They don't give much consideration to the need to use water more efficiently. Personally, I think human beings are in the habit of waste. Environmental groups have challenged the city of Albuquerque and other cities to dramatically cut household usage to reduce the need to take water from the river. Wildlife biologist John P. Taylor of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge agreed that cities could save more water. They're using so much water.
Some people believe solutions lie in better measuring, planning and managing the state's water.
It deserves to be measured. It deserves to be actively managed. Most of the estimates about how much water is consumed by users are wide-ranging, sometimes with huge margins of error. State Engineer Tom Turney said he wants to make his office more involved in active river management, including setting up markets that would allow water to be transferred from one use to another. Conservancy district chief engineer Subhas Shah agreed that it's important to allow agricultural water to be moved to other uses.