Releases | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Bureau of Geology and Museum of Natural History & Science Team Up to Protect Groundwater

April 18th, 2018

Join us Thursday, April 26 from 10:30 a.m. to Noon at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science to experience how groundwater is being monitored across the state and to hear how decision makers and collaborators are moving to protect New Mexico’s groundwater future. Keynote speakers will include Senator Mimi Stewart, Senator Howie Morales and Representative Gail Armstrong.

This year in New Mexico, the entire state faces drier than average conditions. We often turn to pumping groundwater to supplement our water needs in times like these, but groundwater is a finite resource, and parts of our state are already facing serious groundwater shortages. As a state, we need more groundwater monitoring in place to track the impacts of drought on our groundwater resources to protect our groundwater for the future.

In response to this, a private and publicly funded effort with the Healy Foundation and the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, now tracks groundwater trends for our state. With a groundwater monitoring station installed at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) in Albuquerque, more New Mexicans can get a sense of how groundwater is being monitored across the state. And they can further understand how.

This event at NMMNHS, outdoors in the Kiwanis Learning Garden, will give visitors a firsthand experience of some different ways outreach efforts inform and educate the public on groundwater in New Mexico, and they will also learn how the Museum and the Bureau of Geology are moving to protect groundwater in New Mexico. For example, participation from rural communities is paramount because it provides much needed data that allows us to visualize trends in groundwater across the state. Following these demos, leaders taking the next steps in New Mexico’s groundwater future will deliver brief comments.

 

About the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science: http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org. Established in 1986, the mission of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science is to preserve and interpret the distinctive natural and scientific heritage of our state through extraordinary collections, research, exhibits, and programs designed to ignite a passion for lifelong learning. The NMMNHS offers exhibitions, programs and workshops in Geoscience, including Paleontology and Mineralogy, Bioscience and Space Science. It is the Southwest’s largest repository for fossils and includes a Planetarium and a large format 3D DynaTheater. A division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the Museum is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., and closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and new year’s day. 1801 Mountain Road NW, northeast of Historic Old Town Plaza, Albuquerque, NM 87104, (505) 841-2800.  Events, news releases and images about activities at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science and other divisions of the Department of Cultural Affairs can be accessed at media.newmexicoculture.org.

 

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New well for groundwater monitoring drilled on April 10, 2018. Photo by Sara Chudnoff.

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