Bill co-sponser Rep. Matthew McQueen
By ROBERT NOTT
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Water rights remain fightin’ words in New Mexico.
A bill by Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, that would have allowed the State Engineer’s Office to obtain water rights through forfeiture from those who hadn’t exercised them in 10 years, was shot down by an 8-0 vote Tuesday in the House Agriculture, Acequias and Water Resources Committee.
McQueen said House Bill 346 was intended to save water, noting that otherwise those with “deep pockets” — including developers — could swoop in and buy up those rights, perhaps transferring them to other parts of the state.
“We want people to be active stewards of their water rights,” McQueen told the committee in presenting the bill. “This bill is to prevent the resurrection of long-dormant water rights.”
Once the state took over the forfeited rights, it would either put the water to beneficial public use — including in conservation initiatives — or, as McQueen put it, “retire” the rights if there’s no water on the property in question.
He said HB 346 is one way to conserve water for a state that is in desperate need of it, especially as drought “is the new norm.”
Members said they did not like a provision in the bill allowing the state to take the property without giving notice to the water rights owner.
“My biggest problem is taking somebody’s water rights without telling them,” said Rep. Martin Zamora, R-Clovis.
Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell, R-Roswell, set a more defiant tone when she said water rights are part of property rights and McQueen’s bill amounted to a government grab.
“As a water rights owner, that is my property rights and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the government take it,” she said.
The bill is one of several dealing with protecting and conserving the state’s limited water supply.
The committee’s vote came just days after the New Mexico Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force — a group of state, local and tribal water managers and advocates — issued a report with 17 recommendations for better ways of using, conserving and delivering water as water as demand increases.
Though Nat Chakeres, general counsel for the State Engineer’s Office, spoke in favor of McQueen’s bill — “dormant rights are real, they’re out there,” he said — most of the people in attendance spoke against the legislation.
Several said if anything HB 346 might lead people to either use water on their property just to prove it’s in play or sell out to developers for fear of losing the rights down the line.
Water rights in the state would “skyrocket in price,” Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, said after the hearing.
McQueen said the bill includes provisions for forfeiture exceptions and appeals.
“In 10 years, we will wish we had this bill,” said McQueen, who co-sponsored the legislation with Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe.
Democrats joined Republicans on the committee in voting against the bill.
A clearly disappointed McQueen said, “we are facing difficult decisions — and the longer we wait, the more difficult they will be.”