/Robert Browman/Albuquerque Journal
By Theresa Davis | Albuquerque Journal
Norman Gaume remembers three attempts to create a large diversion dam on the Gila River in southwest New Mexico.
All three plans promised more water and more revenue for farmers. All three failed. Gaume, a former director of the Interstate Stream Commission and former water resources manager for the city of Albuquerque, says the latest diversion effort may be doomed to follow the same path.
On July 2, the New Mexico Central Arizona Project (CAP) entity that oversees projects using federal money in the New Mexico Unit Fund slashed several components from the proposed Gila River diversion. The cuts reduced the project’s price tag by about $83 million, but also the amount of water that could be diverted and used for irrigation.
It’s the latest in a decades-long saga of how federal money should be spent on water projects in the southwest corner of the state.
