Water Planning

State Water Plan

The New Mexico Office of the State Engineer and Interstate Stream Commission have prepared two State Water Plans, in 2003 and 2018, and several interim updates and progress reports. In accordance with the State Water Plan Act, the state water plan shall be periodically reviewed, updates and amended in response to changing conditions. At a minimum a review shall be undertaken every five years.

New Mexico State Water Plan 5-Year Update

This 2023 New Mexico State Water Plan 5-Year Review is a product of the statewide water planning program at the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. Statewide water planning in New Mexico has been underway since 2003, at which point regional water planning – which had passed into law in 1987 – was ongoing. The most recent round of regional water planning was completed in 2017, and the most recent update to the state water plan followed in 2018.

One of the most notable changes since the last State Water Plan is the completion of Climate Change in New Mexico Over the Next 50 Years: Impacts on Water Resources, aka the Leap Ahead report, in 2022. That report was compiled by a panel of New Mexico’s experts, including hydrologists and climatologists, and projects reductions in available surface water of 25% or more in the coming decades along with increasing flood severity, longer summers, earlier snowmelt, reduced recharge to aquifers and increasing aridification.

In response to the projected reductions in available water, the urgent needs of rural water systems, and the availability of new funding opportunities, the Water Security Planning Act was passed unanimously by the 2023 Legislature. The intent of the Water Security Planning Act is to reinvigorate regional water planning across New Mexico so that shared challenges and values can assist communities in identifying and prioritizing water project needs.

New Mexico State Water Plans