Front Page  news  state

Friday, July 25, 2008

State Water Official Appeals Well Ruling

By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer
       The state's top water official Thursday appealed a court decision that declared New Mexico's domestic water well rules unconstitutional.
    The appeal means that, for the time being, the Office of State Engineer will continue issuing home water well permits, according to a statement issued late Thursday afternoon.
    The decision puts on hold, for now, a legal process that had threatened to remake the rules for drilling home water wells in the state.
    Since the 1950s, New Mexico state law has given a homeowner the automatic right to drill a domestic water well, without any right for neighbors to object. Some 7,000 to 8,000 water wells are drilled in New Mexico under the rules every year.
    Judge J.C. Robinson of the 6th Judicial District Court in Silver City concluded in a July 10 ruling that law conflicts with the historic Western principle, written into the New Mexico Constitution, that the first users of water in a region have the highest priority water rights.
    The ruling was a victory for activists who claimed the statute had created a well-drilling free-for-all around the state, with no control over how much water domestic wells were removing from the state's dwindling aquifers.
    When Robinson's decision was issued, state water Engineer John D'Antonio said it came as no surprise, saying he had warned New Mexico legislators that there was a good chance the domestic well water rule was unconstitutional. In a statement issued Thursday, D'Antonio said he felt it was important to appeal the decision in order to clarify the legal issues in the case.
    Steve Hernandez, the Las Cruces lawyer who filed the case on behalf of Mimbres River farmers Horace and Jo Bounds, could not be reached for comment.