With the support of New Mexico’s Governor and the New Mexico Legislature, funds were provided to NM WRRI for FY 15, FY 16, and FY 17 to support an NM legislative initiative that includes a Statewide Water Assessment. The Statewide Water Assessment is an effort that will complement existing state agency water resource assessments. It will provide new, dynamic (updated frequently), spatially representative assessments of water budgets for the entire state of New Mexico. Projects included in the Statewide Water Assessment bring new technologies that expand existing studies and are applicable statewide. Of particular interest are water budget components for which state agencies require improved information, such as evapotranspiration (ET), crop consumptive use, groundwater recharge, and streamflow.

With FY 15, FY 16, and FY 17 funds that were provided by the NM Legislature, NM WRRI is coordinating different components of the Statewide Water Assessment effort with work being done by researchers from New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, University of New Mexico, U.S. Geological Survey, New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Petroleum Recovery Research Center, Office of the State Engineer, Sandia National Laboratories, and Tetra Tech Inc.