Amid crisis of waste, why not turn valley back to agriculture?

How can Albuquerque survive a major economic downturn brought on by a confluence of drought, aquifer depletion, water pollution, an oil crisis and unpredictable weather patterns? Such a mess is on the way.

First things first. Ending the war over water between predator developers and hard-up farmers and ranchers cannot be postponed. In a decentralized future of petroleum scarcity, in which national distribution networks cost too much to maintain, locally grown food is more important than new housing starts.


And fooling ourselves about desalinating water for the sake of urban growth has to stop. It’s the developers’ pie in the sky, feeding ever-expanding populations completely dependent on the automobile and cheap fuel.

Desalination is expensive. It leaves behind mountains of salt. Salt in soil and fresh water is a disaster. The leftovers will have to be trucked somewhere, at someone’s expense. And there isn’t a hole in the ground anywhere that’s big enough to secure it. The only good reason I can see to desalinate is to find more water for growing edible crops in a dire emergency.

Albuquerque Tribune