Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Next quarterly meeting 14 July

The poll is in and the next Quarterly meeting will be 14 July at 10:00 am in the meeting room of the Artesia Ag Science Center, 67 four Dinkus road Artisia NM. If you have agenda Items please get them to be on or before 7 July 2017. Topics so far. 1. Regional water planing redrawing of boundaries.

Friday, June 16, 2017

Sheriff working on Rural Community Policing

Mark Gage the sheriff of Eddy County is working on developing a rural community policing. It is difficult with a force of only about 60 officers to have a presence in a county 4,184 square miles or 2,677,760 acres big with thousands of miles of back county gravel roads. The attached form is so that patrol officer on sheriff deputies can respond to rural areas better. For location you can use rural addressing system, Range Township section ¼ of the ¼ , GPS lat and long. Whatever you have the more the better. You can also include information like Elderly in residence, Heart condition, and diabetic whatever you think will help a first responder. This is 100% voluntary and is to help them help you. You can mail, fax, scan and e-mail, or drop it by the Eddy County Sheriff’s office or the Extension Office and I will make sure he gets it. Send this to your friends or give them a form. Right now he is concentration is on ranches but he will want to do the same with farms I am sure in the near future. If you have question or concerns call Mark or the Under Sheriff. Share this form with other Rural residents, and help Sheriff Gage help us.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

USDA Announces More Than $9 Million to Address Critical Water Resources Issues

USDA Announces More Than $9 Million to Address Critical Water Resources Issues Media contact: Sally Gifford, 202-720-2047 WASHINGTON, D.C. June 14, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced 14 grants totaling more than $9 million to help solve critical water problems in rural and agricultural watersheds across the United States. The grants are funded through the Water for Agriculture Challenge Area of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. “Food, water, climate, energy, and environmental issues are all linked together, which is why we invest in multi-level approaches to water management solutions,” said NIFA Director Sonny Ramaswamy. “These solutions will improve water resource quantity and quality for America’s agricultural systems, and also inform decision makers and citizens alike.” The Water for Agriculture Challenge Area aims to address critical water resources issues such as drought, excess soil moisture, flooding, quality and quantity, and other water issues within an agricultural context. Grants being announced today are listed by description and state. Water for Agriculture Coordinated Agricultural Projects: • University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, $2,000,000 • Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, $2,192,992 • Texas A&M AgriLife Research, College Station, Texas, $1,383,497 Understanding Decisions and Behaviors Connected with Agriculture and Post-harvest Processing Industry Water Use: • University of California, Berkeley, California, $463,338 • Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, $462,499 • University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, $458,043 • University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, $462,539 • University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, $453,539 Understanding the Human Health Impacts to Exposure from Nontraditional Water Used in Agriculture: • University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, $406,907 • University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, $463,338 • Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, $499,999 • University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, $495,692 • University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, $499,617 • Utah State University, Logan, Utah, $500,000 Project details can be found at the NIFA website. Among the grants, a University of Montana project will improve the efficacy of climate information for water use through developing, testing, and institutionalizing new tools for producers. A University of Florida project will ensure economic sustainability of agriculture and silviculture in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia while protecting the water quantity, quality, and habitat in the Upper Floridian Aquifer. Since 2014, NIFA has awarded nearly $42 million through the Water for Agriculture Challenge Area. Previously funded projects include a University of Nevada project dedicated to enhancing climate resiliency and agriculture on tribal land. A Clemson University project is focused on developing a near real-time drought forecasting model that would help farmers anywhere in the United States. NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and extension and promotes transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. NIFA support for the best and brightest scientists and extension personnel has resulted in user-inspired, groundbreaking discoveries that combat childhood obesity, improve and sustain rural economic growth, address water availability issues, increase food production, find new sources of energy, mitigate climate variability, and ensure food safety. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural science, visit www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts, sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAimpacts.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Quaterly meeting date poll

Please respond on this doodle poll for our 1/4 meeting date https://doodle.com/poll/eysxzmeu9xy555fh

Dear Lower Pecos Water Planning stakeholders,

Dear Lower Pecos Water Planning stakeholders, Thank you for your interest in and commitment to water planning in our state. Please read below and take the surveys linked in to the body of this email. This is a follow-up email to our email that Woods Houghton forwarded on May 22, 2017. For those of you who have already taken the survey about water planning boundaries, thank you. This email has an additional survey and background info attached we’d like you to take. The first survey regards the physical boundaries of the state’s 16 planning regions. As we water planning staff traveled the state to all 16 regions in the past three years to update the plans, we heard from various water stakeholders that they would like to see future changes to the NMISC’s water planning boundaries. We would like your input on this matter by your taking the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RWP-Boundaries. We encourage you to read the attached white papers first, as getting your informed feedback on the pros and cons of reshaping or modifying existing water planning boundaries based on aquifers and watershed helps ISC shape and improve its water planning program. The other survey has to do with the spreadsheet of Policies, Programs, and Projects list in the updated plans. As part of the process for preparing the Regional Water Plans (ISC, 2014-2017), each region developed a list of policies, programs, and projects, also referred to as the “PPP lists”. Today, we are concerned with what approaches should be used to update the PPP lists. Understanding that every region, and, thus, entities within the regions, is different and has its unique considerations when planning for water, we value your feedback. Again, we encourage you to read the white paper first, as your informed input will help the ISC continue to strive to improve its water planning program. The PPP list survey is available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RWP-PPP-Lists I look forward to hearing your opinions and sharing the results of the survey with you! Thank you in advance for taking the time to read the attached white papers and take the surveys regarding ISC water planning regions’ boundaries and the process for updating the lists of Policies, Programs and Projects of the Regional Water Plans. In addition to the surveys, if you have specific comments or suggestions regarding these two areas, please communicate them with us. We’re asking that you complete the surveys by June 15, 2017. Pardon any duplicative emails. Let us know if you wish to be taken off this list. Best regards, --Lucía <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Lucía F. Sánchez Water Planning Program Manager NM Interstate Stream Commission 407 Galisteo Street Bataan Memorial Building Phone: (505) 476-5397

Upcoming Environmental Modeling in Ground Water Public Meeting

June 8, 2017 In This Update: Upcoming Environmental Modeling in Ground Water Public Meeting On June 28, 2017, EPA will hold an Environmental Modeling Public Meeting. This meeting provides a public forum for pesticide registrants, other stakeholders and EPA to discuss current issues related to modeling pesticide fate, transport, and exposure for pesticide risk assessments in a regulatory context. Groundwater modeling is conducted as part of the pesticide registration and re-evaluation processes. This meeting will focus on: • evidence of subsurface (below 1 meter) biodegradation (or metabolism) in groundwater; • methods for measuring subsurface biodegradation; and • how to incorporate this information in EPA’s models. Requests to participate in the meeting must be received on or before June 21, 2017. Please contact Stephen Wente or Jessica Joyce to register for this meeting. More information can be found at www.regulations.gov in docket # EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0879-0116. Sign up for updates and abstract requests for future Environmental Modeling Public Meetings.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute hosts conference in Las Cruces in June

New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute hosts conference in Las Cruces in June DATE: 05/31/2017 WRITER: Kristie Garcia, 575-646-4211, kmgarcia@nmsu.edu CONTACT: Jesslyn Ratliff, 575-646-1194, jesslynr@nmsu.edu The New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute at New Mexico State University is hosting the New Mexico Evapotranspiration Conference June 6 and 7 at the Las Cruces Convention Center. The New Mexico Evapotranspiration Conference program is designed to help choose an evapotranspiration model for the New Mexico Statewide Water Assessment (SWA). Discussion amongst the experts at the conference will aid in this decision. The SWA is a three-year project that has been supported by the New Mexico Governor and the New Mexico Legislature. The SWA is an effort that will complement existing state agency water resource assessments. It will provide new, frequently updated, spatially representative assessments of water budgets for the entire state of New Mexico. Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the components of the model. ET is the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants. The conference will address how other states are using ET and what has been learned. Discussions will include the latest ET developments, how land-management practices can be impacted by ET estimates and why obtaining better ET data is important. The conference is 8 a.m to 5 p.m. June 6. The conference begins at 8 a.m. June 7 and concludes with a field trip to NMSU’s Leyendecker Research Center starting at 12:45 p.m. Field trip participants will view ET measurement techniques, a new weather station and an alfalfa field. Conference presenters and moderators are from Arizona State University, Elephant Butte Irrigation District, Jornada Experimental Range, Kipp & Zonen, NASA, New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, New Mexico Pecan Growers, New Mexico Tech, New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, NMSU Department of Animal and Range Sciences (College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences), NMSU Department of Civil Engineering (College of Engineering), University of Idaho, University of Maryland, University of New Mexico, U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Climate Hub and U.S. Geological Survey. For a complete agenda and list of speakers, visit https://et.nmwrri.nmsu.edu/program/ Registration is $55 and includes three meals. For those only attending the field trip, registration is $20 and includes transportation and lunch. To register for the conference, visit https://et.nmwrri.nmsu.edu. For more information, call 575-646-1194 or email jesslynr@nmsu.edu. The New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute was established in 1963 by the New Mexico Legislature and approved under the 1964 Water Resources Research Act. The NM WRRI funds research conducted by faculty and students from universities across the state to address water problems critical to New Mexico and the Southwest. The institute also participates in joint efforts to solve water-related problems along the U.S./Mexico border. Visit nmwrri.nmsu.edu for more information. - 30 - Follow NMSU News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nmsunews Follow NMSU News on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NMSUNews

Public information and hearing on the listing of the Texas Horn Shell June 15 in Carlsbad.

A public informational session from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on June 15, 2017, At the Pecos River Conference center in Carlsbad, New Mexico

Proposed Rules DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Fish and Wildlife Service Texas Horn shell

24654 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 102 / Tuesday, May 30, 2017 / Proposed Rules DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Fish and Wildlife Service 50 CFR Part 17 [Docket No. FWS–R2–ES–2016–0077; 4500030113] RIN 1018–BB34 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for the Texas Hornshell AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior. ACTION: Proposed rule; reopening of comment period; public hearings. SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the reopening of the comment period for our August 10, 2016, proposed rule to list the Texas hornshell (Popenaias popeii) as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We also are notifying the public that we have scheduled informational meetings followed by public hearings on the proposed rule. Comments previously submitted on the proposal need not be resubmitted, as they are already incorporated into the public record and will be fully considered in our final determination. DATES: Written comments: The comment period on the proposed rule that published August 10, 2016 (81 FR 52796), is reopened. We request that comments on the proposal be submitted on or before June 29, 2017. Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking Portal (see ADDRESSES section, below) must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the closing date. Public meetings and hearings: We will hold two public informational sessions and public hearings on the proposed listing rule: (1) A public informational session from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on June 13, 2017, in Laredo, Texas (see ADDRESSES); and (2) A public informational session from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on June 15, 2017, in Carlsbad, New Mexico (see ADDRESSES). People needing reasonable accommodations in order to attend and participate in the public meetings should contact the Texas Coastal Ecological Services Field Office, at 281– 286–8282, as soon as possible (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT). In order to allow sufficient time to process requests, please call no later than 1 week before the meeting date. ADDRESSES: Document availability: You may obtain copies of the proposed rule and Species Status Assessment Report on the Internet at http:// www.regulations.gov at Docket No. FWS–R2–ES–2016–0077, or by mail from the Texas Coastal Ecological Services Field Office (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT). Written comments: You may submit comments by one of the following methods: (1) Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS–R2–ES–2016–0077. You may submit a comment by clicking on ‘‘Comment Now!’’ (2) By hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail or hand-delivery to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS–R2–ES–2016– 0077; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, MS: BPHC, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041–3803. We request that you send comments only by the methods described above. We will post all comments on http:// VerDate Sepwww.regulations.gov. This generally means that we will post any personal information you provide us (see the Information Requested section below for more information) Public meetings and hearings: The public informational meetings will be held on the following dates and locations: 1. A public informational session from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Student Center Ballroom #203, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Blvd., Laredo, Texas 78041, on June 13, 2017. 2. A public informational session from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Pecos River Village Conference Center, 711 Muscatel Ave., Carlsbad, NM 88220, on June 15, 2017. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Chuck Ardizzone, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Coastal Ecological Services Field Office, 17629 El Camino Real #211, Houston, TX 77058; by telephone 281–286–8282; or by facsimile 281–488–5882. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Relay Service at 800–877–8339.