Can a domestic well be built on any tract? (Dona Ana: mineral rights, buying)

[WestGuest]

There is a tract in Dona Ana County -where 20 acres was severed and given back to the govt- they are barren acres with a nice view. Would someone buying this lot have an absolute right to drill a domestic water well if they applied for a permit?

Are there reasons why a well may not be approved?

[Zoidberg]

Water rights are going to be tricky anywhere but they are especially so in New Mexico.

We have interstate compacts with Texas and Mexico for our Rio Grande basin water, and due to light rainfall or poor planning or whatever, we have to pay them millions of dollars every year because they don't get the water they're supposed to once it leaves our state. And yet we pump more and approve more wells every year.

Factor in old Spanish colonial land grant documents dating back to the 1500's, the state's system of acequias, various contracts with different tribes, and a tendency for large landholders to split up their land but hold on to the water rights and mineral rights and sell those separately, and you get a thriving market for water law.

That said, call the land office in Doña Ana County and maybe they can tell you if well permits would be granted for that particular tract. And make sure if you buy land that it includes the water rights, because often it doesn't.

[joqua]

You can find the current "water rights, rules and regulations" here:

19.27.5 NMAC

Specifically:

The maximum permitted diversion of water from a 72-12-1.1 domestic well permitted to serve one household shall be 1.0 acre-foot per annum, except in hydrologic units where applicant can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the state engineer that the combined diversion from domestic wells will not impair existing water rights, then the maximum permitted diversion of water from a 72-12-1.1 domestic well permitted to serve one household shall be 3.0 acre-foot per annum.

If this 20 acres is in the Rio Grande irrigation district there may be irrigation rights involved, meaning the right to use acequia or irrigation ditch water whenever it is made available by the irrigation district.

[TKO]

You actually want to call the Office of the State Engineer. They are the ones who deal with water rights and well drilling approval. You will be concerned with subsurface water from the Lower Rio Grande Basin, which is dealt with very differently than surface water (i.e. irrigation districts, interstate compacts, the river and its reservoirs). Water rights, in my experience, are usually attached to the property unless it spells out that they aren't. Of course you have to do your due diligence.

The fact that the adjudication of water rights (legally deciding once and for all who owns what) for the LRGB is ongoing further muddies the waters, so to speak.

All that aside there is no guarantee you will find water at an economically feasible depth. The lack of surface irrigation water in the Rio Grande Basin has led to widespread heavy pumping of subsurface water recently and many wells have gone dry. Do your homework.

New Mexico Office of the State Engineer / Interstate Stream Commission