1998-1999 Annual Report
Interstate Stream Commission
The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) was created by Chapter 25 of the Session Laws of 1935. The legislature gave the ISC broad powers to investigate, protect, conserve and develop New Mexico's waters and stream systems, both interstate and intrastate. The Interstate Stream Engineer manages the commission's programs and resources. Norman Gaume, P.E. was appointed to this position in June, 1997. The statute authorizes the commission to negotiate compacts with other states to settle interstate controversies, to match appropriations by the U.S. Congress; to investigate and develop the water supplies of stream systems of the state; and to institute legal proceedings in the name of the state for the conservation, protection and development of public waters. The Act provides that the State Engineer shall be the secretary of the commission and in that position he directs the work of the staff.
Eight of the commission's nine members are unsalaried and appointed by the governor for a term of six years. The appointed members are to be representative of major irrigation districts or sections of the state, and no two should be appointed from the same district or section. The chairperson is elected by the commission. The ninth member and secretary of the commission is the State Engineer.
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Administration of Interstate Streams: ISC staff act as advisors to New Mexico compact commissioners and/or the State Engineer for the eight interstate water compacts to which New Mexico is a party, performing periodic analyses of streamflow and reservoir data and other studies as needed. They are also responsible for compliance with the accounting and measurement provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions governing water allocations on the Pecos, Canadian and Gila Rivers.
Protection of New Mexico's Waters: As New Mexico's representative/advocate in water-policy forums of the west, ISC staff cooperate with federal and other state agencies in recovery programs for endangered species (Appendix III), review reports for water-resource development proposals that may affect New Mexico interests (Appendix II), cooperate with the U.S. Geological Survey to obtain basic hydrologic and geohydrologic data (Appendix VI), and participate in and coordinate studies by federal and state agencies in programs of mutual interest. ISC staff also participate in litigation in which the commission is involved.
Water Resource Planning & Development: The commission is delegated by statute the responsibility for programming, budgeting and directing expenditures from five funds: its own operating fund; the Ute Dam Construction Fund, Regional Water Planning Appropriations; and the Improvement of the Rio Grande Income Fund and the Irrigation Works Construction Fund.
In 1987 the legislature created a regional-water-planning process to protect New Mexico waters and to provide for regional growth and development consistent with the available water resource. The ISC was made the granting body for regional-water-planning funds and overseer of the regional water plans. In 1998 a significant legislative appropriation for regional water planning was made, with a companion program to develop a State Water Plan that will integrate and reconcile the regional plans. The State Engineer was charged with fiscal oversight of these funds.
The ISC also operates and maintains Ute Dam and Reservoir.
Interstate Stream Administration
A summary of this fiscal year's activities in administration of the waters of interstate streams, by basin, follows:
Colorado River Compact: The Colorado River Compact, with the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming as parties, was signed in Santa Fe on November 24, 1922. Except for Arizona, all parties had ratified the compact by 1929, and the President of the United States proclaimed it effective on June 25, 1929. Arizona did not ratify the compact until 1944.
The Colorado River Compact apportions the use of waters of the Colorado River system to the upper and lower basins. Parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming constitute the upper basin; the lower basin includes parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
The compact does not provide for an administrative commission; instead it provides that each state, through the state official charged with water rights administration, together with certain agencies of the federal government, shall cooperate to
Compliance with Arizona v. California: The 1964 Supreme Court decree in Arizona v. California set forth New Mexico's rights to the waters of San Simon Creek, San Francisco River and Gila River, together designated for reporting purposes as the Gila River basin in New Mexico. Article VII of the decree requires that New Mexico prepare and maintain complete, detailed and accurate records of New Mexico's annual diversions, irrigated acreage and consumptive water use for all purposes from the Gila River basin, including all tributaries and related groundwater sources. Consequently, the ISC has entered into annual cooperative agreements with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the installation, operation, and maintenance of devices that measure surface-water diversions; and OSE personnel operate and maintain previously installed well meters to document groundwater diversions for irrigation. As of June 30, 1998, there were 61 well meters and 33 surface water-measuring devices in operation. The USGS has, in recent years, sought to transfer responsibility for the surface-water measurement program to the State Engineer as well.
In addition, OSE staff conducted the 1998 annual survey of New Mexico irrigated acreage in the Gila River basin to provide data needed to compute the annual consumptive use of water from each stream system. ISC staff is preparing a report for 1998 containing the pertinent data and results.
Upper Colorado River Basin Compact: The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact was signed in Santa Fe on October 11, 1948 with Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming as parties. The compact was subsequently ratified by the respective legislatures, consented to by Congress and approved by the president on April 6, 1949.
The compact created a commission, which does not include Arizona, to administer its provisions. During fiscal year 1998-99, Upper Colorado River Compact commissioners were: Frank E. (Sam) Maynes, chair and commissioner for the United States; James Lockhead for Colorado; Philip Mutz for New Mexico; Larry Anderson for Utah; and Gordon Fassett for Wyoming. The New Mexico commissioner was assisted by members of the ISC staff. The commission's office is in Salt Lake City.
During fiscal year 1998-99, the Commissioners and staff of the Upper Colorado River Commission directed their efforts toward:
La Plata River Compact: The La Plata River Compact, which governs the terms by which the waters of the La Plata River are to be distributed between Colorado and New Mexico, was signed in Santa Fe on November 27, 1922. The states subsequently ratified the compact in 1923; Congress consented on January 29, 1925.
The Compact provides that the state engineers of the two states shall administer the waters of the La Plata River. This requires daily administration of the flows of the La Plata River except from December 1 through February 15. The compact also provides for cooperative collection, exchange, and publication of streamflow data. ISC staff monitor and evaluate the daily operation of the river and assist the State Engineer in administering the compact. The La Plata Conservancy District employs a watermaster to supervise water diversion within the district in New Mexico. The watermaster and the district's board of directors cooperate with ISC staff to collect data necessary for the daily operation analysis.
The total flow of the La Plata River at the Colorado-New Mexico state line was 22,120 acre-feet during water year 1998, about 84% of normal. For the 1999 April-July snowmelt runoff period, state-line flow in the river was 10,500 acre-feet, about 57% of normal.
The Colorado and New Mexico State Engineers met in April 1999 to discuss La Plata River compact administration issues. The State Engineers agreed to improve communication of data and information by Colorado to New Mexico.
Rio Grande Compact: The Rio Grande Compact was signed in Santa Fe on March 19, 1938, with the states of Colorado, New Mexico and Texas as parties. The states subsequently ratified the compact, and it was approved by Congress on May 31, 1939. The Rio Grande Compact Commission consists of the state engineers of Colorado and New Mexico, a commissioner from Texas appointed by the governor, and a representative of the United States. Members of the commission during fiscal year 1998-99 were Ken Salazar, federal representative and chair; Harold Simpson for Colorado, Thomas C. Turney for New Mexico and Joe G. Henson for Texas. The New Mexico commissioner was assisted by ISC staff engineers and OSE attorneys.
The engineer advisors to the commissioners meet prior to the annual meeting to prepare data on scheduled and actual delivery of water and other topics. Under annual cooperative agreements, the U.S. Geological Survey acts as secretary to the compact commission, preparing monthly and annual reports and maintaining the official commission files.
At the March 25, 1999 meeting of the Rio Grande Compact Commission, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas agreed on the accounting for the Rio Grande Compact and the completion of the accounting tables for the first time in over a decade. ISC staff represented New Mexico in the lengthy negotiations that concluded in September 1998, and drafted the settlement report and resolution. Colorado, for the purpose of interstate comity, gave up its claims that a spill occurred in 1997. New Mexico exceeded its delivery obligation in 1998 by 60,200 acre feet.
The Rio Grande Compact provides for delivery debits and credits to be carried over from year-to-year. After subtracting evaporation from its accrued credit, New Mexico has a cumulative credit of 153,100 acre feet as of January 1, 1999; Colorado has a cumulative credit of 11,500 acre feet. New Mexico has not been in deficit in Compact deliveries on the Rio Grande since 1990.
Costilla Creek Compact: The Costilla Creek Compact was signed in Santa Fe on September 30, 1944, with Colorado and New Mexico as parties. The compact was subsequently ratified by the state legislatures and approved by Congress in June 1946. The Amended Costilla Creek Compact was signed in Santa Fe on February 7, 1963, ratified by the respective state legislatures and approved by Congress on December 12, 1963.
During the 1998-99 fiscal year, Harold Simpson for Colorado and Thomas C. Turney for New Mexico were the Costilla Creek Compact Commissioners. The commission treasurer is Ms. Dinah Sanchez of the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer. The New Mexico commissioner was assisted by ISC staff.
The compact requires daily administration of Costilla Creek during the irrigation season. Daily direct flow of the system and water stored in Costilla Reservoir are distributed under the terms of the Compact by a water master appointed and supervised by the New Mexico commissioner. Bobby R. Tribble of the ISC was Costilla Creek watermaster throughout this fiscal year. The U.S. Geological Survey cooperates with the compact commission to secure the streamflow data necessary to determine allocations and water deliveries.
At its May 6, 1999 meeting, New Mexico presented its new detailed automated accounting system and metering plan to the commission. The metering plan will be implemented in New Mexico through a State Engineer Order requiring installation of locking headgates and metering devices. The devices will be provided to New Mexico water users through a $100,000 legislative appropriation. A public-review draft of the water master's operating manual requested by the commission last year is due to be released for public review by the end of 1999 so it can be implemented in the irrigation season of the year 2000.
Pecos River Compact: The Pecos River Compact was signed in Santa Fe on December 3, 1948, with New Mexico and Texas as parties. The compact was subsequently ratified by the respective state legislatures and approved by Congress, becoming effective June 9, 1949.
During the report period the Pecos River Commission was composed of Hector Villa, III, Chair and representative of the United States; Colin McMillan for New Mexico and J.W. Thrasher for Texas.
Under the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court amended decree in Texas v. New Mexico, the federal Pecos River Master is to determine New Mexico's delivery obligations to Texas on the Pecos River each year. Neil Grigg, the current Pecos River Master, found that for calendar year 1998, New Mexico's water delivery to Texas exceeded its delivery obligation by 1,700 acre-feet. This brings New Mexico's accumulated delivery overage to 21,500 acre-feet.
In 1991, when New Mexico's cumulative credit in Pecos River compact deliveries was down to 11,100 acre-feet, the New Mexico Legislature directed the ISC to purchase and retire adequate water rights to meet compact obligations, and authorized severance tax bond funds for this purpose. Approximately $27.8 million was spent on the Pecos River water rights acquisition program between 1991 and 1999, $16.3 million on the purchase and retirement of 25,500 acre-feet of water rights, $11 million on leases of water to meet short-term delivery needs, and $500,000 on administrative, professional and appraisal fees. Figure 9 breaks out the annual contribution to stateline flows of the major acquisitions and leases under this program.
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Canadian River Compact: Signed in 1950 with New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas as parties and approved in 1952, the compact provides for a commission to administer its provisions with one commissioner for each state and one for the United States.
An operating schedule for Ute Dam is provided in the stipulated judgement and decree entered on December 13, 1993 in the U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit Oklahoma and Texas v. New Mexico.
The New Mexico Commissioner notified the Canadian River Compact Commission at its 1999 meeting that the Ute Dam outlet works would be inoperable for an extended period of time in 1999 during the replacement of the outlet-works pipeline for dam-safety reasons. A bulkhead was fabricated and placed by divers to seal the intake tower located in the reservoir immediately upstream of the dam. Subsequently, heavy rainfall caused Ute Reservoir to fill in early May. The reservoir continued spilling through the end of fiscal year 1998-99, causing storage in the reservoir to exceed temporarily the limit specified by the Supreme Court decree. Water exceeding the storage limit will be released after the outlet-works pipeline replacement is completed.
The Ute Dam outlet-works pipeline-replacement project was advertised for bids in April 1999 by the Corps of Engineers acting for the Interstate Stream Commission. Bids were opened in June 1999 and a contract was awarded to Special Services Contractors, Inc. in the amount of $353,064.
Regional Water Planning
In 1987, the New Mexico Legislature recognized the state's need for water planning and created and funded New Mexico's Regional Water Planning Program [NMSA 1978 § 72-14-43 and § 72-14-44 (1997 Repl.)]. The legislature charged the ISC with oversight of a program of grants to self-defined water-planning regions and the planning process those regions would undertake.
Regional water planning provides New Mexico with a number of crucial benefits, notably:
The legislature stipulated that planning regions could be self-defined on the basis of common hydrologic, political and economic interests. It also called for public involvement in the planning process, opportunities for participation by tribes, reasonable costs and schedules for planning, review for conflicts with laws protecting existing water rights, provisions for evaluation of conservation and public welfare, and sources of funding to supplement state funds. Sixteen water-planning regions have been recognized and funded.
In late 1994 the ISC, working with a statewide group of citizens and regional water planners, created the Regional Water Planning Handbook to provide the regions with guidance in the development of water plans.
In 1998 the legislature recognized the importance of regional water planning with an unprecedented appropriation of $1,750,000 of severance tax bond funds. The appropriation was made to the State Engineer, who was instructed to oversee their disbursal in a context of increased accountability for funds and responsibility for plan products; the State Engineer and the ISC entered into a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the requirements for the use of the funds. One million was set aside for regional water planning and $750,000 for the Framework State Water Plan. In addition, to improve accountability, the grant program was replaced with a program of professional-services contracts.
Of the fourteen regions responding to the 1998 request for proposals, seven were successful in the competitive bidding. $833,000.00 is now under contract. Appendix IX gives the status of regional-water-planning contracts under the 1998 request for proposals. An additional appropriation will be requested in the 2000 legislative session to support completion of water plans in the remaining eight regions.
In April 1999, the ISC adopted "acceptance criteria" for regional water plans. The criteria require that plans conform to the Handbook's template, and that local governments be included in implementation. To further address the ISC's "accountability" mandate, scopes of work and deliverable products are restricted to projects that can be completed within one year. The 1999 contracts also include quality-assurance and progress-reporting procedures, and an ISC oversight procedure. Payment of invoices from the regions will be subject to satisfactory progress on the required deliverables.
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Special Funds
The Interstate Stream Commission is responsible for programming, budgeting and directing expenditures of money from the Improvement of the Rio Grande Income Fund, and the Irrigation Works Construction Fund. Both funds were created by the Ferguson Act of 1898. This Act made two grants of land to be used to generate income to benefit special purposes in what was then the Territory of New Mexico:
The State Land Office administers these and other trust lands to generate revenues for the purposes of the trust. Revenues from nonrenewable uses, such as royalties from oil and gas extraction, are deposited in the Permanent Fund, the corpus of which is invested. The earnings from those investments make up the income funds managed by the ISC.
Irrigation Works Construction Fund (IWCF): Under the administration of the ISC, IWCF monies are used to make loans to acequias, and, through contracts with irrigation and water conservancy districts, to individual water users for construction and rehabilitation of on-farm irrigation works. The IWCF provides technical assistance and design improvements for acequias through an annual contract with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Other contracts with NRCS provide for watershed planning, agricultural water conservation demonstration projects and snow surveys. The IWCF is also a source for the non-federal cost-share required by the Corps of Engineers Acequia Program (see Appendix IV). Loans have also been made to county flood commissions for protection of irrigation lands and works; other appropriations have been made for dam rehabilitation and phreatophyte control. The IWCF has been a major source of funding for the Pecos River Lease/Purchase Program; it also funded the $14 million Pecos River water settlement with Texas. Most recently, the IWCF has funded the technologically- advanced hydrographic survey in the Lower Rio Grande.
Improvement of the Rio Grande Income Fund (IRGIF): Each year the ISC prepares a plan and budget for projects to be funded by the IRGIF and submits it to the governor. Ongoing projects include a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for vegetation management in Elephant Butte and Caballo Reservoirs, another for water salvage in the middle Rio Grande, and still another for water salvage along the Rio Chama below Abiquiu Dam. Cooperative programs with U.S. Geological Survey collect data on surface water discharge and suspended sediment to evaluate the Reclamation programs, as well as for other studies from time to time. The fund has been used to buy San Juan-Chama Project water to establish and maintain a sediment pool in Jemez Canyon Reservoir. Significant grants to the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District covered the nonfederal share of the Corrales Levee and San Acacia to Bosque del Apache Flood Control projects.
Ute Dam and Reservoir
Ute Dam and Reservoir are owned and operated by the Interstate Stream Commission. The firm yield of the reservoir is about 24,000 acre-feet per year. The Ute Reservoir Water Commission was established under a joint powers agreement between nine eastern New Mexico communities--Clovis, Tucumcari, Portales, San Jon, Texico, Melrose, Grady, Logan, and Elidaand Cannon Air Force Base. In March 1997 the Ute Reservoir Water Commission entered into an option contract with the Interstate Stream Commission to reserve 24,000 acre feet per year of water to help meet the water needs of these entities. The projects needed to deliver the water are being addressed in the Eastern Plains regional water planning effort. All available special Ute Dam funds have been exhausted to replace the Ute Dam outlet-works pipeline. Kent Terry was Ute Reservoir Caretaker during fiscal year 1998-99.
Next: Active River Management Needed to Meet Rio Grande Compact Oblications
