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 topics related to the future of western water management.
John Fleck is Writer in Residence at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center, University of New Mexico School of Law; and Professor of Practice in Water Policy and Governance in the University of New Mexico Department of Economics. The former director of the University of New Mexico’s Water Resources Program, he is the author of four books on water in the west, including the forthcoming history of Albuquerque’s relationship with the Rio Grande – Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of a Modern American City.
Episodes
36 episodes
Water Update (08/26/26)
A Search for Silver LiningsThe water numbers remain grim in this week’s Water Update, with 97 miles of drying in the New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande, which is not a record large number only because it rained enough to drop this week’s num...
16: Discussing the Post-2026 FEIS with the Wilburys vol. I
Guests: Kathryn Sorensen and Jack SchmidtThis 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
Water Update (08/12/2026)
A Dry Year Gets DrierThis week Rin Tara and John Fleck do their best to find hope, but in a year this dry it takes more work. Note that at the time of posting this episode, the Frijoles Fire has grown to
Water Update (07/29/26)
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 d...
15: John Fleck on Tending the Middle Rio Grande Garden
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,
Water Update (07/09/26)
Lots of news on this week’s Water Matters.Kelsey Fendler rows the Pacific (paywalled)
Water Update (06/24/26)
Hunting for signs of hope in a hot, dry JuneWith a high pressure system parked over the Four Corners, Albuquerque has been hot and dry, and in this week’s episode Rin Tara and John Fleck don’t shy away from the bad water news weighing on...
14: A “Super” El Niño is coming. What does it mean for New Mexico?
Guest: Aidan Manning This week Rin Tara and John Fleck are joined by Aidan Manning from New Mexico Wild’s Rivers and Waters Program to talk about El Niño and what it means for New Mexico’s weather and climate.Dr. Manning expl...
Water Update (06/10/26)
A Drying Rio GrandeThis week Rin Tara and John Fleck provide an update on the increasingly dry conditions on New Mexico’s central river system, where
13: Managing the Water in a Very Tough Year
Guest: Anne MarkenAnne Marken gets up every morning and looks at snowpack data and river flow numbers. As the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District’s River Operations and Telemetry Manager, it’s Marken’s job to marshal the Rio Grande’s ...
Water Update (05/20/26)
For the May 20 Water Update, Rin and John step away from discussing the bleak water numbers and take some time to talk about the moral obligation of hope, municipal water system resilience, flows for the Rio Grande silvery minnow, and some rema...
Water Update (05/06/26)
In this week’s Water Matters, Rin Tara and John Fleck talk about the delightfully named “jiggle,” a series of pulses released from Isleta Diversion Dam downstream from Albuquerque. It’s a technique valuable in dry years to encourage the spawnin...
Water Update (04/22/26)
There is no way to sugar coat the bad water news pill as 2026 enters what should be the rising limb of the runoff season, as Rin Tara and John Fleck report in this week's water update.Consider: Flow at Embudo, on the Rio...
12: Tucker Davidson on Birds and Hope
Guest: Tucker DavidsonIt seemed unfair – asking Tucker Davidson to name his favorite bird. A senior water associate at Audubon Southwest, Davidson is a hopeless bird nerd – pulling out his binoculars as he drives Rio Grande levee roads a...
Water Update (04/08/26)
Water Update: a shrinking Colorado River forecastA declining runoff forecast for the Colorado River Basin means a tough year for wat...
11: The Proposed Settlement of Texas v. New Mexico on the Rio Grande
Guest: Phil KingWith a final agreement in sight that would settle Texas's 13-year-old lawsuit against New Mexico over water use on the Rio Grande, Rin Tara and John Fleck and joined by Phil King, retired New Mexico State University profe...
Water Update (03/11/26)
With irrigation water flowing through the irrigation ditches of New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande Valley, Rin Tara and John Fleck look at the latest snowpack numbers, river flows, and the remarkable temperatures Albuquerque has seen over the fall ...
Water Update (02/25/26)
The latest round of storms helped the snowpack in New Mexico’s headwaters rivers a little, but we’re so far behind that we still should expect to see a dry Rio Grande through central New Mexico this summer.In this week’s Water Update, th...
10: Mapping Aquifers with the NMBGMR
Guest: Stacy Timmons, Associate Director for Hydrology Programs at the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources When the New Mexico legislature approved the Water Data Act in 2019, the state turned to Stacy Timmons to turn...
Water Update (02/11/26)
The snowpack and runoff forecasts for New Mexico’s rivers have begun conjuring up stories about the epically dry 2002. On this week’s episode, Rin Tara and John Fleck talk about the forecast, and the comparison.On the Rio Grande, the Nat...
Water Update (01/28/26)
With Albuquerque’s first big snow storm of 2026 in the rearview mirror, Rin Tara and John Fleck look at how the mountains holding the critical snowpack for New Mexico’s Rivers fared.They also share the latest on the US Bureau of Reclamat...
9: Water Ambassadors Legislative Priorities
Guest: Dr. Ladona ClaytonAs the New Mexico legislature begins a budget-focused 30-day session, the New Mexico Water Ambassadors have laid out their top legislative goals, critical steps needed to move t...