Senator Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico introduced Senate Bill 1957 in 2003, which would come to be the United States-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act (US Public Law 109-448). It was signed into law by the President of the United States on December 22, 2006.
The Act specifically designates the Hueco Bolson/Valle de Juarez, Mesilla/Conejos- Medanos, Santa Cruz, and San Pedro as priority transboundary aquifers for study under the program.
The TAAP is a joint effort between Mexico and the US to evaluate shared priority aquifers. Funds have been provided by each country to conduct research and accomplish the objectives of the TAAP. Funding in the US has been divided equally among the WRRIs and the USGS Water Science Centers in TX, NM, and AZ.
NM WRRI and NMSU are working in close collaboration with the USGS NM Water Science Center to improve understanding of groundwater in the Mesilla aquifers. The NM team is tasked with achieving a better understanding of the Mesilla Basin aquifer through four major research efforts by NMSU and NMT faculty and their students.
The TAAP encompasses three states in the US, two Mexican states, several universities and a variety of federal and state agencies on both sides of the border. Numerous research projects and coordination efforts have been undertaken by the Cooperating Agencies to collaboratively develop a better understanding of the shared resources to better manage groundwater on both sides of the border.
At the AWRA 2018 Summer Specialty Conference on The Science, Management and Governance of Transboundary Groundwater in Ft. Worth, Texas, the TAAP team from across the three US states and representatives from Mexico came together to present on the latest TAAP funded research and attend the conference. On Monday, July 9th, The Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program Session was held and included presentations from Sharon Megdal (AZ WRC), Avery Olshefski (NM WRRI), James Callegary (AZ USGS), and Jacob Petersen-Perlman (AZ WRC). Eight other researchers funded under the TAAP from the USGS Science Centers and Water Institutes presented their work during Tuesday’s sessions. This conference served as a great opportunity to discuss and get the word out about the TAAP. Pictured above is the TAAP team members at the AWRA Conference along with other notable researchers in the field of transboundary groundwater.
Kevin is Venezuelan born with European parents that somehow found his way to New Mexico where he is currently enrolled at New Mexico State University in the Water Science and Management Program. He works as a research assistant at NM Water Resources Research Institute. Upon finishing his undergraduate degree in Environmental Geology at Northeastern University in Boston, Kevin spent time traveling and climbing full time throughout the U.S. and abroad. After working as a field geologist for numerous environmental remediation projects and engaging in a self-supported bike tour to climb remote Patagonian Big-Walls in South America, Kevin moved back to New Mexico to further his studies at NMSU.
Sam Fernald was appointed director of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (NM WRRI) in July 2013 after having served as interim director since January 2011. As director, he leads the institute in its mission to develop and disseminate knowledge that will assist the state, region, and nation in solving water resources problems. Professor Fernald also is a faculty member in the Department of Animal and Range Sciences at New Mexico State University.
Sam’s earned degrees include a 1987 BA in international relations from Stanford University, an MEM. in 1993 in water and air resources from Duke University, and a PhD in watershed science from Colorado State University in 1997. His primary research interests include water quality hydrology; land use effects on infiltration, runoff, sediment yield, and nonpoint source pollution; and effects of surface water/groundwater exchange on water availability and water quality. Sam received a Fulbright Scholarship to Patagonian National University, Trelew, Argentina in 2008 and another Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile in 2000.
Daniel Cadol is an Associate Professor of Hydrology at New Mexico Tech. He received his PhD in earth science from Colorado State University in 2010, studying hydrologic and geomorphic interactions between vegetation and fluvial systems. He was a visiting professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and post-doc’ed at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science before moving to Socorro in 2012 to join the hydrology faculty at New Mexico Tech. Since arriving, Dan has worked to develop research collaborations with municipal, state, and federal agencies across New Mexico, as well as with the other academic institutions in our state. Dan’s research in New Mexico has taken three main directions: one using remote sensing products and methods to develop a soil moisture balance model covering New Mexico in order to estimate groundwater recharge (with NM WRRI and NMBGMR), another looking at the hydrologic and geomorphic effects of wildfires (working with the City of Santa Fe, Valles Caldera NP, and NM EPSCoR), and another working to better understand geomorphic processes and sediment transport in ephemeral channels (with the Bureau of Reclamation, NMBGMR, and USACE). He is currently advising 3 MS and 2 PhD students.
Fred M. Phillips is a Professor of Hydrology Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro. He received a B.A. in Earth Science from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1976 and a Ph.D. in Hydrology from the University of Arizona in 1981. Dr. Phillips’ general area of research is earth-surface processes and history. He has focused on the development and application of environmental tracers in hydrological systems, particularly on applications of 36Cl, a long-lived natural radionuclide. He has researched means of quantifying the water balance at the surface of the earth using both isotopic methods and remote sensing applied to radiation balance. He played a role in the discovery of cosmogenic nuclides in earth-surface materials that can be used to quantify exposure ages at the surface and erosion rates. He has published over 150 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature and is the lead author of the book “Reining in the Rio Grande: Land, People, and Water”. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and has received the O.E. Meinzer Award from the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America and the F.W. Clarke Medal from the Geochemical Society.
Esther Xu is an MS student and research assistant in the Hydrology Program at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT). Esther started her graduate student life working with her faculty advisors on estimating groundwater recharge for the entire state of New Mexico as part of the NM WRRI’s Statewide Water Assessment (SWA). This year, as part of the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (TAAP), Esther is focusing on modifying and applying the ETRM model to the Mesilla Bolson. Esther received a BS in geology from NMT in 2016, and a BEng in resources exploration from Yangtze University in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in 2017.
Aracely Tellez is a master’s student in the Water Science and Management degree program. She is currently working with the Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program, with the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute. Her research involves observing the changes in the riparian vegetation in response to fluctuating water changes from both groundwater and surface water along the lower Rio Grande and the Mesilla valley aquifer. Aracely received her bachelors from the University of Texas at El Paso in Environmental Science with a concentration in Biology. She currently holds the position of vice-president in the water science graduate student organization.
Salim Bawazir is an Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering (CE) Department at NMSU. He joined NMSU’s CE Department as an Assistant Professor in 2003. He holds a BS, MS and doctorate in CE (2000) from New Mexico State University, with a minor in environmental management. He also holds a BS in agricultural and civil engineering from NMSU. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in water resources engineering related fields. Salim’s research is primarily in the area of water resources (hydrometeorology). He has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed journal articles, proceedings, book chapters, technical reports, monographs, and over 200 poster and oral presentations. He has more than 15 years of field experience in instrumentation and measurement of evapotranspiration from agricultural crops, riparian vegetation, and evaporation from reservoirs.
Kenneth (or KC) Carroll is an Associate Professor in the Plant & Environmental Sciences Department, and he also supports the Interdisciplinary Water Science & Management graduate program at NMSU. His teaching and research focuses on environmental science and geochemical hydrogeology. KC’s research interests include the development of innovative water resources, environmental-remediation, carbon-sequestration, and energy-production alternatives covering a broad range of cross-disciplinary areas that pertain to soil, water, and environmental science. He earned his PhD in Hydrology & Water Resources at the University of Arizona. In addition to international consulting industry and postdoctoral experience, KC was a research scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for three years prior to joining NMSU in early 2013.
Avery Olshefski began working at the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute in October, 2017 as a Program Coordinator. Avery graduated cum laude with a B.A. in international affairs from George Washington University in 2011, and she earned her master’s in Water Resources from the University of New Mexico in May 2017. Avery has previously worked a river guide on the Rio Grande and Rio Chama and as a ski patroller at Ski Santa Fe. Avery also interned with Senator Mark Pryor (AR) in 2009.
Chris Kubicki is a Master’s student of Dr. Kenneth Carroll’s in the Water Science and Management Graduate Program. Chris’s research interests include geochemistry, hydrology, and geology. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Montana State University in 2016. During his bachelor’s, Chris worked for Montana State University, NRCS, and the Montana DEQ as a field technician.
