The complexity and intricacies of New Mexico water rights was a topic of discussion at Thursday night’s special Bloomfield Irrigation District meeting.
The issue concerned supplying water to Bloomfield’s newest industrial business, B8D LLC. The facility, which would use water to process frack sand, is on a parcel of land they purchased in 2024 that came with existing agricultural water rights. No conclusions were reached, because of the complexities of the issues and permitting processes needing to be completed.
Before it can access its ditch water rights, B8D needs to have the rights changed from agricultural to industrial use, a process completed by the State Engineer that will cut the allowed access to water from the ditch in half. People in attendance were concerned about how B8D’s access to the water rights conferred with their land purchase will impact their use.
Stacy Dodd, executive director of the BID, explained that this new user will not impact existing water rights for agricultural users.
“They don’t have a right to your water rights,” she emphasized. She further explained that B8D cannot access the water until the change is approved by the State Engineer, a process that could take a minimum of six to eight months.
No agreements were made about how much BID water, and transportation of that water, will cost B8D. Until the change is permitted and in place, Dodd reported that B8D is accessing water it is buying from the city of Bloomfield. They are buying potable water from the city, but this will change once the ditch begins running and the intent is then to purchase industrial water from the city of Bloomfield. It is not known how much Bloomfield is charging B8D for the purchase of a portion of their industrial water.
Ditch water was expected to begin running over the weekend, with access for users officially beginning April 1.
Dodd explained that in addition to potable water rights for community drinking water, Bloomfield has other rights it has purchased from landowners over the years for their industrial use that is not designated for the reservoir. “They have lots of different types of water rights,” Dodd said.
BID Board President John McHenry noted that B8D also has other options for purchasing water for its process, and that BID would like to sell them water for the revenue the district would receive, needed for ongoing repairs to the aging system. Once fully operational, B8D plans to recycle 80% to 90% of the water it uses.
The issue of year-round access to the ditch water was also raised, but many questions and issues surround that probability as well and currently there is not enough information to make a concrete determination.
Additional issues were raised with regard to head gates and metering for B8D, systems that are currently being installed at B8D’s expense.
The consensus of the board was that a meeting with the city of Bloomfield and B8D to answer a myriad of questions and issues is needed as soon as possible, and Dodd will be working on coordinating that meeting.
Current picture of B8D operations at the Bloomfield site of the frack sand processing facility. (Debi Tracy Olsen/Special to Tri-City Record)
