Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 15, 2000
Contact: Tom Turney
State Engineer
(505) 827-6091

State Engineer Tom Turney announced today that the State has issued a Special Order to take administrative control of groundwater pumped from the Salt Basin in South-Central New Mexico. The Salt Basin is located south of Alamogordo, in Otero and Chavez counties, and comprises approximately 2,400 square miles. Previously people in this area did not have to have a permit from the State to withdraw underground water.

On August 28, a letter from Hunt Building Corporation was delivered to the Las Cruces Office of the State Engineer. The letter included appended documentation which indicated that the Corporation intended to pump groundwater from the Salt Basin and transport it into Texas for irrigation and for delivery to water utilities within El Paso County, Texas for retail/wholesale distribution. The letter noted that the annual volume of water for the proposed project would be 45,000 acre-feet, but not all the 45,000 acre-feet would be coming from New Mexico wells. The letter indicated that 17 wells would be developed.

Turney said, "If someone wants to transport and use public New Mexico waters outside the State, a permit is required. Because we have now designated the Salt Basin as a Declared Underground Water Basin, anyone wanting to withdraw water from any underground water source in the Salt Basin will have to apply for a permit from the State Engineer to do so."

The State Engineer takes administrative control over an underground water source by making a declaration of the boundaries of the area. By law, the State Engineer may declare an underground basin prior to notice and public hearing. With 10 days of the State Engineer's special order, a date for a public hearing must be set and a notice for the public hearing will be published in the legal classified section of several newspapers as well as on the State Engineer's web site at www.seo.state.nm.us.