At its 2007 state Convention, the League of Women Voters of New Mexico approved a
two-year study of Water Supply and Demand. The League would like to develop a statewide position
on the allocation of available water among competing uses, grounded in a basic
understanding of NM water availability and water law. A third year was approved at the 2009
state Convention. Consensus questions will deal with
Most of the NM Leagues have studied water issues in the past but the resulting positions may not
be applied at the state level without statewide consensus. See the
existing local positions.
Public Welfare
The New Mexico Water Code obliges the State Engineer to consider "public welfare" when allocating water
or approving water transfers. However, the state has never formally defined public welfare, although
New Mexico courts have held that the term should be construed broadly to include health and safety,
recreational, aesthetic, environmental and economic interests. Consideration of public welfare raises
difficult economic, environmental and social issues. Nevertheless, the public welfare requirement does
establish a mechanism to broaden the protection of water resources.
Consuelo Bokum (NM Environmental Law Center, no date). Implementing the
Public Welfare Requirement in New Mexico's Water Code (PDF 128 KB). This report
reviews the public trust doctrine underlying
the authority given to the State Engineer to protect the "public welfare" and argues that the term should
be defined broadly, supplying a draft definition and standards for its implementation.
Public welfare statements from selected regional water plans:
Water and Land Use
"Historically, land-use and water planning have
occurred separately from one another. Water is allocated by state agencies, and
land-use planning is done by local officials."
(Watering the West,
Headwaters News, March 15, 2007.)
A. Dan Tarlock and Sarah B. Van de Wetering, 2007. Water
and Western Growth (PDF 136 KB)
Matthew McKinney, 2003. Linking Growth
and Land Use to Water Supply (PDF 112 KB)
Basic references
Definitions and Units:
Unit conversion factors (acre-feet, gallons, and all that) plus brief discussions of the
doctrine of "prior appropriation", "adjudication", and "offsets".
Introduction to
New Mexico Water History and Terminology,
NM Legislative Council Service Information Bulletin, November 21, 2002.
Alleta Belin, Consuela Bokum and Frank Titus (2002).
Taking Charge of Our Water Destiny: A Water Management Policy Guide for New Mexico in the 21st Century. 1000 Friends of New Mexico. (PDF 856 KB) This comprehensive survey includes
discussions of New Mexico's priority water rights system, groundwater resources, and
urban/rural tradeoffs. One appendix is devoted to the ABCs of NM
water law, and another defines many terms.
Additional references
Regulation of Water Versus Hydrologic
Reality in New Mexico,
by Peggy Barroll (Southwest Hydrology 2003) is a good two-page
introduction to the regulation of
groundwater in New Mexico. (PDF 280 KB)
Hijacking the Rio Grande: Aquifer Mining
in an Arid River Basin by Lisa Roberts (Geotimes 2004) lays out the
complicated relationships between physical reality, New Mexico water law, and
development pressures in the Middle Rio Grande. (PDF 372 KB)
The San Juan/Chama Project (PDF 84 kB)
diverts about 110,000 acre-feet per year (afy)
of water from the Colorado River Basin across the continental divide into the Rio Grande Basin. More than half of
this is destined for the Middle Rio Grande region. Albuquerque completed its
San Juan Drinking Water Project
in December 2008. Eventually the project will provide 70-90% of the metro area's water.
The former system, relying entirely on pumping groundwater, was removing water from the aquifer twice
as fast as it could be replaced.
Presentations and related articles
Who Owns Water? Water Rights in the Southwest States
by Brian Hurd, NMSU (2003) presents the legal history of western water law in general and then goes
into New Mexico law. (PDF, 1.7 MB)
NM Water Rights Fact Sheet
produced by the Bureau of Land Management.
Water and Drought in the 21st Century (slides, PDF format, 1.8 MB),
overview by UNM Professor David Gutzler. See also the report of the
NMENV Technical Work Group on
Potential
Effects of Climate Change in New Mexico (PDF, 148 KB) and
The Future is Drying Up
by Jon Gertner, published in the New York Times Magazine on October 19, 2007.
Sandoval County Water Issues (slides, PDF format, 1.1 MB),
presentation by Bob Wessely, including several slides dealing with the regional water budget and much more.
Here
is the detailed water budget from Appendix 8 (PDF 4.0 MB) of the
Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan.
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Useful Links
NM Water Connections.
The goal of this website is to facilitate communication between groups working on water
related issues in New Mexico, promote collaboration between these groups, and provide
a guide for anyone interested in finding out about water issues in our state.
Includes a page of useful links.
New Mexico Water Dialog.
Good newsletter; visit the publications page.
Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security.
Publisher of the biannual report "The World's Water".
USGS Water Resources Information
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Last updated 6/16/2009
