Open-file Report - 624
Background and Considerations for a Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Network in New Mexico

Groundwater is one of New Mexico’s most precious resources. An estimated 92% of the state’s community drinking water systems are entirely or partly dependent on groundwater for their water source. In addition, there are over 100,000 permitted domestic wells in the state. More than 12,000 irrigation wells are permitted by the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, which estimated that 54% of all irrigated acreage in 2015 exclusively utilized groundwater and 15% utilized a combination of groundwater and surface water. Clearly, New Mexico’s groundwater is essential to its social and economic wellbeing, and it must therefore be protected and properly managed to ensure that it remains an abundant and safe source of water for future generations.

The goal of this project is to provide background information for New Mexico to guide development of a modern and dedicated statewide groundwater-level monitoring network that can reliably support effective water resource management and planning—to develop an ideal groundwater monitoring network. The scope of the project, while statewide, was focused on 10 regions, selected based on factors such as groundwater use (quantity and geographic distribution), active and historical groundwater monitoring, geology, hydrology, modeling efforts, and land ownership.

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