The Doña Ana Soil and Water Conservation District will present their next Zoom webinar on Tuesday, July 8th. The topics will be “An Introduction to New Mexico Water Rights” and the Amigo Program. Scott Brocato spoke with the webinar’s hosts from the Office of State Engineers—J.R. Hennessey, Deputy District Manager of District 4; and Alfred Perrault, Water Resource Specialist—about the what will be discussed during the webinar.
Scott Brocato:
The topics for your upcoming webinar, July 8th are “An Introduction to New Mexico Water Rights” and the Amigo Program. J.R. Hennessy, let’s start with you and New Mexico water rights. What will be some of the topics and issues you'll be touching upon?
J.R. Hennessey:
You know, the first thing is just to let people know who we are. A lot of folks don't know who the Office of the State Engineer is, and really what our responsibility is for them within the state. The Office of State Engineer is charged with administering the state’s water resources, and the State Engineer has the authority over the supervision measurement of preparation and distribution of all surface and groundwater in in New Mexico. So we start there.
We also have the Interstate Stream Commission. This is part of the of the O.S.E., and the Interstate Stream Commission is really responsible for overseeing the interstate compacts or water crosses the state line into other states, and among other duties that are there. I'd like to go into talking about the New Mexican water history, the fact that New Mexico had water code even before it was a state. So the 1907 water code was there. New Mexico didn't become a state till 1912, and really introduced the idea of the prior appropriation doctrine. So that's out there.
Scott Brocato:
And what is the current status of water rights? And who owns the water, the people?
J.R. Hennessey:
The people own the water, so that's one thing that's important to understand. The rights to water really start with the New Mexico Constitution, which states that beneficial use is the basis limited measure of the water right. So while the water is public, you can have the right to use that water by establishing a water right through beneficial use.
Scott Brocato:
What are some concerns you have regarding the issue of water rights in New Mexico?
J.R. Hennessey:
You know, a lot of it is understanding. We have a lot of folks that come from other parts of the country that aren't familiar with the concept of beneficial use, the concept that you have to establish water rights. Take taxes for example. You have the right of capture there, where you basically own the water that's under your property. That's not the case here in New Mexico and much of the West. You have to establish a water right through beneficial use, and that allows you to use that groundwater or surface water, if it's there.
You know, here in the lower Rio Grande, we've been in a drought--really, all of New Mexico's been in a drought for some time now--and we need to understand the effect that that's having on our water resources and understand how water rights play into that, and make sure we have enough water to go around for all the uses that we become accustomed to here in southern New Mexico.
Scott Brocato:
Alfred Perrault, let's talk about the Amigo program, which will also be a topic of the webinar. It's the New Mexico Office of the State Engineers Lower Rio Grande Adaptive Metering for Informed Groundwater Operations program. Please explain that.
Alfred Perrault:
So it was funded by the legislature. We got some funding that came down that we used for the legal program along with the lower Rio Grande for some of the projects we have going on. But it's an 8G90 meter that we're going to be installing for the people that have the agricultural wells throughout the lower Rio Grande, and it helps them. A meter can cost up to $600 to $1200 depending on the discharge size.
So it's a free meter funded by the state. We'll do maintenance on it. If anything happens to it, we'll repair it. And a good thing about it is the constituents of the lower Rio Grande have to send in meter readings every quarter (that) they have to send in. They can do it either on our website, or you can send in a paper meter reading. If they get into the program, they will no longer have to do that. It will be like a wireless that talks down to our server over here, and we'll be able to keep up with the meter readings that are coming in. Along with that is that we're going to try and put transducers down the wells to figure out what the aquifer is doing, so that will help us out to figure out the groundwater operations.
Scott Brocato:
Well, aside from explaining that to people that will be taking part of the webinar, what other topics will you be touching upon?
Alfred Perrault:
I can help out J.R. with some of the water rights administration questions that come up, but maybe it'll be the Amigo Program. That's the one that I'm kind of, you know, running the show with J.R. as my supervisor, so...
Scott Brocato:
The webinar is Tuesday July 8th. How can folks take part?
Alfred Perrault:
I can answer any questions that they have as far as meter readings and there's the Amigo Program. And then they can be involved. We can get them signed up if they want to get in there. We have 100 meters so far installed, but we're going to try and get some more out there, so there will be a chance for them to get into the program as well.
Scott Brocato:
And people can access that through the Doña Ana Soil and Water website?
J.R. Hennessey:
Yeah, they can go to the website, click on Events there, and you'll be able to get a live link to the webinar.
Scott Brocato:
And it's all free?
J.R. Hennessey:
All free.
Scott Brocato:
J.R.Hennessy, Alfred Perrault, thank you for talking about these topics with KRWG Public Media.
J.R. Hennessey:
Glad to do it. Thank you.