Conservation, Modernization, and Action: An Interview with State Engineer Liz Anderson
Nov / 2025
In other Western states, the old maxim may ring true: “Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting over.” It’s not surprising, perhaps, that it occasionally raises the temperature of public discourse, given water’s scarcity in the arid Southwest. But in New Mexico, where we’re facing an increasingly dry future, water managers have been leaning into planning and collaboration instead, with exciting results to show for it — and more progress on the way.
“We are way ahead of the game compared to a lot of places,” says Liz Anderson, who leads New Mexico’s Office of the State Engineer and serves as Secretary of New Mexico’s Interstate Stream Commission, the two state agencies that jointly manage and administer all of New Mexico’s surface and groundwater. “Everybody in the Western United States is facing these same challenges, but we already have structures in place to help us share the water. And we have people working together.”
Take the state’s Active Water Resources Management statute. Passed in 2004, a few years into the state’s ongoing multi-decade drought, the act helps water users outline how they’ll share water in the case of scarcity.
Then there’s Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s 50-Year Water Action Plan, a comprehensive roadmap that lays out New Mexico’s water use and conservation work for the next half-century while ensuring there’s enough water available for economic development, too.
These structures are especially critical today, as climate scientists predict that the state will have 25% less water in its rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater reserves over the next 50 years.
“Everything we’re doing here [at OSE and ISC] is to provide a prosperous future for the state,” Anderson says. “New Mexico is open for business, and we’re prioritizing all the things we need to be a thriving community.”
Anderson stepped into the State Engineer role in 2024 when her predecessor, Mike Hamman, retired. She brings more than 20 years of water experience to the role — first as an environmental engineering consultant, and then as Chief Planning Officer for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority.
In 2023, Anderson signed on to advise Hamman after the two met while collaborating on the Governor’s Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force. As State Engineer, she’s now working to modernize the agencies.
That modernization work will allow current in-person tasks like permitting to take place online while also improving the efficiency of water administration tasks within the agency. And it will allow water managers and users more visibility into the state’s water data and resources, and how they’re being used.
“If you don’t have a way of measuring how much water is being used in different parts of the system, then you can’t figure out how to share that water,” Anderson says. “You can’t get people to take less when they need to. We need more tools that actually get that data into the hands of the people who are using the water day-to-day.”
Anderson is also prioritizing Indian water rights settlements. Six have already been signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and are awaiting approval by Congress — marking the most ever completed by a single administration. If approved as drafted, the settlements would bring about $3.2 billion of federal funding into the state to support not only tribal entities but also surrounding communities.
More work remains, including completing the water rights settlement with the six Middle Rio Grande pueblos, an undertaking that Anderson describes as “challenging and critical.”
“All of the settlements are incredibly important, and it’s exciting to note the progress that has been made,” she says.
Native American communities have been conserving and sharing water in New Mexico for generations — an ethos that residents, policymakers, and water planners throughout the state have increasingly adopted. As an example, over the past 30 years, residents of Albuquerque and Santa Fe have cut per-capita water use in half.
Anderson hopes the state’s regional planning efforts will spur on that ethos while helping policymakers identify and fund priority projects. Under the Water Security Planning Act’s proposed rule, which recommends nine distinct regions, local stakeholders will have more power than ever to identify their regions’ needs and prioritize projects based on local values — and our shared desire for a strong and sustainable water future.
Additionally, last year the legislature allocated five million dollars to fund 41 pilot projects investigating innovations in agriculture throughout the state, supporting farmers and ranchers to implement techniques that increase resiliency, protect livelihoods, and reduce water use.
“New Mexico has been dealing with drought for a long time,” Anderson says. “In some places, people really take water for granted. Here in New Mexico, we cherish it, and we’re already working on critical, long-term solutions to prepare for a hotter, drier future.”
New Mexico’s Accomplishments:
- A strong system of water-sharing agreements
- Regional planning is underway
- 50-Year Water Action Plan
- Indian water rights settlements are awaiting Congressional approval
Where the Office of the State Engineer is Headed:
- Modernizing measurement and administration systems
- Enhanced data tracking systems
- Continued Indian water rights settlement work
- Resolution of Texas v. New Mexico is around the corner