New Mexico Statutes
Article 9 - Irrigation Districts
Section 73-9-14 - [Board of directors; organization; powers; water regulations; delinquent assessments; engineer's report on water supply; contracts; pro rata distribution; delivering water to other lands; assignment of water rights.]

The directors, having duly qualified, shall organize as a board, elect a president from their number and appoint a secretary. The board shall have power and it shall be their duty to adopt a seal, manage and conduct the affairs and business of the district, make and execute all necessary contracts, employ such agents, attorneys, officers and employees as may be required and prescribe their duties, establish equitable rules and regulations for the distribution and use of water among the owners of said land and generally perform all such acts as shall be necessary to fully carry out the purposes of this act; which regulations, among other things, shall provide that no water shall be delivered from the irrigation system of the district for irrigation of any land while the taxes or tolls due thereon or from the owner thereof for district purposes levied or imposed under the provisions of this act are in arrears for more than twelve months; provided, however, that in the event such local assessments on any land within the district are more than twelve months in arrears, and the owner or tenant thereof shall pay, or satisfactorily secure said district for water assessments imposed for any current year, in advance of the actual delivery of water thereon, then said board may deliver water during such current year upon said lands. As soon as practicable after the board shall have organized it shall employ a competent hydraulic engineer to determine and report upon the water supply available for the district, which report shall be a full and complete record of all hydrographic data available and relating to the stream, streams or other sources of water supply from which water for the district is to be obtained; the report shall contain an estimate of the average amount of water available for each acre of land per year and shall show approximately the probable amounts available for irrigation or storage during each week of the year. The report accompanied by an examination fee of $25.00, shall be submitted to the state engineer for his examination and if he shall find such report to be a full and complete record of the available hydrographic data, that the calculations are correct and that there will be water in the source or sources of supply sufficient to properly irrigate the lands included within such district, he shall so certify under his hand and official seal. If the report submitted is found to be insufficient, or incorrect, the state engineer shall return the same for correction to the directors of the district with a statement of his objections. If such report is not corrected so as to meet with the approval of the state engineer or if from such report and other available information the engineer is of the opinion that there is not sufficient water in the source or sources of supply to properly irrigate the lands included within said district, he shall disapprove said report.
The board of directors shall have the right to appeal from the decision of the state engineer to the district court of the district in which such irrigation district is located, where the sufficiency and accuracy of the report and available water supply shall be determined. Until the report is approved by the state engineer or the courts, no bond issue shall be made as provided for in Section 15 [73-9-17 NMSA 1978] of this act. A copy of such report shall be kept on file in the office of the state engineer and the secretary of irrigation district, and shall be available for examination by any person desiring to do so.
Said board shall have the power (in addition to the means to supply water to said district) to construct, acquire or purchase any and all canals, ditches, reservoirs, reservoir sites, water, water rights, rights-of-way or other property necessary for the use of the district and to contract with any person, corporation or other irrigation district for supplying water for any or all of the lands in said district; and also to construct drainage works necessary to prevent or relieve the water logging of any lands within the district. In case of the purchase of any property by said district the bonds of the district hereinafter provided for may be used at their par value in payment without previous offer of such bonds for sale. But no contract involving a consideration exceeding ten thousand dollars [($10,000)] and no contract for the purchase, rental or delivery involving annual charges or payments exceeding fifteen thousand dollars [($15,000)] per annum shall be binding unless such contract shall be authorized and ratified in writing by not less than a majority of the qualified electors of said district according to the number of votes cast at the last preceding district election; nor shall any contract involving payment in excess of twenty-five thousand dollars [($25,000)] in any one year be binding until such contract shall have been authorized and ratified at an election held in the manner provided for the issue of bonds.
The rules and regulations established by said board shall be printed in convenient form as soon as the same are adopted, for distribution in the districts. All waters distributed shall be apportioned to each landowner pro rata to the lands assessed under this act within such district. The board of directors shall have power to lease or rent the use of water or contract for the delivery thereof to occupants of other lands within or without the said district at such prices and on such terms as they deem best, provided the rental shall not be less than one and one-half times the amount of the district tax for which said land would be liable if included in the district lands assessed under this act; provided, no vested or prescriptive rights to the use of such water shall attach to said land by virtue of such lease or such rental; provided, also, that any landowner in said district may with the consent of the board of directors assign the right to the whole or any portion of the water so apportioned to him for any one year where practicable to any other bona fide landowner but only in case such owner shall have fully complied with the provisions of this act.
History: Laws 1919, ch. 41, § 12; C.S. 1929, § 73-212; Laws 1933, ch. 63, § 1; 1941 Comp., § 77-2112; 1953 Comp., § 75-22-12.
Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.
Compiler's notes. — The term "this act" refers to Laws 1919, ch. 41, §§ 1 to 57, effective March 10, 1919, the provisions of which are compiled as 73-9-1 to 73-9-6, 73-9-10 to 73-9-19, 73-9-22, 73-9-24 and 73-9-26 to 73-9-62 NMSA 1978.
Cross references. — For director's appointment by bondholders, see 73-13-7 NMSA 1978.
For the state engineer, see 72-2-1 NMSA 1978 et seq.
For procedures governing administrative appeals to the district court, see Rule 1-074 NMRA.
For scope of review of the district court, see Zamora v. Village of Ruidoso Downs, 120 N.M. 778, 907 P.2d 182 (1995).
District has no right to reservoir fund. — An irrigation district has no clear legal right to draw on income from land grant by Congress, the use of which is limited to establishment of reservoirs, and mandamus directed to the drawing of warrant thereon should be denied. Carson Reclamation Dist. v. Vigil, 1926-NMSC-019, 31 N.M. 402, 246 P. 907.
Mandamus not available to compel auditor to pay for engineer from fund. — Where the duty of the state auditor to draw warrants upon the "permanent reservoirs for irrigation purposes income fund" is not made clear by the citation of statutory authority, he can not be compelled by mandamus to exercise his discretion in drawing upon such fund to employ a competent hydraulic engineer for an irrigation district. Carson Reclamation Dist. v. Vigil, 1926-NMSC-019, 31 N.M. 402, 246 P. 907.
Irrigation district has power to acquire water rights by any legal means. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-01.
An irrigation district must continue to use any water right acquired under authority of this section beneficially or suffer the right to be forfeited. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-01.
Beneficial use must commence within four years. — The length of time that an irrigation district may hold a right without putting the water of that right to beneficial use is limited to four years, although, in the discretion of the state engineer, extensions of time may be granted beyond the four-year period. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-01.
To prevent forfeiture. — This section provides that a water right acquired by an irrigation district will not be lost by forfeiture if the water to which the district is entitled by virtue of such right is leased or rented and therefore used upon land other than the land to which the right may have been appurtenant. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-01.
Leasing and using of water deemed beneficial use. — The leasing or renting of water by an irrigation district together with the use thereof by the lessee is a beneficial use within the constitutional requirement of N.M. Const., art. XVI, § 3. 1964 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 64-01.
Abatement of public nuisance maintained by irrigation district allowed. — A court could certainly hold that the Elephant Butte irrigation district is maintaining a public nuisance in that its ditches and canals are breeding mosquitoes that have resulted in the presence of encephalitis. Although New Mexico has no specific provision requiring the abatement of this particular type of nuisance, the conditions now existing constitute a nuisance at common law and hence should be abated in the interest of the public health and safety in the opinion of this office. 1958 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 58-192.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 45 Am. Jur. 2d Irrigation §§ 58 to 61.
Right of water district to charge for fire service, 37 A.L.R. 1511.
Liquidation of indebtedness incident to abandoned project where cost of improvement, if made, would have been assessed against property benefited, 82 A.L.R. 559.
Liability of irrigation district for damages, 160 A.L.R. 1165.
Discrimination between property within and that outside municipality or other governmental district as to public service or utility rates, 4 A.L.R.2d 595.
Duty of mutual association, nonprofit organization, or co-operative to furnish utilities services, 56 A.L.R.2d 413.
94 C.J.S. Waters § 319.

Structure New Mexico Statutes