By KRISTINA FISHER
Associate Director
Think New Mexico

As New Mexico enters another summer with below average snowpack and widespread drought conditions, it is heartening that state lawmakers recently enacted Senate Bill 37 to enhance the state’s Strategic Water Reserve.

The Strategic Water Reserve is an innovative water management tool that Think New Mexico crafted and successfully championed two decades ago. The law keeps a little more water in our rivers by allowing the state’s water managers to lease or purchase instream water rights to meet the needs of endangered species and fulfill our water delivery obligations to other states. Farmers and other water rights owners can lease their water rights to the Reserve when they aren’t using them, keeping those rights in their families while making rivers healthier.

During the 2025 legislative session, Think New Mexico partnered with a broad coalition to develop and support Senate Bill 37. The bill creates a non-reverting fund to hold future appropriations, ensuring that dollars allocated to the Reserve are available for the multiple years that it generally takes to complete a water rights transaction. Senate Bill 37 also allows the Reserve to acquire water rights for aquifer recharge, helping to sustain streamflows over the long term.

We commend the legislature and the governor for improving this important tool to keep New Mexico’s rivers alive and flowing.