Let’s Get New Mexico Waters in New Mexican Hands!

We are New Mexicans — farmers and ranchers, Indigenous community members, acequia families, rafting and fly-fishing guides, outdoor enthusiasts, and households that depend on clean water from our taps. Together, we helped pass Senate Bill 21 (SB 21), a historic law establishing a state-level water quality permitting system to protect New Mexico's rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands from pollution.

We now call on the Water Quality Control Commission to fulfill the promise of SB 21 by adopting strong, comprehensive implementing rules during the upcoming rulemaking process.

The Stakes Are Too High for Weak Rules

Federal rollbacks have stripped Clean Water Act protections from up to 95% of New Mexico's streams and up to 88% of its wetlands — protections that had been in place for half a century during which industry, agriculture, wildlife, and communities thrived.  

SB 21 created the legal framework we need. It established a state-level permitting system for waters no longer protected by federal law, and granted New Mexico the authority to administer permits for those few waters still federally protected through EPA oversight. But the law is only as strong as the rules written to implement it. That responsibility now rests with the Commission.

Our water is the foundation of our way of life. Our chile, pecan, onion, and fruit crops depend on it. Our centuries-old acequias are sustained by it. Our outdoor recreation economy — worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually — flows from healthy rivers, wetlands, and the wildlife that depend on them. New Mexico's growing $50 billion annual agriculture industry and fragile ecosystems also depend on healthy watersheds. Aridification due to climate change is making all this more precarious. We cannot afford anything less than full commitment.

What We Ask of the Commission

We, the undersigned, respectfully urge the Water Quality Control Commission to adopt rules grounded in three core principles:

• Protect the full breadth of New Mexico's surface waters. Rules must cover our free-flowing rivers, the small streams and drainages that feed them, and the wetlands that filter pollutants and recharge our aquifers.


• Fully protect Tribal waters. Rules must recognize and honor the rights and interests of Tribes, Pueblos, and other Indigenous communities regarding the waters that sustain their cultures and livelihoods.


• Ensure robust public participation. New Mexico's waters must remain in New Mexican hands. Rules must include meaningful, accessible opportunities for communities to participate in permitting decisions that affect their water.

We worked alongside local communities to pass SB 21 because we believe that New Mexicans — not federal rollbacks, not distant bureaucracies — should control the future of our water. SB 21 made that possible. Now the Commission must make it real.