MRGCD Considers Policy Change Making Use of Roads (river access) ILLEGAL

The following information was taken from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District's web-page on April 25th.  It is no surprise that the MRGCD provides a dysfunctional broken link to the online form for public comments to a time-sensitive issue.  The roads adjacent to the canals, laterals and levees are one of the primary means of accessing the Rio Grande Bosque, and some areas in question are in the City of Albuquerque's Open Space.  Other areas include Algadones, Corrales North Beach and the NW corner of Alameda and the river.  If adopted, kayaking, biking, dog walking and many other recreational activities accessed along the MRGCD roads will become a crime.

Board Extends Public Comment Period on Proposed Changes to Water/Bridge/Turnout Policy

The Board of Directors of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District is proposing changes to the Water-Bridge-Turnout Policies of the district and is soliciting public comment to these changes.
 
Interested parties can read the entire Proposed Water-Bridge Turnout  Policy here and then click on the comment link below to give feedback.
 
Comments and suggestions will be taken until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 4th.  
 
The MRGCD Board of Directors is scheduled to take final action on these proposed changes at it's regular meeting, May 14 at 3:00 p.m. in the Diego Abeita board room, located at the MRGCD general offices.

Link is below. The excerpt found on Page 7, copied below, would appear to be of great concern for recreational users. They are

http://mrgcd.com/Water_Bridge_Turnout_Policy_FINAL.pdf

9. USE OF OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF ROADS BY THE PUBLIC
The roads adjacent to the canals, laterals, levees, and drains are essential for efficient and
economical operation and maintenance. Any unauthorized use shall be discontinued. The
cooperation of City, County, State, and Federal law enforcement officers will be solicited to aid in
achieving this goal.

Comments

Public River Access

I strongly oppose any further restrictions on river access for recreational users.Recreational users include walkers, hikers, runners, bicylers, horsemen, fishermen, and watersports enthusiast.Kayakers can eaily carry boats from public parking to rivers edge as currently done, but rafters require wider, shorter routes for launch and take-out, making local use by rafters nearly impossible.  Once per year I am able trailer through open gates and lauch my personal raft, floating through town during the river cleanup project, which is hugely successful and popular.  The river flows, as dictated by crops and endangered minnows, (rather than by voting citizens), are another seemingly insurmountable obstacle that should be addressed seperately.Give boaters a break for the short spring season that the river is runnable and let us realize some benefit from the tax money spent on these river access roads.  Other communities such as Farmington, NM even encourage use of riverways by granting combination numbers to interested boaters for normally locked gates.Sincerly Scott A. Carpenter: Local taxpayer and member of Adobe Whitewater Club.  Please reply for further input.

Post new comment

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Glossary terms will be automatically marked with links to their descriptions. If there are certain phrases or sections of text that should be excluded from glossary marking and linking, use the special markup, [no-glossary] ... [/no-glossary]. Additionally, these HTML elements will not be scanned: a, abbr, acronym, code, pre.
  • Insert Google Map macro.

More information about formatting options

Upcoming Kayak Instruction Classes

Currently there are no Intro to Kayaking clinics scheduled. Please see our Calendar of Events for upcoming Intro, Roll, Whitewater and Touring clinics, or Contact Us for a private lesson.
Currently there are no Kayak Roll clinics scheduled. Please see our Calendar of Events for upcoming Intro, Roll, Whitewater and Touring clinics, or Contact Us for a private lesson.
Currently there are no Intro to Whitewater clinics scheduled. Please see our Calendar of Events for upcoming Intro, Roll, Whitewater and Touring clinics, or Contact Us for a private lesson.
Currently there are no Advanced Whitewater clinics scheduled. Please see our Calendar of Events for upcoming Intro, Roll, Whitewater and Touring clinics, or Contact Us for a private lesson.
Currently there are no Community Events clinics scheduled. Please see our Calendar of Events for upcoming Intro, Roll, Whitewater and Touring clinics, or Contact Us for a private lesson.