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Middle Rio Grande Regional Water Plan

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4. Legal Issues<br />

4.1 Relevant <strong>Water</strong> Law<br />

4.1.1 State of New Mexico Law<br />

The 2004 RWP, and supporting documents H-5 and H-6 to the 2004 RWP, includes a very<br />

comprehensive discussion of water law applicable to the region. However, since the accepted<br />

regional water plan for the <strong>Middle</strong> <strong>Rio</strong> <strong>Grande</strong> <strong>Water</strong> <strong>Plan</strong>ning Region was published in 2004,<br />

there have been significant changes in New Mexico water law through case law, statutes, and<br />

regulations. These changes address statewide issues including, but not limited to, domestic well<br />

permitting, the State Engineer’s authority to regulate water rights, administrative and legal<br />

review of water rights matters, use of settlements to allocate water resources, the rights<br />

appurtenant to a water right, and acequia water rights. New law has also been enacted to address<br />

water project financing and establish a new strategic water reserve. These general state law<br />

changes are addressed by topic area below. State law more specific to the <strong>Middle</strong> <strong>Rio</strong> <strong>Grande</strong><br />

region is discussed in Section 4.1.2.<br />

4.1.1.1 Regulatory Powers of the NMOSE<br />

Several cases have addressed the regulatory powers of the NMOSE. In 2003, the New Mexico<br />

Legislature enacted NMSA 1978, § 72-2-9.1, relating to the administration of water rights by<br />

priority date. The legislature recognized that “the adjudication process is slow, the need for<br />

water administration is urgent, compliance with interstate compacts is imperative and the state<br />

engineer has authority to administer water allocations in accordance with the water right<br />

priorities recorded with or declared or otherwise available to the state engineer.” Section 72-2-<br />

9.1(A)). The statute authorized the State Engineer to adopt rules for priority administration in a<br />

manner that does not interfere with future or pending adjudications, creates no impairment of<br />

water rights other than what is required to enforce priorities, and creates no increased depletions.<br />

Based on Section 72-2-9.1, the State Engineer promulgated the Active <strong>Water</strong> Resource<br />

Management (AWRM) regulations in December 2004. The regulation’s stated purpose is to<br />

establish the framework for the State Engineer “to carry out his responsibility to supervise the<br />

physical distribution of water to protect senior water right owners, to assure compliance with<br />

interstate stream compacts and to prevent waste by administration of water rights.” 19.25. 13.6<br />

NMAC. In order to carry out this purpose, the AWRM regulations provide the framework for<br />

the promulgation of specific water master district rules and regulations. No district-specific<br />

AWRM regulations have been promulgated in the <strong>Middle</strong> <strong>Rio</strong> <strong>Grande</strong> region at the time of<br />

writing.<br />

The general AWRM regulations set forth the duties of a water master to administer water rights<br />

in the specific district under the water master’s control. Before the water master can take steps to<br />

<strong>Middle</strong> <strong>Rio</strong> <strong>Grande</strong> <strong>Regional</strong> <strong>Water</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> 2017 23

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