Sul Ross State University professor Kelbi DeLaune, a scientist with the Meadows Research Institute for West Texas Water, has been studying the Pecos River. The story says the river is among the most endangered in the United States, shaped by dams and by agriculture and oil and gas activity. In parts of West Texas, it is often a muddy trickle.
The Pecos runs nearly 1,000 miles from New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Rio Grande. The story says salt from desert soils has long made its water harsh. After Red Bluff Reservoir was built in 1936 on the Texas-New Mexico line, the river below the dam lost its spring snowmelt pulses and its salinity rose sharply. DeLaune said some sections are so salty they resemble marine environments. The Gulf killifish, a fish native to the Atlantic Ocean, is found there.
DeLaune said spring-fed tributaries help the river. In Culberson County, Salt Creek supports a population of Pecos pupfish, a native species the story describes as deeply imperiled. Tributaries such as Independence Creek add rocks, pebbles and varied channels that give insects places to feed and breed, which in turn supports native fish. "The habitat has changed," DeLaune said. "It's still wild."