DISQUS

DISQUS Hello! The New Mexico Independent is using DISQUS, a powerful comment system, to manage its comments. Learn more.

Community Page

The New Mexico Independent

Jump to original thread »
Author

State lawmakers talk tough on adjudicating water rights

Started by nmindependent · 9 months ago

State legislators meeting in Las Cruces this week are talking about springing loose millions of dollars in state funds to help untangle one of the state’s thorniest issues: who is entitled to water and how much are they entitled to?
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that state Sen. M ... Continue reading »

1 comment

  • brucefred

    11 months ago

    The State Engineer has spent millions on adjudications, but most of that money is not used to adjudicate water rights. Instead it is spent largely on "make work" projects, such as trying to join 20,000 parties to an adjudication, which is a lawsuit, and then attempting to update the land ownership of these parties. Land ownership is regarded as key, because most of the water use is due to the exercise of irrigation water rights, and irrigation water rights are appurtenant to land. However, trying to keep up-to-the-minute records of who owns 20,000 parcels of land is like trying the chase the rainbow. The existing Rules of Civil Procedure provide tools to solve this problem, but the courts do not use the Rules effectively and often become confused by the arguments of private attorneys whose main aim is to delay the adjudication.
    reply
Please login to comment.
Returning? Login