Proactive self-reporting and a determined effort to right its wrongs have served Corrales well, Brittany Guame told village councilors Tuesday night.
Guame, a water resources specialist and part of a team the village assembled to navigate its pursuit of new water rights, said the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) has been quite lenient with Corrales as it attempts to put together a 40-year water plan.
Village leaders discovered Corrales had no such plan on file with the state engineer’s office as they began considering acquiring more water rights. The NMED requires that local governments maintain such plans.
Guame said the OSE is waiving certain paperwork obligations — and their related expenses — because the village, upon realizing it wasn’t in compliance with state rules, approached the OSE with the intent to rectify the situation.
In addition, she said, the office has allowed her to use alternative mapping rather than requiring a survey from data that are decades old.
In response to a question from Mayor Jim Fahey, Guame said a 40-year water plan should be revisited after five years and overhauled after a decade.
The team has conducted a water rights audit, Corrales resident and former state engineer Mike Hamman said. The village’s rights include two wells, at the Old Bank and Old church sites, along with surface water rights for the Gonzales property, Guame said.
The permit for each specifies where its water will be used. John Stomp, a registered professional engineer and attorney working on water-rights matters, said the team will seek to combine those rights into a single permit allowing water to be used anywhere within the local service area.
Stomp said while the 40-year water plan is required, it brings an important benefit: local water rights are protected from forfeiture and abandonment. He said the plan will also clear the way for acquisition of new rights.
Councilor Stuart Murray asked whether the village would be permitted to lease water to farmers. Team members said current permits indicate Corrales uses water for municipal operations and irrigation and fire suppression, but the “combine and comingle” permit could be written to allow leasing — if the village can obtain an adequate supply.
“We don’t have enough water to lease to anyone,” Stomp said.
Guame said acquiring more rights is likely to be costly. She said pre-1907 water rights are currently valued at $21,500 per acre-foot (325,851 gallons, or roughly enough water to cover a football field to a depth of a foot).
Guame said the price was about $7,000 when she started in the field 15 years ago.
“I have never seen the price go down,” she said.
Also at the meeting, councilors voted to apply for a line of credit from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), to be used to buy water rights. The interest rate on the loan would be 1%, but the village would borrow no money unless it secured a purchase agreement.
The money isn’t tied to a specific deal, Village Attorney Randy Autio said, so if one purchase agreement should fall through, it would be available for another.
“We’re only on the hook for this money if we get approved for these water rights,” Fahey said.