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A “water team” assembled to help the Village of Corrales navigate its way to long-term water supplies said Tuesday evening the road ahead will be complicated.
The group, which includes Corrales resident and former state engineer Mike Hamman, detailed the process for village councilors at their latest meeting.
Hamman, who built the team with Mayor Jim Fahey, said there are two major guidelines that govern Middle Rio Grande water use. The Rio Grande Compact was signed into law in 1938 but territorial law on water administration was established in 1907, he said.
“From that point forward, the territorial engineer at that time administered all surface water rights,” Hamman said.
He noted that permits entitling users to pre-1907 water rights were grandfathered in, provided there is a beneficial use of the water.
The six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos, Hamman said, are the highest in the hierarchy of water rights.
A century ago, he said, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District was created after its namesake river became a wide swamp below Cochiti Cayton.
“There was a huge flood and there was lots of sedimentation that was occurring, and that created a swamp environment,” Hamman said. “And then a series of other things happened, the Depression and various things like that. There was a lot of water rights that kind of went out of existence because of the swampy, poor drainage that was occurring.”
The conservancy district created dams, canals and other structures to make the river flow more efficiently, Hamman said.
In the 1950s, he said, the state engineer essentially closed the basin to groundwater drilling after a large number of unpermitted wells sprang up, citing concerns about the interconnection between surface water and groundwater and the potential that the state would not be able to honor its compact delivery obligations.
Hamman said the New Mexico Constitution allows for an individual property owner to have a domestic well, which can be improved, but cannot be transferred.
John Stomp is a registered professional engineer and a New Mexico-licensed attorney working on water-rights matters. He was also the chief operating officer for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and water resources manager for the City of Albuquerque.
Stomp said municipalities are allowed a special privilege not available to other water users; they can hold unused water rights for a 40-year planning horizon to protect expected future needs.
“This is contrary to other water rights in New Mexico, where you could be subject to forfeiture and abandonment when you don’t use your water rights,” he said. “The key to that is to actually have a 40-year water development plan (on file) with the state engineer’s office that’s been reviewed and approved.”
Corrales does not have an approved water development plan, though the village is in the process of putting one together.
Stomp said there was an attempt to create a 40-year plan in 2004, but for some reason, that document was not submitted to the Office of the State Engineer.
He said the team is working to rectify that deficiency, and that the first step in that process is to identify what water rights the village now holds and whether Corrales is in compliance with the relevant rules.
Water resources specialist Brittany Guame said the village has historically used its water for fire suppression, irrigation and sanitary domestic purposes, along with municipal and commercial uses. She said those are likely going to be the same uses in the future, with the state engineer’s office possibly considering rule changes that would permit a municipality to hold agricultural water rights.
She said historic and current uses of Corrales’ water rights will be recorded in the 40-year plan and used as the basis for projecting the village’s potential future needs.
Stomp said developing the plan will be a public process, with the water team working with the council and the community. He said the plan will probably come to the council in draft form the first time, and then for review and approval prior to submission to the state engineer’s office
Water resources specialist Carole Christiano shared maps of the village’s extant wells and related infrastructure. The water team says it’s likely that the 40-year plan will take one to 1.5 years to complete.
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