By Allen Campbell, member of NM CAP Entity, with input from ISC attorney Dominique Work
Progress is being made toward securing additional water from the Gila River for Southwest New Mexico. The Arizona Water Settlement Act (AWSA), is a Federal Statute that offsets an inequity of the 1968 adjudication of New Mexico’s water rights on the Gila River. Currently, Arizona owns 96% of the Gila River water flow. The AWSA agreed that New Mexico is entitled to a maximum of 14,000 acre feet of additional water in the four county region of southwest New Mexico.
The Consumptive Use and Forbearance Agreement (CUFA) became the mechanism to secure this water in a manner acceptable to all parties. The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) was the New Mexico entity that negotiated with Arizona. The third party of CUFA was to be the NM Unit Entity. A JPA of local governments only within the borders of Catron, Grant, Luna and Hildalgo Counties was created to become the NM CAP Entity and oversee all operations of the NM Unit. The first meeting was held on August 10, 2015