| Amigos Bravos is negotiating with the New Mexico Environment Department to have that agency include the New Mexico Rivers Information System (NMRIS) as a line item is it's 2000 budget proposal. Though the bill did not pass the state legislature, the NMRIS is still very much alive.
The NMRIS will create an easily accessible, public database of river-related information, from datacurrently disbursed among dozens of government agencies. NMRIS will provide the general public, acequia parciantes, tribal nations, and all interested persons with comprehensive, unbiased information about New Mexico's rivers via the Internet and complete with graphics. Amigos Bravos has been working on this ambitious project since 1996.
New Mexico's Secretary of Environment, Pete Maggiore, approves of the project and agrees that it fits within the information technology initiative in state government, but has made no promises as yet. Given the groundwork we've laid with state agencies, we are confident that the NMRIS will make it through budget negotiations. |
