The last legislative session produced a gusher of water bills.
With HB 19, the State Engineer finally got control over deep underground water, but not before opportunists filed on a million acre feet.
HB 40, from Rep. Paul Bandy of Aztec, will put a crimp in municipalities’ use of eminent domain to condemn water outside their jurisdictions. The bill limits local governments to their own jurisdictions and protects water used by acequias, community ditches, irrigation or conservancy districts or political subdivisions.
Farmers, Cattle Growers, the Acequia Association and environmentalists lined up in support. The governor said it was probably the most important water bill to reach his desk from the recent Legislative session. It helps the agricultural sector, he said, and forces municipalities to plan long term for their water needs.
On the other hand, if you’re responsible for assuring your community’s water supply, drought or no drought, it ties your hands. Condemnation has only been used two or three times in New Mexico, said State Engineer John D’Antonio. In an emergency, “it was always something they had in their back pocket.”
HB 40 is a sign of the times and another brick in the wall erected to contain water grabs.
One representative backer was Joshua Cravens, a young grower of heirloom seeds in southern New Mexico. His natural inclination is to tend to his business, Jardin del Alma, and enjoy his family. But because of threats to his own water by an audacious scheme to pump and sell millions of gallons of water from the San Agustin Basin in southwestern New Mexico, Cravens has become a water activist. He’s found hundreds of kindred souls.
A similar move in southeastern New Mexico is galvanizing more water activists. Berrendo LLC would pipe 6,600 acre-feet of water from the Pecos near Fort Sumner to Santa Fe. The issues are similar for both projects – impact on the water source, other water users, and river compacts. Local governments, agencies and water districts have filed objections.
Woven throughout both cases is the fear that bigger cities with bigger budgets will siphon water away from rural areas. It’s one thing to sell water to nearby Roswell or Ruidoso and quite another to send it uphill to Santa Fe. As it happens, Santa Fe’s daily newspaper, along with its no-growthers and environmentalists also object to the project.
One curious but contentious bill, SB 208, by Sen. Clinton Harden of Clovis, attempts to determine ownership of pore space under surface land.
“What the heck is this?” was D’Antonio’s first response. His second was, “These guys got this from somewhere.” From the Web he learned the issue is coming to us from Wyoming.
A bit of explanation: The earth under your feet isn’t necessarily solid. It can have gaps, reservoirs, caverns or the porosity of a sponge. And the pores have value as storage for carbon dioxide, compressed air from wind farms, or other substances, including water.
In a new wrinkle for split estate (the separate ownership of surface and mineral rights), the bill would have given ownership of pore space to surface owners. Mineral owners, whose oil sits in those pores, might also argue for ownership, but the bill protects them if they’re still developing or producing from a reservoir.
The State Land Office weighed in that the legislation, as written, could complicate its activities and seemed to hint that the issue could be addressed administratively. This bill died, but the question will return.
HB 37, by Rep. Ray Begaye of Shiprock, requires subdivision developers to notify tribes in the area.
Altogether, D’Antonio pronounced this session a good one for water. “A lot is trying to prevent bad legislation from happening,” he said. “It’s worse than watching sausage being made.”
© New Mexico News Services 2009