In a complete rejection of an industry lawsuit against the State of New Mexico, the New Mexico State Court of Appeals in a 3-0 judicial opinion affirmed New Mexico’s right to protect all New Mexico’s waters – a seemingly obvious idea, but one that has been vigorously challenged by a consortium of industry groups.

“The Court’s common sense opinion affirms New Mexico’s right to protect our water and the many people who depend upon clean water for drinking, irrigation and recreation,” stated Rachel Conn, a Policy Analyst with Amigos Bravos. Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center who represented Amigos Bravos and an alliance of community groups who intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of the State added, “It is deeply troubling to know that these industry groups think that many of our State’s waters don’t deserve protection. We’re deeply heartened, however, that the State has defended the public’s interest in clean water, and that the industry’s legal arguments proved meritless.”

In 2005, the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission, with the support of the New Mexico Environment Department and Amigos Bravos, wisely revised New Mexico’s definition of “surface water” to ensure that efforts to curtail the reach of the federal Clean Water Act did not harm New Mexico’s ability to protect water against pollution. However, the New Mexico Mining Association, New Mexico Home Builders Association, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, New Mexico Wool Growers Inc., Chino Mines Company, and Phelps Dodge Tyrone, Inc., challenged the Commission’s decision in the New Mexico State Court of Appeals, effectively seeking to carve a loophole that could have exposed up to 90% of the New Mexico’s waters to serious harm from unregulated dumping of pollutants.

Amigos Bravos, a river conservation organization, organized an alliance with several other groups including the Gila Resources Information Project, New Mexico Trout, New Mexico Acequia Association, 1000 Friends of New Mexico, and the Sierra Club to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the State. The groups, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, worked with the State to successfully defend the State’s right to protect all surface water from pollution before the Court of Appeals of the State of New Mexico.

“Now that we have defended New Mexico’s right to protect New Mexico’s waters at the state level, we need to ensure that the Federal Clean Water Act is restored to protect all that waters that it historically protected. The Clean Water Authority Restoration Act will fix the problems with the Clean Water Act and ensure that all New Mexico’s waters as well as thousands of miles of stream nationwide are protected”, added Conn.