New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 19 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND WILDLIFE
Chapter 25 - ADMINISTRATION AND USE OF WATER - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Part 13 - ACTIVE WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Section 19.25.13.7 - DEFINITIONS

Universal Citation: 19 NM Admin Code 19.25.13.7

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024

Unless defined below in a specific section of these rules, all words used herein shall be given their customary and accepted meanings. All uses of masculine pronouns or possessives shall be held to include the feminine.

A. Adjudication: A comprehensive court proceeding to establish the elements of each water right for all water right owners on a stream system with respect to the state of New Mexico and as among each other, including the priority, amount, purpose, periods and place of use and the specific tracts of land to which the water right is appurtenant, as provided by Section 72-4-19 NMSA.

B. Administrable water right: A water right or right to impound, store or release water, the elements of which have been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction or determined on an interim basis by the state engineer under these rules and regulations. The state engineer may make determinations of the elements of a water right for purposes of administration prior to the commencement or completion of, and during the pendency of, a water rights adjudication. State engineer determinations made for purposes of administration are subject to review by any court of competent jurisdiction and are not binding on that court. Such determinations are subject to the decrees of an adjudication court of competent jurisdiction, and are not binding on such an adjudication court.

C. Administration: Distribution by a water master of available water supplies within a water master district or sub-district, subject to any legal constraints identified by or imposed on the state engineer, for specific beneficial uses by the owners of administrable water rights that are in-priority. There are four forms of administration available to achieve different objectives. These forms are defined below together with subsidiary definitions. A water master may, based on the applicable district-specific regulations, use any of these forms of administration, depending on the specific legal and physical aspects of the water supplies that are subject to administration and the existence or absence of agreements for alternative administration. Administration may also combine these forms within a water master district, as the water master finds appropriate or necessary. The specific form of administration, or combination of forms of administration, that will be utilized in each water master district will be established through promulgation of district-specific regulations. Notice of such promulgation will be provided pursuant to Subsection D of 72-2-8 NMSA.

(1) Direct flow administration
(a) Direct flow water: All the flow of a stream, including storage reservoir inflows that are legally bypassed through that reservoir, but excluding sources of flow augmentation such as storage water releases or imported water.

(b) Direct flow administration: Distribution of direct flow water by a water master for diversion and beneficial use, or for diversion and storage in a reservoir, in accordance with the affected administrable water rights. Direct flow administration consists of both protection of available direct flow water for diversion and use by in-priority administrable water rights, and protection of direct flow water from out-of-priority diversion. Direct flow administration may incorporate changes to the water master's determination of which water rights are in-priority and which are out-of-priority on a daily basis, depending on the currently available direct flows.

(2) Storage water administration
(a) Storage water: Water stored in a reservoir in-priority and in accordance with the conditions of an administrable water right and subsequently released from storage. Storage water does not include direct flow water that is bypassed through a reservoir.

(b) Storage water administration: Administration by a water master of the release from reservoirs and subsequent downstream diversion of storage water in accordance with the requirements of the applicable administrable water rights for such release and diversion. Storage water administration includes both the distribution of storage water released for the benefit of those having rights to its use, and also the protection of storage water releases from diversion by water right owners having only an administrable water right to direct flow water. Conveyance losses that occur as a result of the delivery of storage water shall be borne by the owner of the applicable administrable water right, and storage water administration shall account for those conveyance losses. For purposes of administration, imported water shall be administered in the same manner as storage water; however, imported water is subject to 100% depletion. The beneficial use of imported water is exclusive in the owner of the right to its use and is not subject to priority call in the basin of use, but its diversion from the basin of origin is subject to priority administration in that basin.

(3) Depletion limit administration
(a) Depletion limit: The amount of surface water that is available for depletion by both surface water rights and hydrologically connected groundwater rights within a water master district or sub-district, taking into account interstate stream compact compliance requirements. Taking into account the conjunctive nature of surface and groundwater, the depletion limit may be greater than, or less than, the physically available surface water supply.

(b) Administration date[s]: A date, or dates, to be determined by the state engineer, where administration within a specific water master district is to be in effect for a period of time to be determined by the state engineer for interstate stream compact compliance purposes, or to address substantial long-term groundwater effects on surface supply, as expressed in a depletion limit. If an administration date is determined and published for a district, no water rights with priority dates later than the administration date shall be exercised in the absence of a replacement plan approved by the state engineer.

(c) Depletion limit administration: Administration by a water master to curtail water rights with priority dates junior to an administration date. Such out-of-priority rights shall not use water in the absence of a replacement plan approved by the state engineer.

(d) Replacement water: Water acquired temporarily by an out-of-priority administrable water right from an in-priority administrable water right pursuant to a replacement plan for the purpose of offsetting surface water depletions attributable to an out-of-priority administrable water right and preventing impairment of in-priority administrable water rights.

(e) Replacement plan: A plan submitted by the owner(s) of administrable water rights, and approved by the state engineer for no more than two consecutive years, subject to renewal, for the purpose of offsetting depletions attributable to out-of-priority administrable water rights.

(4) Alternative administration: Administration that is based on water sharing agreement among affected water right owners, and that is acceptable to the state engineer. Such administration may include voluntary shortage sharing such as, but not limited to, percentage division or pro rata allocation, rotation of water use, and reduced diversions. Where there is an existing shortage sharing agreement between acequias or community ditches confirmed on the first Monday of April of each year in accordance with Section 73-2-47 NMSA or thereafter as necessary, it shall be recognized in the district-specific regulations, but nothing in this section shall be taken to impair the authority of the state engineer and water master to regulate the distribution of water from the various stream systems of the state to the ditches and irrigation systems entitled to water therefrom under the provisions of this article. Alternative administration may be substituted for any of the forms of administration above described.

D. Administration date[s]: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

E. Consumptive irrigation requirement: See definition under Subsection S of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

F. Consumptive use: The quantity of water beneficially consumed during the application of water to beneficial use.

G. Conveyance loss: The quantity of water that is effectively removed from a stream system due to seepage or evapotranspiration as calculated between a measurement device used to measure the available water supply and a downstream point of diversion for an administrable water right or a downstream point of delivery.

H. Depletion: That consumptively used portion of a diversion that has been evaporated, transpired, incorporated into crops or products or used by livestock, or man-made consumptive uses such as, but not limited to, municipal, industrial and domestic uses, or otherwise removed from, and not returned to, the available water supply, including all incidental depletions associated with the beneficial use. Depletions shall include, but not be limited to:

(1) any increase in depletions resulting from construction projects for the restoration and maintenance of fish and wildlife habitat that result in increased depletion of water over that amount that would have been depleted had there been no restoration; such projects are subject to the permitting authority of the state engineer;

(2) any increase in depletions resulting from changes in reservoir operations that increase the amount of water depleted over that amount which would have been depleted had there been no change in the reservoir's operations; such as, but not limited to, changes in historic release patterns; such changes are subject to the permitting authority of the state engineer.

I. Depletion limit: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

J. Depletion limit administration: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

K. Direct flow administration: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

L. Direct flow water: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

M. District: When used in these regulations, means water master district.

N. Diversion: The quantity of water taken from a ground or surface water source by a constructed structure or project to supply a beneficial use.

O. Expedited marketing and leasing: Any process within a district in which water rights are subject to priority administration whereby changes in use or place of use of water may be effected so as to minimize costly and time-consuming administrative procedures. Expedited marketing and leasing processes may include, but are not limited to, expedited permit proceedings before the state engineer through the use of the appropriate hydrologic models adopted by the state engineer for the district. Subsection C of 72-2-9.1 NMSA expressly provides that rules and regulations concerning expedited marketing and leasing "shall not apply to acequias or community ditches or to water rights served by an acequia or community ditch."

P. Farm delivery requirement: See definition under Subsection S of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

Q. Imported water: Water removed from, and not returned to, its hydrologic basin of origin delivered for use in a different basin or drainage.

R. In-priority: If the currently available direct flow water is sufficient for distribution to a specific use administrable water right, then that right is in-priority. If a water right has a priority date that is senior to the applicable administration date, that water right is in-priority. In the case of storage water, that amount of the total inflow to a reservoir that exceeds the volume of water that must flow through the dam to serve senior administrable water rights to direct flow water is in-priority for storage.

S. Irrigation water requirements: Irrigation water requirements can be expressed in several ways, depending on circumstances:

(1) Consumptive irrigation requirement (CIR): The quantity of irrigation water, expressed as a depth or volume, exclusive of effective rainfall, that is consumptively used by plants or is evaporated from the soil surface during one calendar year. The CIR may be numerically determined by subtracting effective rainfall from the consumptive use.

(2) Farm delivery requirement: The quantity of water, exclusive of effective rainfall, that is delivered to the farm head gate or is diverted from a source of water that originates on the farm itself, such as a well or spring, to satisfy the consumptive irrigation requirement of crops grown on a farm during the irrigation accounting year, or as otherwise provided by permit.

(3) Project diversion requirement: The annual quantity of water necessary to be diverted from a source of water to satisfy the farm delivery requirement and to account for off-farm ditch conveyance delivery losses during the irrigation accounting year.

T. Measuring devices: Gauging or metering devices, installed and operated as required by the state engineer.

U. Out-of-priority: If the currently available direct flow water is insufficient to serve all administrable water rights, and therefore an administration date is adopted or a priority call placed, then those administrable water rights are out-of-priority that have a priority date junior to the applicable administration date or are junior to the priority of the water right placing the priority call. In the case of storage water, if the inflow to a reservoir is equal to, or less than, the quantity of water necessary to serve downstream senior Administrable water rights from the direct flow, then such direct flow must be bypassed and the right to impound and store water in that reservoir is out-of-priority. Water that was stored in-priority is not available for use except by those with administrable water rights to the use of the storage water.

V. Priority administration: All the forms of administration defined under administration are methods of priority administration. Priority administration involves any administrative scheme implemented by a water master in accordance with the priority dates of administrable water rights, including direct flow, storage water and depletion limit administration. See, generally, administration.

W. Project: Any man-made works intended physically to control or to use water for a beneficial purpose of use.

X. Replacement water: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

Y. Replacement plan: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

Z. Return flow: That amount of diverted water returned to the available water supply.

AA. State engineer: The New Mexico state engineer, or his designated appointee.

BB. Storage water: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

CC. Storage water administration: See definition under Subsection C of 19.25.13.7 NMAC.

DD. Waste: Diversion of water in excess of that amount reasonably necessary to supply a beneficial use in accordance with accepted water use practices that are consistent with considerations of water conservation.

EE. Water master: An official duly appointed by, and under the general supervision of, the state engineer, pursuant to Section 72-3-2 NMSA, who shall have immediate charge of the diversions and distribution of waters in the water master district.

FF. Water master district: An area designated as a water district or sub-district by the state engineer for purposes of administration, as provided in Section 72-3-1 NMSA.

GG. Water master district manager: The state engineer district supervisor is the manager of any water master district within his particular state engineer district and the direct supervisor of the water master.

Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. New Mexico may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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