Hidalgo County residents invited to weigh in on river water quality plan

Hidalgo County residents with land, livestock or water interests in the Animas area will have a chance June 30 to weigh in on a draft river water-quality plan that could shape future cleanup decisions, monitoring and limits across the San Juan and Animas watersheds.

The New Mexico Environment Department has scheduled the virtual public meeting to discuss findings from the San Juan and Animas River Watershed total maximum daily load work, along with assessment results and community feedback. The department’s draft 2026 San Juan and Animas River watersheds TMDL was released June 15 and is open for public comment.

The draft includes specific TMDLs for waters such as Stevens Arroyo, covering perennial parts of the San Juan River to the headwaters. It was prepared by the department’s Surface Water Quality Bureau Monitoring, Assessments and Standards Section, putting the final shape of the plan in the hands of the agency now, while the public comment period remains open.

For Animas-area residents, the practical stakes are tied to water use, livestock, property and the rules that can follow a finalized cleanup plan. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the current Animas River Watershed TMDL addresses bacteria, nutrients and temperature, and says the San Juan watershed includes the San Juan and Animas rivers and Lake Powell. The agency also says those waters are essential for recreational, agricultural, cultural and residential uses, and that historic mining activities remain a potential contamination source because they disturbed land and intensified naturally occurring mineralization.

The lower Animas has carried those concerns for years. New Mexico listed it as an impaired water in 2002, and the watershed has exceeded criteria for phosphorus, nutrients and eutrophication, E. coli bacteria, turbidity and temperature since 2010, according to the Lower Animas River Watershed Based Plan updated in 2021. EPA-approved Animas River Watershed TMDL documents date to Sept. 30, 2013, while the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission approved San Juan River Watershed TMDL Part 1 on May 10, 2005.

The broader San Juan monitoring effort also stretches beyond Hidalgo County. EPA, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe have been working on a long-term monitoring program funded by Congress at $4 million per year from 2017 through 2021 under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act.

Residents, ranchers and landowners who want to speak up at the June 30 meeting can use it to press for clearer protections, ask how the draft would affect existing uses along the Animas, and put local concerns on the record before the plan is finalized.