New Mexico's water crisis forces tough choice for Carlsbad Irrigation District

A bill that would have averted a priority water call on junior water right holders in the Lower Pecos River Basin failed to pass in the waning hours of the legislative session that ended Saturday. Senate Bill 462, co-sponsored by Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Eddy and Lea, and Rep. Cathrynn Brown, R-Eddy, would have provided $2.5 million to the Carlsbad Irrigation District farmers, who say they are not getting the water they are entitled to, but the junior right water right owners are pumping their maximum. With the failure of the bill's inclusion in the state's budget, CID leaders have to decide whether the district will carry out its threat to issue a priority call. The call would shut down agriculture wells in North Eddy County and Chaves County to give senior water right holders in the CID their rightful amount of water. The CID Board of Directors will meet April 2 to decide the agency's course of action. According to the State Engineer's website, a priority call means a temporary curtailment of junior water rights in times of water shortage, so that more senior water rights can be served by the available water supply. Senior water rights are those held by the first water users to "put the water to beneficial use" in the state. Under the state constitution, senior water rights have priority over junior water rights...more