72-12-22: Replacement well within one hundred feet.

A. The owner of a water right may drill and use a replacement well drilled within one hundred feet of the original well, prior to application to the state engineer, and the publication and hearing set out in Section 72-12-3 NMSA 1978, if:

(1) the well is drilled into the same and only the same underground stream, channel, artesian basin, reservoir or lake as the original well; and

(2) the appropriation is of the same amount of water allowed by his water right in the original well; and

(3) an emergency situation exists in which the delay caused by application, publication and hearing would result in crop loss or other serious economic loss; and

(4) he files application, or notifies the state engineer office of these facts and the location of the proposed replacement well by registered letter, prior to drilling; provided that he shall file application for a permit within thirty days after drilling begins.

B. The owners of other water rights who claim to be injured by the drilling of a replacement well under these circumstances, may not enjoin the drilling of such a well or the use of the water from the well, but are limited to an action at law to recover damages, and to their right to protest the granting of a permit.