New Mexico landowners sue state over waterway access on private property
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico’s Supreme Court has made it clear, the state’s waterways are public and private landowners can’t fence people out. However, now a group of those landowners are challenging the idea and asking for the federal courts to get involved.
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The state Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling guaranteed the public’s right to walk or wade in New Mexico waterways. Now, five property owners claim they have a right to keep trespassers out of their property or get compensated.
The private property owners are looking for a federal court to weigh in on what they believe is their right to block water access. The lawsuit challenges the 2022 New Mexico Supreme Court ruling that says anyone can use all of the state’s creeks and streams even on private property.
Last year, state leaders, including New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, vowed to crack down on fenced-off waterways through lawsuits.
“Then that’s when the Attorney General and the Department of Game and Fish started coming after property owners who were exercising the right to exclude that they always had had,” said Attorney Christopher Kieser, Pacific Legal Foundation.
The new federal lawsuit filed Tuesday challenges the AG, the State Game Commission, and Department of Game and Fish. Property owners claim the push for public access has led to problems on private land.
“You know in a public park there’s people that are there to clean up the park and make the park habitable for the public but on private land, people come onto your property and they can leave trash,” said Kieser.
Kieser said the state cannot force private landowners to open up their private waterways without being paid. “It’s a clear uncompensated taking of private property for public use and if New Mexico wants to accomplish that they should pay for it,” said Kieser.
Reacting to the lawsuit today, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Justice, released a statement:
We had hoped that property owners who are privileged enough to own land along New Mexico’s rivers and streams would abide by state law and work with us to allow everyone to enjoy these natural resources. Instead they’ve decided to file a frivolous lawsuit in federal court based on a legal argument that the United States Supreme Court has already declined to hear. In spite of this short-sighted and selfish act, the citizens of this state may rest assured that the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to fight for the public’s constitutional right to access these precious natural resources.
Lauren Rodriguez, Director of Communications, New Mexico Department of Justice
One of the landowners involved in this new lawsuit ended a different lawsuit with the New Mexico Department of Justice earlier this year agreeing to take down fences across waterways by May.
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