Opinion ID: 162215
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The New Mexico Stream Adjudication

Text: 10 In 1986, Elephant Butte Irrigation District (EBID) filed a complaint in New Mexico state court against the New Mexico State Engineer, the United States, the City of El Paso, and all known and unknown claimants to water rights in the Rio Grande from Elephant Butte Dam to the Texas state line. EBID claimed a right to appropriate water superior to all defendants. The complaint sought, among other things, a New Mexico stream adjudication and an injunction preventing the State Engineer from allowing appropriation of Rio Grande water until completion of the stream adjudication. 11 The procedural history of the New Mexico proceeding is complex but a summary is helpful. Numerous parties attempted to dismiss the case, including the United States and the New Mexico State Engineer. The United States' three motions to dismiss all asserted that it had not waived sovereign immunity under the McCarran Amendment because the scope of the lower Rio Grande stream adjudication, from Elephant Butte Dam to the Texas state line, did not constitute a river system. See Elephant Butte Irrigation Dist. v. Regents of N.M. State Univ., 115 N.M. 229, 849 P.2d 372, 374 (App.1993). All of the motions were denied. See id. The United States also supported the City of El Paso's attempt to remove the case to federal district court in New Mexico. In 1989, however, the district court remanded the case back to state court. 12 The New Mexico State Engineer also sought to escape the stream adjudication. He filed a motion to dismiss based on venue grounds. See id. The New Mexico state district court granted the motion, but the New Mexico Court of Appeals reversed. See id. at 381. The State Engineer then filed another motion to dismiss, arguing, among other things, that the state court did not have personal jurisdiction over Project water users in Texas who were indispensable parties. The state court denied the motion on April 2, 1997. The State Engineer then ceased contesting the stream adjudication, was realigned as a plaintiff, 4 commenced the hydrographic surveys required by N.M. Stat. Ann. § 72-4-17, and filed a fourth amended complaint. 13 Meanwhile, an interested Texas party, the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 (El Paso Water District) moved to intervene in the stream adjudication. 5 Its motion was opposed by several of the New Mexico parties. The state court granted El Paso Water District leave to participate as amicus curiae, holding its motion to intervene in abeyance. 14 Organized into surveys of five regions, the hydrographic surveys proceeded quickly. Nutt-Hockett Basin was completed in 1998, and the survey of the Rincon section was completed in 1999. As of early 2000, virtually all of the claims in the Nut-Hockett Basin had been adjudicated, and over one-third of the offers of judgment in the Rincon section had been served. The survey of two more regions, Northern and Southern Mesilla Valley, were expected to be completed in 2000, while the fifth, the Outlying Areas, was expected to be completed near the end of 2000. The Appellees report in their appellate brief that the State Engineer has now filed with the state court survey reports and maps for all five regions. 15