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Increasing pressures on Colorado River water in New Mexico

Colorado River Management
John Locher/AP
FILE - In this July 20, 2014 file photo, a bathtub ring of light minerals shows the high water line near Hoover Dam on Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada. A set of guidelines for managing the Colorado River helped several states through a dry spell, but it's not enough to keep key reservoirs in the American West from plummeting amid persistent drought and climate change, according to a U.S. report released Friday, Dec. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Colorado River Management
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, just 10 years after New Mexico became a state.

Today, New Mexico still uses only about half of its allotment under the compact each year. Colorado River tributaries serve relatively small portions of northwest and southwest New Mexico.

But the basin’s water is essential for the state’s largest city: Albuquerque.

And pressures on the water are expected to increase as more tribes reach water rights settlements and build out infrastructure to use those rights.

For example, agencies are making progress on large projects to deliver water to Navajo communities in western New Mexico.

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