SENATE BILL 72

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2018

INTRODUCED BY

Howie C. Morales

AN ACT

MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE NEW MEXICO UNIT FUND TO THE INTERSTATE STREAM COMMISSION FOR WATER PROJECTS IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO.

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

     SECTION 1. APPROPRIATIONS.--

          A. The following amounts are appropriated from the New Mexico unit fund to the interstate stream commission for expenditure in fiscal years 2019 through 2023 for the following purposes:

                (1) twelve million dollars ($12,000,000) to fully implement the regional water project providing bulk water supplies to the communities of Hurley, Bayard, Santa Clara, Silver City and intervening public drinking water systems;

                (2) thirty-four million dollars ($34,000,000) to construct water trust board-approved water supply projects in the southwest New Mexico regional water planning area that meet a water supply demand and are included in the approved 2017 infrastructure capital improvements plans;

                (3) three million five hundred thousand dollars ($3,500,000) to contract with the bureau of geology and mineral resources at the New Mexico institute of mining and technology to collect new ground water and geologic data to increase understanding of the hydrogeologic framework and ground water quality and improve ground water flow models of the Mimbres basin aquifer system, which will provide a scientific basis to increase the resilience of public water supplies from that aquifer system; and

                (4) five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to evaluate and plan alternatives for the city of Deming for a remote well field in a comparatively stable area of the Mimbres basin aquifer, based on the work produced by the bureau of geology and mineral resources pursuant to the appropriation made in Paragraph (3) of this subsection.

          B. All New Mexico unit fund payments for water supply infrastructure projects in southwest New Mexico shall require at least ten percent, but no more than twenty percent, in matching funds provided by the local project sponsor.

          C. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining from projects funded in Subsection A of this section at the end of fiscal year 2023 shall revert to the New Mexico unit fund.

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