Judge rules against federal government in local groundwater case

From the Las Cruces Sun News - By Diana Alba Soular - After a day full of testimony from nearly all the heavy hitters in the local water industry, a state judge ruled Wednesday the U.S. government doesn't have a stake in Doña Ana County groundwater after all. Judge James J. Wechsler decided the federal government's water rights in the Rio Grande Project — an irrigation region that covers Doña Ana and El Paso counties — are limited to the surface water component. He left open the door, however, for some further refining of what makes up that surface water right. The federal government and two Texas entities lined up against the state of New Mexico and a number of other New Mexico-based water users, who argued the U.S. had no valid groundwater stake. Debate centered upon whether Rio Grande water — which winds its way from the river, to farmland, to beneath ground level, to above ground and eventually back to the river — should be legally considered surface water or groundwater. Federal officials contended they had at least some formal ownership in local groundwater because it's physically tied very closely to the flow of the Rio Grande — where the federal government already has a recognized claim to water.  Read more

Judge rules against federal government in local groundwater case