Corrales resident water‑rights attorney urges council to seek older water rights, not 1956 groundwater purchases

During the public comment period, water‑rights attorney and Corrales resident Tessa Davidson urged the village to abandon a proposal to purchase groundwater rights dated 1956 and instead pursue older senior rights to better protect surface‑water supplies and the village’s compact obligations.

Davidson said the mayor's circulating message misstated priority relationships by implying that 1956 groundwater rights were junior only to PBLO and pre‑1907 rights. She said that the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) holds permitted surface‑water rights dating to 1930 that irrigate roughly 42,000 acres (about 126,000 acre‑feet) and that many local residents rely on those 1930 MRGCD rights. "This amounts to 126,000 acre feet of surface water," Davidson said, arguing that farmers with pre‑basin groundwater rights and the MRGCD have strong incentives to protect surface water from junior groundwater depletions.

She also challenged an administration claim that 1956 groundwater purchases would carry the same practical priority value as pre‑1907 rights at lower cost, pointing to 2003 statutory changes giving the state engineer authority to administer priorities absent final adjudication. Davidson warned of heightened compact risk to Texas and urged the council to instead focus on acquiring pre‑1939 water rights as a more defensible approach.

Her comments were offered as technical public input rather than a request for immediate council action; the administration did not provide a point‑by‑point rebuttal on the record. Davidson closed by urging the village to "switch gears and seek pre‑1939 water rights."