the United States adopted a resolution calling for more cooperation and communication in future watering planning.
"The resolution underscores the governors' commitment to have the states continue to work together on important water issues such as conservation, shared groundwater and the effects of water management on human consumption and sustainability, agriculture and economic development," Richardson, the conference chairman, said Tuesday.
Mexico and the United States already have obligations under a 1944 treaty that regulates the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. Texas has argued for years that Mexico is not releasing enough water from its reservoirs to meet the treaty's requirements.
In the past nine months, however, Mexico has made good progress in reducing its water debt, Perry said. The flow down the Rio Grande is critical to the life of farmers on both sides of the border in the lower Rio Grande Valley.
Because of quiet diplomacy between border officials and recent rains, planting conditions improved this year in the region, the Texas governor said. "This represents the most progress on the water issue we have seen in more than a decade."
The unexpected announcement from Texas and New Mexico about separate talks on water issues may have eclipsed the broader issue of cooperation between the U.S. governors and Mexican governors because it may be a first.
Emlen Hall, a professor of water law at the University of New Mexico and a longtime observer of the dispute, can't recall the governors of the two states every agreeing to such a dialogue on water issues.
"When push comes to shove and they get into the details of it, I don't know whether they will be able to work it out," he said.
Perry, a Republican, and Richardson, a Democrat, will probably not take a direct role in the talks, which could be long and drawn out. They will designate water experts to negotiate the issues, some of which go back decades.
Richardson said the concerns are interstate compacts between Texas and New Mexico on the Pecos River and the Rio Grande, plus groundwater in the El Paso and Las Cruces, N.M., areas.
New Mexico, which has endured lingering drought for five years, wants to meet the needs of growing cities like Albuquerque and agricultural needs, while Texas is calling for more water from the south to serve the El Paso area and the irrigation needs of its farmers.
The 1948 Pecos River Compact symbolizes some of the water issues. After more than a decade of litigation, the river is still monitored by a federal water master who rules each year on how much water New Mexico owes Texas.
"This has created havoc in New Mexico," Hall said. "New Mexico has managed to keep up with the obligation, but it's catch-as-catch-can. There are heavy penalties if they don't keep up. And it's unclear what good it has done in Texas."
A decision in the Pecos River court battle said states would have to pay monetary damages for historic breaches of compacts, and that sparked much of the litigation under way today because the stakes can be high for lawyers and taxpayers.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1988 ordered New Mexico to pay Texas $14 million for under-delivery of water from the Pecos River.
The Rio Grande, which begins in Colorado and flows through the middle of New Mexico to El Paso, is governed by a 1938 interstate compact. The river, the scene of a recent fight over the endangered silvery minnow, is also a critical source for Albuquerque, the state's largest city.
It's also important to booming El Paso and Juarez, a metropolis with more than 1 million people. Those cities are trying to figure out what their rights are under the Rio Grande compact, which is vague in some areas, said Hall.
Groundwater is the other issue in this area near the stateline where El Paso once sought to drill for water in New Mexico but was turned down. The question to be answered in the region that includes Las Cruces, N.M., is who has the rights to the groundwater.
Hall said the mission of the negotiators will be to work out these issues to best serve the interest of their states, and that will be difficult.
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