Someone quipped that a yearly New Mexico water conference, held in Las Cruces on Tuesday, was a room full of people who are suing each other. Indeed, plenty of attendees on opposite sides of several legal fences packed into a ballroom at New Mexico State University. But instead of legal wranglings, there was face-to-face talk about the state's myriad, complex water struggles -most of which have only intensified with a severe drought the past two years.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and NMSU President Barbara Couture co-hosted the event, which drew about 500 attendees. The group heard from keynote speaker Michael Connor, commissioner for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, whose roots are in Las Cruces. Connor's agency is embroiled in two major legal disputes that also involve Doña Ana County farmers, El Paso farmers and the state of New Mexico.

Connor referenced both disputes, first touching upon a ruling by a New Mexico water judge on Aug. 1, which decided the federal government doesn't have groundwater rights in the federally built irrigation project that covers Doña Ana and El Paso counties. He said the federal stance in that debate was "mis-characterized to some extent" and that the agency wasn't attempting to stake out ownership of New Mexico groundwater. "That's not what we're trying to do," he told the audience. "We're trying to protect the project's interest." The dispute pitted the state against the federal government, but Connor said he's not sure either one is wrong. In addition, Connor noted his agency, which signed onto a 2008 operating agreement with El Paso and Doña Ana County irrigators, also is involved in a separate lawsuit.

The second one, in federal court, was filed by New Mexico Attorney General Gary King. Still, Connor said the best fixes to the problems won't be reached through the courts, but rather through meetings among water managers. The latter route can achieve faster, "sustainable" solutions, he said. "I'm going to suggest we ought to disarm the lawyers -at least until we get a better idea about the interaction between the surface water and groundwater in the Rio Grande basin," he said.

Experts in the local water scene agree there's a hydrological connection between surface and groundwater close to the Rio Grande. But the legal line between them is fuzzy. A number of speakers mentioned New Mexico's especially low reservoirs and lack of precipitation, saying the big challenge is figuring how to supply water to a spectrum of diverse -and often competing - interests well into the future. Scarity was the conference theme.

An expert on algae for fuel, a city water official from Rio Rancho and the executive director for the New Mexico Acequia Association made up one diverse panel of experts. Paula Garcia, executive director for the community ditch group, said water rights "transfers" - for instance, buyers snatching up rights at the highest bid - could "lead to our extinction. "Left unfettered, the (water) market could really wipe out entire agricultural communities," she told the audience.  Her comments resonated with attendee Ara Janelle Woodward, who owns six family farms in the La Mesa and Chamberino areas. Woodward said she signed up to go the conference because she's worried the nation's agriculture future is dimming. "I'm terrified we're going to become so dependent on everybody else for our food and fiber," she said. "And our country was founded in independence."

Denise Fort, of the Utton Transboundary Resources Center, based at the University of New Mexico, said changes are needed in policy to protect all-around stream health. "We don't have a framework for protecting the ecological value of our rivers and streams," she said. Attendee Joshua Rosenblatt, environmental compliance analyst for the city of Las Cruces, said Tuesday's event was a step in the right direction because it gives all the interested water parties -from the policymakers to the scientists -an understanding of the landscape.  "It provides the framework to ask the hard questions. And that's the starting point to adapt policies to deal with water scarcity", Rosenblatt said.

No matter what solutions are vetted in the future, all the various interests are going to have to work together, the panelists agreed. "We can't get anywhere unless we collaborate," D'Antonio said.