Judge OKs water deal between state, pecan growers A state district judge has accepted a settlement agreement between a group of pecan farmers and the state engineer determining how much water their orchards are entitled. The agreement — initially reached in February between State Engineer John D'Antonio and the New Mexico Pecan Growers Association — has the potential to greatly speed up the adjudication of water rights in the Lower Rio Grande Basin. That's because the document resolves — for several hundred farmers at once — how much water their orchards are authorized to receive, said 3rd Judicial District Judge Jerald A. Valentine, who accepted the settlement Aug. 4. Under the terms of the settlement, pecan farmers can apply 5.5 acre-feet of water per acre per year of combined river water and ground water. The figure assumes trees use only 4 acre-feet of that. Also, farmers would have to use surface water before relying on groundwater....Go here to read the agreement.