N.M. Stat. » Chapter 73 — Special Districts
New Mexico Statutes

N.M. Stat. § 73-5-1 (2026)

[Water users associations; how organized.]

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Whenever the owners of lands, reservoirs or irrigation ditches in any county or adjoining counties in this state may desire to enter into mutual undertaking to construct, maintain and operate storage reservoirs, diversion dams, irrigating ditches, canals or other irrigation works, or to combine their several irrigating ditches, canals or other works into one or more irrigation systems, or to improve, enlarge or add to the same, for their mutual advantage, they may organize a water users' association under the provisions of this chapter [this article].

History: Laws 1909, ch. 76, § 1; Code 1915, § 5645; C.S. 1929, § 150-101; 1941 Comp., § 77-1601; 1953 Comp., § 75-17-1. ANNOTATIONS

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Compiler’s notes. — The 1915 Code substituted "this chapter" for "this act," presumably to refer to Code 1915, ch. 113, the provisions of which are derived from Laws 1909, ch. 76, and are compiled in the present article as 73-5-1 to 73-5-9 NMSA 1978.

Cross references. — For succession of irrigation districts to rights and duties of water users' associations, see 73-10-45 NMSA 1978.

For control of animals within territory of water users' associations, see 77-14-8 to 77-14- 24 NMSA 1978.

Water users association not within commission's jurisdiction. — A water users association formed under this article is not a mutual domestic water consumer within the meaning of 62-9-1 NMSA 1978; further, absent any evidence showing the association was subject to the Public Utility Act, it did not come within the jurisdiction of the public utility commission. Morningstar Water Users Ass'n v. N.M. Pub. Util. Comm'n, 1995- NMSC-062, 120 N.M. 579, 904 P.2d 28.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 94 C.J.S. Waters §§ 340, 353, 399.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1959–1995 · leading case: Morningstar Water Users Ass'n v. New Mexico Pub. Util. Comm'n, 904 P.2d 28 (N.M. 1995).
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Morningstar Water Users Ass'n v. New Mexico Pub. Util. Comm'n, 904 P.2d 28 (N.M. 1995). · cites it 8× “Farmington owns a water utility that until recently serviced residents and businesses only within its municipal boundaries. Farmington has now begun to extend its services into a geographical area that had previously been served only by Morningstar.”
Morningstar Water Users Ass'n v. Farmington Mun. Sch. Dist. No. 5, 901 P.2d 725 (N.M. 1995). · cites it 2× “It was incorporated as a Water Users’ Association in 1979 under NMSA1978, §§ 73-5-1 to -9 (Orig.Pamp. & Cum.”
Thomson v. Bd. of Cnty. Commissioners, 344 P.2d 171 (N.M. 1959). “) In 1953, the legislature re-enacted such a salary act with changes as to the salaries of the superintendents within counties of certain classes, and there is included in such act, being § 73-5-1, N.M.S.A.1953, the same provision as above set out except that the words in…”
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