Feds tackle hot-button issue of domestic wells, who gets water first
The federal agency that manages the lower Colorado River is tackling an incendiary issue that recently exploded to life in southeastern New Mexico: domestic wells taking water that doesn't belong to them.
Earlier this month, a state judge in Silver City found that new domestic wells on the Mimbres River were tapping water that the New Mexico Constitution says belongs to others with more senior rights. His ruling sent shock waves through New Mexico's water community and prompted the Office of the State Engineer to appeal.
Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is voicing similar concerns about the lower Colorado River, The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday. Domestic wells near the river in Arizona, California and Nevada are taking as much as 5 billion gallons a year, which lowers the river level and harms those who have longstanding rights to the water — including seven states, hundreds of cities and dozens of Indian tribes and irrigation districts.
The agency has proposed new regulations that would require those well owners to get in line with everyone else, and either join an existing water district, tap into municipal supplies or buy water rights. Arizona has set aside some of its Colorado River water for unallocated use, which might be made available to well owners there, The Republic noted, but California and Nevada do not have similar stores.
Lorri Gray, director of the bureau's lower Colorado region, told The Republic that the agency will work with well owners to keep their water flowing. "A key goal of this rule is to help those well owners who are using Colorado River water without a legal entitlement become lawful users of that water," she said.
Domestic well users along the Rio Grande needn't worry, however, at least about action by the Bureau of Reclamation, said agency spokeswoman Mary Perea Carlson. "We have nothing like that in the works on the Rio Grande right now," she said.
The Silver City ruling by District Judge J.C. Robinson is stayed, pending the outcome of the state's appeal.
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