Water fight to cost taxpayers millions

LAS CRUCES (KRQE) - The federal government is illegally giving more Rio Grande water to Texas farmers while providing less water to New Mexico farmers, according to a recently-filed lawsuit.

“A lot of people are unhappy about it,” said John Clayshulte, a Las Cruces-area farmer. “We got very little and they got a lot.”

The lawsuit was filed four months ago in federal court and concerns water from the so-called “Rio Grande Project,” which is designated for farms in southern New Mexico and western Texas. It centers on a 2008 agreement between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and irrigation districts in New Mexico and Texas, according to New Mexico Attorney General Gary King’s office.

Before the agreement, each state received equal amounts of water. Now, the change in allocation equals the amount of water it would take to serve the city of Albuquerque for a year, said Stephen Farris, assistant New Mexico attorney general.

“The water is more valuable than the money that we’ve spent so far to try to recover it,” Farris said. “This last year was the worst. The farmers in Texas got pretty much a full allocation, enough for an entire year. The ones in New Mexico got hardly any water at all.”

King’s office believes that both the agreement is flawed as well as the way the Bureau of Reclamation has enforced it.

“There are problems that are built into the agreement, but also the way it’s being applied by the Bureau of Reclamation,” Farris said. “This year we knew for sure that there was a problem and we had to do something about it.”

According to a 2007 report by the reclamation bureau, the agreement was necessary to formalize operations that functioned informally for years. However, it’s still unclear how the federal agency justified the changes in allocation.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Justice Department, which is representing the reclamation bureau, declined comment because of the pending litigation.

The lawsuit itself won’t be cheap for New Mexico taxpayers. So far, the attorney general’s office has secured $1.5 million to pay for the lawsuit. Another $1.5 million request is in the works for the upcoming legislative session.

As the battle moves forward in the federal court system, New Mexico farmers are doing what they can to deal with the changes.

Clayshulte, who is now in the process of harvesting his pecan orchard outside Las Cruces, had to rely on well water to survive this year’s irrigation season. He described it as the worst irrigation season since 1962.

“The Rio Grande only has so much water, and everybody wants it,” Clayshulte said.