Irrigation official criticizes Texas commissioner

August 08, 2001
By James A. Rosenthal
Las Cruces Sun-News

The president of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District has accused a member of a three-state water-sharing commission of ignoring the district's concerns and favoring Texas over New Mexico on critical issues.

"We really have no friends," said Gary Arnold, a Las Cruces pecan farmer and president of the irrigation district, referring to the district's lack of support within the Rio Grande Compact Commission.

The commission, comprised of Colorado, Texas and New Mexico officials, oversees the Rio Grande Compact, a 1929 interstate agreement to apportion water equitably to the three states.

Under the pact, Colorado and New Mexico deliver water according to a formula based on the flow of the Rio Grande and its tributaries at designated gauging stations above the state lines.

Arnold said the irrigation district's views about important water policies are being ignored by commissioner Joe G. Hanson of Texas.

Under the compact, the New Mexico portion of the Rio Grande from Elephant Butte Dam to the Texas border falls under the jurisdiction of Texas and its commissioner, Arnold said.

For that reason, he said, the irrigation district relies on the Texas commissioner to represent its views on water-sharing issues.

Instead, he said, Hanson has largely ignored the Elephant Butte district and has not invited district input on some of the most important water-sharing issues facing the region.

"We feel we need somebody who is responsible and responsible to the people he is asked to task with," Arnold said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "My perception is that the current commissioner is just looking out for Texas and is not concerned about New Mexico."

Arnold sent letters critical of Hanson to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, New Mexico Commissioner Thomas C. Turney and to Hanson.

A telephone call to Hanson in El Paso was not returned Tuesday.

Arnold said the district is especially concerned about the commission's handling of two issues: El Paso's proposal to allow it to "carry over storage" of water not used from one year to the next and for "year-round releases" of water into the Rio Grande to El Paso.

El Paso would like to "carry over" to a future year the portion of its water allotment that it does not use in the current year, he said. However, he said, that would distort the current formula and would hurt New Mexico farmers who expect to share a certain percentage of water each year with El Paso.

The irrigation district receives 57 percent and El Paso 43 percent of available water each year.

The other critical issue, Arnold said, is Texas' bid for year-round water flow. Currently, the water is released and halted according to irrigation schedules.

District officials and farmers oppose year-round flow. Water that should be used for irrigation, they said, would flow to El Paso during the off-season rather than being stored and distributed later in each state.

Year-round water flow, they say, would diminish the district farmers' supply. However, the proposal may make sense in the future if both New Mexico and El Paso need to provide treated river water for residents, they say.

When asked, Arnold said he is not sure what the district can do about its problems with the commission. He said he hoped his complaints would prompt a response from Hanson and an improved situation.

He said the Elephant Butte Irrigation District could seek a change in the compact rules to be removed from Texas' jurisdiction.

In his letter to Hanson, Arnold said the issues of carry-over storage and year-round releases should be resolved through negotiations and not unilaterally by the commission.

"If you are not willing to represent the New Mexico lands within the Texas portion of the compact," Arnold said, then the district would be left "without a compact commissioner which situation clearly is untenable."

Currently, property in the Lower Rio Grande is undergoing an adjudication process in which landowners are receiving "offers of judgment" about their water rights -- how much water they are entitled to use. Officially known as "water rights adjudication," the process is expected to be completed in roughly 10 years.

With 4,000 square miles to cover, the adjudication is the largest such project ever undertaken in New Mexico. It includes the Rincon Valley, northern and southern Mesilla Valley, and outlying areas.

The priorities are determined by several criteria, including when the water was first used and the purpose of water use.

The events leading to the adjudication began in 1980, when former State Engineer Steve Reynolds formally "declared" a basin in the Lower Rio Grande.

From that point forward, anyone claiming water in the area had to file a claim with the State Engineer's Office.

In the Lower Rio Grande, the adjudication was made especially complicated by the presence of the Rio Grande Project, whose water rights were claimed by both agricultural producers under the umbrella of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District and by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

There were also demands on project water from the city of El Paso and El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1.

In 1986, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District filed suit in state District Court, seeking to force the State Engineer's Office to "adjudicate" the water in the basin -- to establish how much water was attached to which claims. That suit was later joined by New Mexico State University, Stahmann Farms, the city of El Paso and El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1.

It was not until 1996, however, that the State Engineer's Office agreed to undertake the adjudication project.