Feds Want A Cut Of Water Sold
To New Mexico By Producers

ALBUQUERQUE — (AP)— The federal government wants to dip into the millions of dollars the state pays farmers in southeastern New Mexico for water.

The farmers sell billions of gallons of water each year to New Mexico — water that the state in turn sends to Texas.

Federal officials say taxpayers paid for much of the equipment that makes water management possible and they are entitled to some of the profit that results from farmers' leases to the state.

At issue is a contract being negotiated between the Carlsbad Irrigation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that is expected to govern farmers' water sales or leases to the state beginning next year.

The contract is expected to say the federal government legally owns the water and is entitled to profits when farmers lease water to the state, said Tom Davis, the irrigation district's general manager.

Water officials in New Mexico say such contracts could become more common as farmers find valuable uses for water stored behind dams built by the Bureau of Reclamation.

For example, Carlsbad farmers want to continue to sell water to the state so that New Mexico can meet its water obligation to Texas.

The contracts ensure the government gets a return on the investment taxpayers have made in reclamation projects, said Garry Rowe, manager of the Bureau of Reclamation's Albuquerque office.

The Carlsbad district stores water at Sumner Lake, Santa Rosa Lake, Avalon Reservoir and Brantley Reservoir.

But state water officials and some irrigation districts do not like the contracts. They do not like the surcharge requirement or provisions that say the federal government holds legal title to the water.

"I characterize it as extortion," said Norman Gaume, the state's interstate stream engineer.

"We have to have a lease. Without a lease we don't comply with the Supreme Court-amended decree. The federal government comes along and says we want you to pay us. We either flirt with non-compliance or we accede to the federal government's demand to pay them, too."

The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission has leased 135,000 acre-feet of water since 1992 from Carlsbad district farmers. Without that water, for which the state pays $50 per acre-foot, New Mexico would have run afoul of a Supreme Court order to deliver set amounts of water to Texas, Gaume said.

An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre to a depth of one foot, about 325,000 gallons.

Last year, the state paid $2 million for about 40,000 acre-feet of water. Under the proposed contract, the federal government's cut would have been another $100,000.