Rio Rancho Advances $63.4 Million Water Plan Amid Ongoing Water Rights Lawsuit

Rio Rancho city officials advanced an approximately $63.4 million water infrastructure plan on Feb. 9, 2026, even as the city pursues an appeal of a district court order that denied groundwater permits the city sought. The multi-million-dollar plan, described by city staff in an Original Report as intended to address aging infrastructure, expand capacity for growth and meet regulatory requirements, was advanced without the detailed “next steps” that the report’s excerpt left truncated.

The permit denial at the center of the litigation came from the 13th Judicial District Court of Sandoval County, where Judge George Eichwald presided over a trial in March that followed earlier proceedings before an administrative law judge. The district court issued an order denying Rio Rancho’s groundwater permits; the city filed a notice of appeal roughly a month before Oct. 15 and then filed a formal request for oral argument on Oct. 15. City spokesperson Jaley Turpen previously told reporters the city has “no comment on the ruling or any action the city might take in the future.”

The applications Rio Rancho filed sought transfers of a portion of the city’s water rights to offset the impact of groundwater pumping on surface flows in the Rio Grande stream system near the Pueblo of Sandia. The Pueblo of Sandia protested Rio Rancho’s applications, arguing the transfers would have harmed its existing water rights and the welfare of the state, and noting its reliance on Rio Grande water for cultural, ceremonial and religious uses. The Office of the State Engineer, which had approved Rio Rancho’s applications years earlier, also appealed Judge Eichwald’s ruling.

Rio Rancho city attorney Maria O’Brien framed the appeal as a challenge to the district court’s legal reasoning, writing in the appellate filing that Eichwald “rewrote established (state) water law.” O’Brien asked the appellate court to consider almost 25 issues in which the district court might have erred, according to the filing. The exact legal grounds listed in the city’s notice and the full appellate briefs have not been published in the materials provided.

Key documents remain needed to clarify the connection between the $63.4 million plan and the contested groundwater permits. The district court’s denial order, the full text of the city’s Oct. 15 request for oral argument and the notice of appeal filed a month earlier would show the court’s reasoning and the relief Rio Rancho seeks on appeal. City council minutes or staff reports that formally advanced the $63.4 million plan would identify funding sources, project components and any dependencies on the water-rights litigation.

As the appeal proceeds, two parallel tracks now define Rio Rancho’s water program: the local government action to advance a multi-million-dollar infrastructure package and the ongoing appellate challenge in Sandoval County to a district judge’s denial of groundwater permits that the Office of the State Engineer and the Pueblo of Sandia have contested.