New Mexico faces significant challenges from drought and aridification, aging infrastructure, and increasingly extreme weather events, which strain the state’s already over-used rivers and aquifers. Securing sustainable water supplies over the long term will require strategic investment to extend existing supplies and develop new supply alternatives.

This assessment investigates the technical potential and levelized cost of multiple water supply alternatives: agricultural conservation, municipal and industrial water conservation, municipal and industrial wastewater reuse, urban stormwater runoff, produced water recycling and reuse, and brackish groundwater desalination. These findings can inform efforts to identify and prioritize investment opportunities and implementation strategies to strengthen water resilience in New Mexico. The assessment also highlights areas where further investigation is needed to support informed decision-making. 

• Conservation in the agricultural and municipal and industrial sectors offers significant opportunities to extend existing water supplies, often at lower cost than other alternatives evaluated in this study.  
• Agricultural conservation strategies could reduce water withdrawals by more than 600,000 acre-feet per year, while municipal and industrial conservation could reduce water use by 164,000–196,000 acre-feet per year.  
• Reusing treated wastewater and capturing stormwater runoff can help communities extend existing water supplies and meet non-potable water demands. 
• Produced water and brackish groundwater carry substantial uncertainty related to the amount available, development costs, and potential public and environmental health impacts. 
• The benefits and tradeoffs of each water supply alternative will vary by community and basin, requiring additional investigation and long-term planning to support water resilience in New Mexico.