In its annual survey of the nation’s waterways, a major advocacy group isn’t naming a single river as its biggest concern. Instead, it selected New Mexico’s entire inventory of streams and rivers.
American Rivers on Tuesday named every waterway in New Mexico — from the Rio Grande to its ephemeral streams — as its “most endangered” in the nation for 2024.
The decision strays from the group’s typical selections, which in recent years have included the Colorado River, the Snake River and the Upper Mississippi River.
Instead, Tom Kiernan, president and CEO of American Rivers, said the idea highlights the impacts of the Supreme Court’s ruling in last year’s Sackett v. EPA, when the court removed federal protections for the majority of the nation’s wetlands.
