New Mexico struggles with water well dilemma

Ted Montuori, WaterTechOnline Assistant Managing Editor

SANTA FE, NM

February, 18, 2002

An attempt to limit how much water could be pumped from domestic wells and deny permits for new ones has died in New Mexico's state legislature.

The attempt to get the bill passed underscores New Mexico's struggle to conserve drinking water. Proponents of the bill said it would help the state's rivers replenish themselves. Opponents said giving the power to control wells to one person — the sate engineer — would be wrong and create problems.

Rep. Joe Stell said the bill he crafted, Underground Waters Permits, would have helped limit the amount of water drawn from the approximately 130,000 wells in the state. New Mexico law says the state engineer must approve all permits for domestic wells, from which well owners can draw up to three acre feet of water a year.

The bill died 31 January in the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee.

Reducing the amount of water drawn from wells would help replenish the state's waterways, particularly, the Pecos River. Approximately 325 miles long, the Pecos River has not met its average flow rate in 17 of the last 20 years. This is due to a growing population, poor weather and watershed conditions and the area's naturally arid climate, said Stell.

The water is also needed as part of a 1980s compact that says New Mexico has to deliver water to Texas, after neglecting to deliver 340,000 acre feet to that state for 34 years.

State Engineer Tom Turney said the Pecos River has lost between 10 and 30 percent of its water because of the increasing amount of domestic well use. In eight years, Turney said he has issued around 140,000 permits, each costing $5, to build domestic wells.

Besides the Pecos River losing water, another pressing issue is that the permit applicants are not buying water rights, which cost between $1,000 and $2,000 per acre-foot, according to Turney.

"I think it's a flawed policy to issue permits to areas where there are water quality issues," Turney said.

If he had his way, Turney said he would cut off water from thousands of wells to illustrate his point that permit applicants need to buy water rights.

Which is exactly what the bill's opponents didn't want.

The bill would have allowed the state engineer very broad powers in deciding who would be denied domestic well permits, said Alan Eades, president of the New Mexico Ground Water Association (NMGWA). That decision should be made by the state's counties, which have recently been dealing with a rise in subdivisions that use wells for residents' drinking water, Eades said.

Giving that power to one person would be wrong, according to Eades, who said if the law was implemented, the state engineer could anger homeowners and begin a flurry of lawsuits by turning off wells.

Turney disagrees.

"They need to be regulated," he said. "Someone has to have the authority to do it."

Eades said the NMGWA liked other parts of the bill, such as lowering the amount of water that can be used to one acre foot annually and using meters to monitor usage of each well.

Stell said he thinks there will be studies done on how the domestic wells and increasing population affect the Pecos River and other waterways.