Use the Activities
By studying “Making the Desert Bloom”: The Rio Grande Project, students have learned how the Bureau of Reclamation’s Rio Grande irrigation project transformed thousands of acres of arid land along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and Texas. This complex, interrelated system of storage and diversion dams, reservoirs, canals, and drains was a great achievement for Reclamation’s engineers, although the results were not always what the planners expected. The following activities will help the students build on what they have learned.
Activity 1: To Irrigate or Not to Irrigate?
Do local farmers use irrigation? If they do, what conditions make it necessary? What crops can be grown using irrigation that can’t be grown without it? If they don’t use irrigation, why not? What do the farmers have to pay for? What costs might farmers living on an irrigation project have to pay that they wouldn’t pay if they weren’t living on a project? See if they can find out how much the land in each area costs. If the land is irrigated, what was the cost per acre for farmland prior to irrigation being available, and what was the cost after irrigation was available? Ask each group to make a presentation to the class and then hold a whole class discussion comparing agriculture in the Rio Grande valley and in their own area.
Activity 2: Progressivism and the Reclamation Act
Activity 3: The Future of the Rio Grande
Divide the class into small groups and ask them to investigate how demand for the river’s water is likely to change. The websites in Supplementary Resources have information on recent changes in the amount of land irrigated in the Rio Grande Project and in other irrigation projects along the river. These data can be used to project possible changes in the need for irrigation water. The Rio Grande also provides municipal water and hydroelectric power to the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. Ask students to find how the population in those cities has changed in recent years. If these trends continue, how are the cities’ needs for water and electricity likely to change? Finally, a 1907 treaty requires the United States to supply 60,000 acre-feet of Rio Grande water to Mexico every year. Consider the potential consequences to those people and to international relations if the United States couldn’t continue to fulfill its treaty commitment.
What potential problems are suggested by comparing the projected trends in the supply of water in the river and the needs of its consumers? What might be done to mitigate these problems? The Reclamation report cited above stresses the importance of water conservation. Ask the students to review the irrigation websites in Supplemental Resources. What water conservation techniques do they mention? Is there anything else in these websites that suggests ways to use the Rio Grande’s water more efficiently? What advantages and disadvantages do these alternatives offer? Have the students put what they have learned into an exhibit, website, podcast, or other format that they can share with other classes. Ask them also to consider how climate change could affect the water supply and related resources where they live. What do studies say about the supply for the student’s home area? Is there enough water for the home area to grow and meet needs in the next 50 years? Discuss ways students can use water and other resources more efficiently in their own homes and lives.
Activity 4: Where Does Your Water Come From?
Some of these water-related facilities may be historic structures. Some may have been built by a governmental entity, others by private companies. Some may be impressive structures that were sources of great local pride when they were first created. Others may be relatively modest, but still important parts of the water distribution system.
Have students work in groups to research these questions and present what they have learned to the class. Ask them to determine whether any of these facilities are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and, if so, obtain copies of the National Register documentation to use as part of their research. Ask each group to select one of the historic structures and to develop interpretive materials. They may create their choice of an exhibit, a podcast, an online brochure or tour, a short documentary, an article for the local newspaper or historical society newsletter, an on-site tour, or other interpretive product. Select a day when the students can present their findings to the rest of the class, a school assembly, or parents’ open house, or even to a community group. Offer the interpretive materials to organizations such as the local historical society, library, and/or chamber of commerce. If they identify a facility that deserves to be officially recognized for its historic significance, the class may want to initiate the nomination process for local or state designation or for listing in the National Register.
Communities, government agencies, and private companies that own water systems or facilities periodically monitor their condition and safety and prepare maintenance plans to keep them safe. Many have also taken steps to assess whether their water systems could be at risk in the event of natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other emergencies. Ask students how damage to or loss of the water supply would affect their community if it lasted for a day, or a week, or for a longer period. Have the people responsible for the water supply completed a risk assessment study and maintenance checks? If so, what risks or maintenance issues (if any) were identified, and what sort of corrective or protective measures were put in place? If identified needs were not corrected, students may want to consider writing a letter to the responsible entity asking for information about when they are scheduled or the reasons why they have not yet been completed. If timely plans to address identified risks do not exist, the class might consider taking action to call this to the attention of the local or state government or writing a letter to the local newspaper.
9 SECURE Water Act, Section 9503(c)—Reclamation Climate Change and Water, 2011. (Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior, Policy and Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, 2011) (accessed 12/11/2011).