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Water Matters!

Utton Transboundary Resources Center

The Utton Transboundary Resources Center’s Water Matters! podcast looks at water and natural resources issues in New Mexico and beyond. Housed at the University of New Mexico School of Law, the Utton Transboundary Resources Center is a state-funded research and public service project that believes in the pursuit of well informed, collaborative solutions to our natural resource challenges. The Utton Transboundary Resources Center’s Sairis Perez-Gomez designed the podcast logo and wrote and performed our theme music and Student Research Assistant Francesca Glaspell produced this episode.


Rin Tara is a staff attorney specializing in water policy and governance at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center. They are primarily interested in questions of water management in the face of climate change. They have done work in riparian restoration, river connectivity, tribal water sovereignty, climate change adaptation, and water rights. They have authored several papers on topics related to the future of western water management.

 

John Fleck is Writer in Residence at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center, University of New Mexico School of Law; and Professor of Practice in Water Policy and Governance in the University of New Mexico Department of Economics. The former director of the University of New Mexico’s Water Resources Program, he is the author of four books on water in the west, including the forthcoming history of Albuquerque’s relationship with the Rio Grande – Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of a Modern American City. 

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  • 23 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 18 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • February 12 · 12 min

    Water Update (02/11/26)

    The snowpack and runoff forecasts for New Mexico’s rivers have begun conjuring up stories about the epically dry 2002. On this week’s episode, Rin Tara and John Fleck talk about the forecast, and the comparison. On the Rio Grande, the Natural Resources Conservation Service is forecasting just 35 percent of median runoff at Otowi, in north-central New Mexico, with very little water at all making it down past San Marcial downstream from Socorro. One big difference between 2002 and this year: in 2002, New Mexicans had a lot of water banked in upstream storage to keep the Rio Grande flowing during the dry summer months. “Only thing that allowed us to manage thru the year was releases of water stored in previous years. If this dryness continues, with no storage to speak of, 2026 will be a very difficult year of water management/flows and, unfortunately, possibly fires,” Rolf Schmidt-Petersen, retired New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission chief, wrote in the comments on John’s blog. John posted a graph on his blog showing the comparison between 2002 storage and today. Also on the latest episode: Rin talks with us about their conversation with Alex Hager at KJZZ in Pheonix about the possibility of a short-term agreement on Colorado River management as a federal deadline looms.] A pitch to join Utton and the broader New Mexico water community for a screening of Rio Grande Basin in New Mexico, a film by the Utton Center. March 2, 2026, 5-6:30 p.m. Room 2401, UNM School of Law, 1117 Stanford NE, Albuquerque.

  • January 28 · 8 min

    Water Update (01/28/26)

    With Albuquerque’s first big snow storm of 2026 in the rearview mirror, Rin Tara and John Fleck look at how the mountains holding the critical snowpack for New Mexico’s Rivers fared. They also share the latest on the US Bureau of Reclamation’s challenges in keeping Lake Powell’s water levels high enough to protect Glen Canyon Dam’s outlet works, and the implications that will have for Colorado River management in 2026. For more on the snowpack, check out the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s west-wide maps to see how the winter is progressing in the watersheds you care about. Other links for this week’s edition: · Interstate Stream Commission meeting information · Reclamation’s Post-2026 Colorado River Management Environmental Impact Statement process

  • #9
    January 26 · 22 min

    9: Water Ambassadors Legislative Priorities

    Guest: Dr. Ladona Clayton As the New Mexico legislature begins a budget-focused 30-day session, the New Mexico Water Ambassadors have laid out their top legislative goals, critical steps needed to move the state toward a more sustainable water future. Dr. Ladona Clayton, Executive Director of the Ogallala Land and Water Conservancy, joins Rin Tara and John Fleck on this edition of Water Matters! to talk about the opportunities and challenge in the state’s water future, and the steps state government can take to help. A 32-year veteran educator and political leader in Eastern New Mexico drawn to water work by the groundwater challenges faced by the Clovis-Portales area, Clayton was one of the leaders of the 2022 New Mexico Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force, which met for much of 2022 to craft a broad set of goals for the state’s water management future. The Ambassadors grew out of the Task Force’s work, to move the group’s work beyond a report sitting on a shelf.

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes