Water Matters!

The Utton Transboundary Resources Center’s Water Matters! podcast looks at water and natural resources issues in New Mexico and beyond. Housed at the University of New Mexico School of Law, the Utton Transboundary Resources Center is a state-funded research and public service project that believes in the pursuit of well informed, collaborative solutions to our natural resource challenges. The Utton Transboundary Resources Center’s Sairis Perez-Gomez designed the podcast logo and wrote and performed our theme music and Student Research Assistant Francesca Glaspell produced this episode. Rin Tara is a staff attorney specializing in water policy and governance at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center. They are primarily interested in questions of water management in the face of climate change. They have done work in riparian restoration, river connectivity, tribal water sovereignty, climate change adaptation, and water rights. They have authored several papers on to

Water Matters! is a science podcast hosted by Utton Transboundary Resources Center, with 39 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Utton Transboundary Resources Center hosts Water Matters!, a science show with 39 episodes published.

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  Water Matters!

  Water Update (09/23/26)

  Sep 23, 202611 min

  The Rains Return On this week’s episode, Rin Tara and John Fleck talk about Rin’s trip down Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River ( totally work related! ) while John stayed home and obsessed over weather radar and river gage readings as the Rio Grande, dry along large stretches through Central New Mexico for much of the summer, finally reconnected. To understand Cataract Canyon, check out the Returning Rapids Project Taos tightens water conservation measures Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Guild Cinema: The Rio Grande: A Century of Water, Land and People in the Middle Valley Ribbons of Green – John talks about his new book, at the Guild Friday Sept. 25, 12:30 p.m. Money for Navajo Nation water projects

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  Water Matters!

  Water Update (09/09/26)

  Sep 9, 202618 min

  A River (Ever So Briefly) Returns This week’s water update is a special edition as Rin Tara and John Fleck take you out to the Rio Grand in Central Albuquerque to experience the brief return of the Rio Grande to a river bed that has been dry for most of the summer. Rin and John were there, tape recorder in hand, on Thursday (Sept. 3, 2026) at midday as a pulse of water provided by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, and Audubon Southwest crept slowly beneath the I40 bridge near Old Town. They could see the pulse shrinking as it moved downstream, which was the expected result – really the whole point of the exercise – as it soaked into the shallow aquifer that feeds the riverside bosque. Scientists are now monitoring vegetation response and changes in the groundwater levels beneath the bosque, to better understand how the system performs for future environmental management. More information: John’s blog post with the final flow data from the US Geological Survey gages along the river An explanation from Paul Tashjian at Audubon Southwest about h ow the pulse came together Bryce Dix at KUNM explains the pulse flow

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  Water Matters!

  16: Discussing the Post-2026 FEIS with the Wilburys vol. I

  Aug 21, 202636 min

  Guests: Kathryn Sorensen and Jack Schmidt This week Rin Tara and John Fleck are joined by friends and colleagues Kathryn Sorensen and Jack Schmidt – members of the group that journalist Allen Best dubbed The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River – to talk about the future of management of the Colorado River. Tara, Fleck, Sorensen, and Schmidt – along with fellow Wilburys Anne Castle and Eric Kuhn – have been collaborating for a number of years on analysis and recommendations for Colorado River management as reservoir levels drop toward record lows. In this episode, they lay out the details of the federal government’s newest analysis of future management options as the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico copes with the dramatic impact of aridification – drought made worse by climate change. Further information: Department of Interior Final Environmental Impact Statement on future operations of the Colorado River Lake Powell and Lake Mead reach record lows The most recent Wilburys report: Colorado River Basin Storage Continues Slide Toward System Crash

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  Water Matters!

  Water Update (07/29/26)

  Jul 29, 202614 min

  It rained! On this week’s water update, Rin Tara and John Fleck talk about the joy of a summer rainstorm, as Albuquerque was drenched by a monsoon storm Friday, July 24*, wetting the Rio Grande and providing a burst of flow in otherwise dry valley irrigation ditches. *The storm we are talking about occurred on 7/24, but the Middle Rio Grande got another storm yesterday (7/28) that also dropped some moisture. In other news: El Niño is strengthening Doña Ana County uranium drinking water contamination Harmful algal blooms New Mexico ISC draft water planning guidelines survey Stationarity is Dead (the classic Science paper on how, in water management, climate change changes everything) Ribbons of Green , (John’s book)

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  Water Matters!

  15: John Fleck on Tending the Middle Rio Grande Garden

  Jul 17, 202635 min

  In this week’s Water Matters, John Fleck switches from the host’s chair to the guest’s chair (it’s really the same chair) as co-host Rin Tara sits down with him to talk about the new book he and Bob Berrens wrote, Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of Modern Albuquerque . From Voltaire’s Candide to the myth of a lost Garden of Eden on the Rio Grande Valley floor, Rin and John talk about how the effort to manage a river shaped the modern garden Albuquerque has become, and what lessons the process might have for the challenges our community faces in a climate changed world.

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