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The Office of the State Engineer is charged with administering the state's water resources. The State Engineer has authority over the supervision, measurement, appropriation, and distribution of all surface and groundwater in New Mexico, including streams and rivers that cross state boundaries.

The State Engineer is also Secretary of the Interstate Stream Commission.

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New Mexico Office of the State Engineer & Interstate Stream Commission

The first stage of the adjudication process is the completion of the hydrographic survey. During this process, Hydrographic Survey Bureau and the Litigation and Adjudication Program staff gather all of the information used to legally describe a water right and record it in the report and associated maps filed with the court. The survey filed by the bureau is presumed by the court to be correct. Any party wishing to dispute these facts bears the burden of proving the survey wrong.

OSE Hydrographic Survey

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Surface storage of water in the high desert of New Mexico results in approximately 7% loss of stored water to evaporation. Above-ground tanks are costly to construct, require a large land footprint, and are not aesthetically pleasing. There are currently five active Underground Storage and Recovery (USR) projects in NM, at various stages of development and permitting. This summarizes the status of these projects undertaken by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA), and the City of Rio Rancho. The Office of the State Engineer (OSE) reviews technical data and gives final approval for the project.

NM Underground Storage and Recovery (USR) Projects

The Water Rights Division's District Offices service specific areas of the State. The offices, located in Albuquerque (District I), Roswell (District II), Deming (District III), Las Cruces (District IV), Aztec (District V), Santa Fe (District VI) and, Cimarron (District VII), administer surface water and groundwater rights within New Mexico and process water rights applications. Data as of 08/2008

Administrative District Offices


This project focuses on mapping these conveyances in order to safe guard, preserve and assist with aid to acequias. The New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (OSE) has partially mapped New Mexico acequias through past adjudication and water right management efforts, but the funding necessary to complete a more comprehensive collection and consolidation of NM acequias was not available. 

The OSE GIS section, with this directive, rose to the challenge of finding a way to create the required datasets and complete mapping of the acequias because of their historical importance and vulnerability to floods and other natural disasters. Through a Sub-grant Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, UNM’s Earth Data Analysis Center was tasked with consolidating all available data to create a comprehensive map of state-wide acequias that would also be utilized in the state-wide natural hazard risk assessment. 

Acequia Mapping Project Storymap

The Regional Water Planning Program is admininstered by the OSE Interstate Stream Commission Planning and Communications Division. The State is divided into 16 Planning Regions that are charged with creating collaborative water resource plans. The feature layer includes those boundaries with "status" information on each regional plan.


ISC Regional Water Planning Areas

The Office of the State Engineer Declared Groundwater Basin map layer closely follow the legal desciptions. However, these boundaries are approximations. For a more accurate description please refer to Article 7 of the "Rules and Regulations Governing the Appropriation and Use of Ground Water in New Mexico." A Declared Groundwater Basin is an area declared by the State Engineer to be underlain by a groundwater source with reasonably defined boundaries. By declaration the State Engineer assumes jurisdiction over the appropriation and use of groundwater from that source.

Declared Ground Water Basins of New Mexico

Map displaying OSE points of diversion and several other datasets including Critical Management Areas, Quality Restriction Area, Local Ordinance Area, Special Condition Area, Negative Easement Area, Closure Areas

OSE Point of Diversion Locations

Virden Valley Water Rights Map by the NM Office of the State Engineer

Virden Valley Water Rights Map

Adjudications determine who owns what water rights and in what amount. They are required by statute. The purpose of adjudication is to obtain a judicial determination and definition of water rights within each stream system or underground basin so that the State Engineer may effectively perform water rights administration and meet New Mexico’s interstate stream obligations.

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