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<br />oup~~ <br /> <br />its New Mexico tributaries are subject to terms of an interstate <br /> <br />compact, a federal district court decree and a united States <br /> <br />Supreme Court Decree. The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commis- <br /> <br />sion is responsible for the negotiation and administration <br /> <br />of our interstate compacts and for the conduct of litigation <br /> <br />over interstate waters. <br /> <br />Present Uses <br /> <br />In New Mexico we are presently diverting about 3.080.000 <br /> <br />acre feet of water annually for the irrigation of about 1,000,000 <br /> <br />acres of land. Of this amount some 1.7 million acre feet is <br /> <br />diverted as surface water and the remainder of about 1.4 million <br /> <br />acre feet is pumped fr~m wells. <br /> <br />Only about 270,000 acre feet of water is diverted annually <br /> <br />for municipal. industrial and other purposes. About 8oo" of this <br /> <br />amount is taken from ground water sources. Nearly all of our <br /> <br />major cities rely in part or entirely on ground water sources <br /> <br />f~r municipal supply. <br /> <br />M~st of the 1.6 million acre feet of ground water being <br /> <br />. L'umped in New Mexico at present is being "mined"--that is. <br /> <br />in most areas the average annual withdrawal from the aquifer <br /> <br />exceeds the average annual recharge and water levels are declin- <br /> <br />ing. <br /> <br />It is desirable of course that ground water resources <br /> <br />3 <br />