Gov’s signature sidelines Gila diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on April 6, 2021
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 200 into law Monday. Titled “Water Trust Board Projects and N.M. Unit Fund,” the law, which was passed by the Legislature during its regular session, assigns the advisory role over how $80 million reserved for water projects in southwest New Mexico is spent to the N.M. Water Trust Board, while simultaneously prohibiting the money from being spent on a Gila River diversion.
The New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project, formed in 2015 to design, build and operate a series of diversions with which it intended to capture up 14,000 acre-feet of surface water annually under the terms of the 2004 federal Arizona Water Settlements Act, had tried in fits and starts to recast itself in the advisory role since the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission voted to defund its diversion project las
Legislation would replace Gila diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 3, 2021
A bill introduced last week in the New Mexico Legislature threatens to sideline the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project’s role in determining how the remaining money in the N.M. Unit Fund totaling more than $80 million is spent in four southwestern New Mexico counties under the terms of the 2004 federal Arizona Water Settlements Act.
The group’s consulting role is enshrined in state and federal statutes, but House Bill 200, titled “Water Trust Board & N.M. Unit Fund,” seeks to rewrite New Mexico water law and hand the Entity’s responsibilities for vetting water projects over to the New Mexico Water Trust Board.