Summary:

 Senate Bill 423 (SB 423) makes appropriations to the Office of the State Engineer for Water Security Planning Act, Water Data Act and Rio Grande Compact compliance measure. 


 

Legislation Overview:

 Senate Bill 423 (SB 423) appropriates thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) from the General Fund (GF) to the Office of the State Engineer for expenditure in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 through FY 2028 for the Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) to provide grants under the Water Security Planning Act (Sections 72-14A-1 to 72-14A-5 NMSA 1978) to the state’s political subdivisions as fiscal agents for regional water planning entities.
Senate Bill 423 (SB 423) appropriates thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) from the General Fund (GF) to the OSE for expenditure in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 through FY 2028 to the OSE and the ISC to improve business processes and information technology systems for internal and public access to water data and to fully comply with the agencies' Water Data Act responsibilities and as water data providers under the Water Security Planning Act.
For both of the above appropriations, any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2028 reverts to the GF.
Senate Bill 423 (SB 423) appropriates two million dollars ($2,000,000) from the General Fund (GF) to the Office of the State Engineer for expenditure in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 and FY 2027 to promulgate rules pursuant to Section 72-2-9.1 NMSA 1978 (Priority Administration) and take actions required to enforce Rio Grande water rights from the Los Alamos highway bridge to Elephant Butte Reservoir to ensure compliance with New Mexico's water delivery obligations to the Reservoir pursuant to the Rio Grande Compact.
Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2027 reverts to the GF.

 

Current Law:

 In 2023, New Mexico passed the Water Security Planning Act that is designed to reinvigorate regional water planning around the challenge of projected reductions in supply. 
The Water Data Act was passed in 2019 and is the first time in the state’s history that a law has been enacted to identify and integrate key water data.  The agencies involved are the OSE, the ISC, the NM Environment Department (NMED) and the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) with the NM Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources as the conveyor. 
The Rio Grande Compact requires New Mexico to deliver water to Elephant Butte Reservoir to supply water to Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico. The compact is a water-sharing agreement between Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas that was signed in 1938 and approved by Congress in 1939.
Under the Compact, Colorado agreed to deliver a certain amount of water to the New Mexico state line. Then, instead of similarly requiring New Mexico to make a delivery of water to the Texas state line, the Compact requires New Mexico to annually deliver water to the Elephant Butte Reservoir. 
The compact sets a schedule for water deliveries based on the amount of water that passes the Otowi flow gage in a year. It tracks deviations from the schedule using a debit and credit system.  New Mexico's deliveries are measured by the releases from Elephant Butte Dam plus the change in storage in the reservoir. Evaporation from Elephant Butte Reservoir is accounted against New Mexico's compact allocation. If New Mexico doesn't meet its delivery requirements for three consecutive years, it must send additional water from the New Mexico irrigation district to the Texas irrigation district. New Mexico fell significantly short in the 1950s, and the US Supreme Court warned New Mexico that if it withheld water imposed under delivery requirements that it would lose control of the administration of state waters. Again in 2013, Texas accused New Mexico water users downstream of Elephant Butte Reservoir of improper groundwater pumping. Although Texas and New Mexico reached an agreement, the federal Bureau of Land Management has not agreed to the settlement because it only addresses the interstate issues. The US Supreme Court did not uphold the consent decree. (602.U.S.  (2024) No. 141, Orig.
https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/resources/water/data-act/home.html
https://nmwrri.nmsu.edu/publications/water-conference-proceedings/wcp-documents/w44/gaume.pdf
https://www.ose.nm.gov/Compacts/RioGrande/compactAccounting.php