Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today approved legislation U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici wrote to continue restoration efforts on one of New Mexico’s largest tributaries to the Rio Grande. 

The bill reauthorizes the Río Puerco Watershed Management Program, which Bingaman first wrote into law in 1996. Over the past decade, the Rio Puerco Watershed Management Program has helped restore much of the 7,000 square-mile degraded watershed. 

“The Río Puerco Watershed Management Program has helped bring real results to the restoration of this watershed. The bill that cleared the Energy Committee today will ensure we continue to encourage the collaborative efforts that have been so effective over the last decade,” said Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

“This watershed management program has been successful in resolving some of the sediment issues along the Rio Puerco, and it is important that it be reauthorized. There’s still work to be done, and the sooner we get it renewed the better off this tributary and the Rio Grande will be,” said Domenici. 

The Rio Puerco Watershed Management program authorized the creation of the Rio Puerco Management Committee – a panel comprised of federal and state agencies, Native American Indian tribes, local governments and private entities. Congress has provided the committee with more than $6 million over the past decade to develop and implement proposals for watershed rehabilitation. 

The Río Puerco Management Committee has become one of the most effective collaborative land management efforts in the Southwest. Among the committee’s accomplishments is a project to return the Río Puerco to its original streambed, originally altered to accommodate the construction of State Highway 44, now U.S. Highway 550, in the late 1960s. According to the BLM, the channel became a primary contributor of erosion and sediment in the river’s main stem, and even began advancing toward U.S. 550, threatening the highway’s stability. The large-scale project is one of only three like it in the entire country. 

The legislation authorizes funding for the Río Puerco Management Committee over the next ten years to continue its efforts. 

According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), while the Río Puerco contributes less than ten percent of the total water to the Río Grande, it represents the primary source of sedimentation entering the Upper Río Grande. The Río Puerco contributes the majority of the silt entering Elephant Butte Reservoir about sixty-five miles downstream of its confluence with the Río Grande. 

The bill can now be considered by the full Senate.