New Mexico
New Mexico DOJ pressures the state to crack down on illegal fencing on public waters
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – It’s been a long-debated topic pinning private landowners against people using New Mexico’s rivers recreationally.
Friday morning, New Mexico’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and two outdoor organizations pressured the state to crack down on illegal fencing on public waters.
“These are extremely dangerous to the public,” said Sherry Barrett with New Mexico Paddlers Coalition.
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Fencing across rivers and streams with hopes of keeping out trespassers on private property interferes with what the state law now deems legal.
“There had been barriers that had been allowed by certain regulation, and the New Mexico Supreme Court said that those regulations were unconstitutional,” said NMDOJ Chief Deputy Attorney General James Grayson.
The NMDOJ, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, and the New Mexico Paddlers Coalition went before legislators during the Water and Natural Resources Committee presenting the status on stream access enforcement.
“The waters belong to the public. The waters of New Mexico, whether they’re perennial or torrential belong to the public, and the public has a right to recreate and to fish on those waters,” said Grayson.
Some legislators asked: how far is too far? At what point do public rights become trespassing on private property?
“This is a balanced approach. The public does have the right to recreate. The public has the right to access those waters, but the public can’t trespass over private land to get to the water, and the public can’t exit the water onto private land,” said Grayson.
The DOJ shared how they reached out to property owners along the popular Pecos and Chama rivers with illegal fencing asking for barriers to be taken down. The next step was to send cease and desist letters.
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“We wanted to work with the landowners to let them know what their rights were and what the public’s rights were. We successfully managed to have a number of barriers removed from the Pecos River,” said Grayson.
In some cases, where owners refused to comply, further legal actions were taken. The state spoke to the severity of the dangers of having fencing along these rivers and streams.
“One of the problems is it’s a barbed wire fence, and these can be very difficult to see on rivers, especially in high flows, and again, these can ensnare people – boaters and anglers – and cause drowning,” said Barrett.
Some legislators wondered how landowners are supposed to exclude or contain livestock from entering or leaving their property without the barriers.
“We have to figure out a way to get these fences, if they’re necessary, to be paddler friendly,” said Barrett.
The discussion went back and forth as legislators fought to clarify what would be “reasonable;” some advocated for private landowners and asked for stricter guidelines on trespassing, and others were in support of the DOJ’s efforts to open the use of waterways to the public.
The New Mexico Paddlers Coalition and other outdoor groups have already volunteered time to install paddler-friendly fencing and hold regular trash cleanups along popular rivers.
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The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.
SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.
Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images
Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.
Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.
There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.
After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.
It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.
Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.
Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:
- Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
- Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
- New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).
What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.
That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.
With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.
New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.
But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.
Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.
What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.
Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility
SANTA FE, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) – The New Mexico Department of Health says it will continue to recommend the full schedule of childhood vaccines.
State officials announced the move Tuesday, directly defying a new federal policy that scaled back routine immunization guidance.
The announcement comes after U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reduced the number of vaccines it recommends for all children.
The New Mexico Department of Health stated the federal changes were “not based on new scientific evidence or safety data.”
“New Mexico will not follow the federal government in walking away from decades of proven public health practice,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Our recommendations remain unchanged.”
State health officials sought to reassure parents, emphasizing that vaccines remain widely available and covered by insurance.
“We know this is confusing for parents, but the science is clear: vaccines are safe, effective, and save children’s lives,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for NMDOH.
All childhood vaccinations will continue to be covered under programs like Medicaid and the federal Vaccines for Children Program.
The state encourages parents to consult their healthcare providers using the American Academy of Pediatrics’ immunization schedule.
RECOMMENDED: CDC cuts childhood vaccine list, sparking healthcare professionals’ concerns
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