Southern New Mexico farmers Horace Bounds Jr. and his wife, Jo, thought the 45 wells that people had drilled in recent years to supply homes near their irrigated lands along the Upper Mimbres River were drying up flows and infringing on their pre-1900s water rights. The Mimbres Valley had been a closed basin since 1972, with no water available for new uses, yet the state had granted well permits. Two years ago, the Bounds took their concerns to court, asking the judge to strike down a decades-old New Mexico law that requires the state engineer to issue permits for new domestic wells regardless of the potential impacts on existing water rights. On Thursday, state District Judge J.C. Robinson ruled the state statute unconstitutional and said the state engineer can't treat domestic applications differently than other types of water rights applications. He also found the state domestic well law violates the right of senior water rights holders to due process. 

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