The Cimarron Watershed Alliance (CWA) is made up of volunteers from both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Colfax County. Volunteers include public officials, agency personnel, civic groups, ranchers, business-people, and private citizens, all with the common interest of maintaining and improving water quality and quantity within the Cimarron Watershed. The CWA's Objectives are:

 

• To restore, maintain, and/or preserve surface and groundwater quality, aquatic resources, and water supplies.

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• Serve as a resource on watershed issues and information.

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• To protect, restore, and maintain natural resources (land, water, forest, and wildlife) in the watershed.

 

The CWA was created as a result of a watershed study done by the New Mexico Environment Department, as required by the United States Department of Environmental Protection. This study resulted in the adoption of several Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Reports that identified certain problems in creeks and rivers within the Cimarron Watershed. These problems included turbidity, temperature, aluminum, and fecal coliform. The CWA was formed to help address these problems at the local level with local input. A list of concerns and possible actions were identified by the CWA members. However, the CWA recognized that to be effective it must limit its efforts to a finite number of these issues at any one time. Therefore, the members' first step was to categorize their objectives into long-term and short-term solutions. These categories were then narrowed to what the members believed to be most critical for the future health of the watershed. These included: replanting riparian areas, reducing forest biomass, and improving wastewater management throughout the County.