Alamosa Daily Digest Saturday, October 03, 2026
Ty's Take
Pat McDermott spent decades fighting over water in this valley, which means he spent decades fighting over everything that matters around here. The Rio Grande doesn't care much about state lines or old compacts or who farmed where first, but McDermott had to, and when a man like that hangs up his boots from the Division of Water Resources, you're left wondering who keeps the lights on while everyone else argues. El Niño's coming, supposedly bringing moisture to a high desert that's been thirsty longer than most of us can remember, and that's fine, but water in the San Luis Valley isn't just weather. It's history, it's agriculture, it's survival, and it's the kind of problem that doesn't get solved by one good snow year. McDermott knew that. Whoever comes next will have to learn it fast.
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Valley Courier
“The question I’m asked most frequently is how a black doctor in his 50s working on the Navajo reservation started doing street art on said reservation. In retrospect, it was only natural for this evolution to occur.” That’s a quote from Chip Thomas, who works under the artistic name jetsonorama ,...
Pat McDermott retires from Colorado Division of Water Resources
A staple of the annual Southern Rocky Mountain Ag Conference is Pat McDermott’s presentation on the conditions of the Upper Rio Grande Basin, a deeply insightful report that the gathering of farmers and ranchers has come to appreciate and expect. The upcoming Ag Conference, held each February in...
Now comes the test of the anticipated El Niño
That will do it for now when it comes to moisture for the Upper Rio Grande Basin. The 2.3 inches of rain that fell in September, or 1.29 inches more than what’s normal for the month, felt like a godsend after a summer of intense heat, when fishermen were asked to leave their rods at home and bears...
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