SENATE BILL 402

47th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2006

INTRODUCED BY

Leonard Lee Rawson

AN ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO ADDRESS SURFACE WATER AND GROUND WATER MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN THE LOWER RIO GRANDE BASIN AND TO PROTECT NEW MEXICO'S ENTITLEMENT TO WATERS UNDER THE COLORADO RIVER COMPACT AND THE RIO GRANDE COMPACT.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. APPROPRIATION.--

          A. Three million dollars ($3,000,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the interstate stream commission for expenditure in fiscal year 2007 and subsequent fiscal years to address surface water and ground water management issues in the lower Rio Grande basin and to protect the state's entitlement to waters under the Colorado River Compact and the Rio Grande Compact in the following amounts for the following purposes:

                (1) nine hundred fifty thousand dollars ($950,000) to drill and equip wells to monitor the effects in New Mexico of ground water pumping on the Mexican side of the border;

                (2) seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) to drill and equip monitoring wells and to perform computer modeling of ground water flow to quantify depletion of the New Mexico aquifer from pumping at the Canutillo well field;

                (3) eight hundred fifty thousand dollars ($850,000) to provide technical and legal work that will lead to an interstate-international salinity control forum and discussions of the interception and treatment of saline water; and

                (4) five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to provide technical and legal work to assist the state and lower Rio Grande water users in administering water usage in the lower Rio Grande basin.

          B. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund.

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