U.S. Water News Online
SANTA FE -- State Land Commissioner Ray Powell says it's ``horrible public policy'' for the Interstate Stream Commission to claim a huge pool of groundwater in southern New Mexico.
Norm Gaume, interstate stream engineer for the state, filed an application in February to appropriate 30,000 acre feet of water in the Salt Basin east of Las Cruces.
Gaume's application specified the state intended to pump the water from wells on state and federal land.
Powell -- who said he wasn't told of the application beforehand -- said moving water off state trust land without compensation would be a misappropriation of trust assets. The state Land Office collects revenue from millions of acres of state trust land for beneficiaries such as public education.
The land commissioner, who leaves office Dec. 31, and area residents are protesting the application.
The value of state land is much greater if the land has water, Powell said.
He said he won't allow use of state trust lands to drill the required wells.
``The only places where you have life is where you have water; there is no l ife without water,'' Powell said. ``And if we're going to continue to keep our public lands healthy, the water associated with that land has to remain on those lands. Taking them and severing them from the lands and shipping them somewhere else is, in my opinion, horrible public policy.''
The state engineer will eventually decide the issue. Gov.-elect Bill Richardson has opened a search to replace the current engineer, Tom Turney.
Gaume said he met recently with a lawyer from Powell's office, but does not believe the issue will be resolved before Powell leaves office.
Gaume's application said he wanted to claim the water for possible delivery to Texas to satisfy New Mexico's interstate compact obligations. The Interstate Stream Commission last month voted to modify the application to specify that the water would be used for New Mexico's own needs, particularly increasing the water supply for Ruidoso and Cloudcroft.
Gaume said the Legislature considered a measure two years ago that would have directed his office to look at water supplies in the Salt Basin. The legislation didn't pass, but Gaume said he considered the situation too critical to ignore and went ahead to investigate how much water was available.
The study found 35,000 acre feet of fresh water flows into the basin every year, Gaume said.
The state established a priority right to the water by filing the application before private applications that followed, he said. He said he does not believe there is enough water in the area for all the applicants.
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