Rights of Individuals

• Under New Mexico law, in any cases where an individual has used a ditch over a period of five years for the purpose of irrigation, the state will automatically assume that financial grants have been paid to the owner of the land. In these cases, it will be considered illegal for the owners of the land to prevent access to the ditch or in any way interfere with the procedures of the easement. The law does allow the owners of the land to make alterations to the ditch as long as these alterations don't negatively interfere with the rights of access to the ditch.
  
  

Punishments

• The law of ditch easement in New Mexico also provides a process of punishment in any case when the rulings stated in section A of the law are broken. In these cases, the affected party is able to file a criminal complaint against the offending party for a violation of the law under section A of the New Mexico Code Chapter 73. These cases will either be dealt with by the district attorney or the court in charge of the county where the violation takes place. Any individual charged and convicted with a violation of Section A will punished with either a fine of up to $1000 or a jail sentence of ninety days --- or both.
  
  

Compensation

• The New Mexico Code Chapter 73 also provides a system of compensation for the affected individual if it is proven that the interference by the offending party had a financially adverse effect. In addition to the criminal procedure, the prosecuting party, usually the judge or the district attorney, also has the power to force the offending party to pay a civil penalty of up to $5000. This ruling can usually be achieved if it can be proven that the law was deliberately broken and resulted in a financial detriment for the plaintiff.
  
  

Prevention of Further Violations

• Although the main function of the ditch easement law aims at punishing any blatant disregard for the rules established under section A, the risk of repeat offenses still exist. Section D is designed to deal with this potential occurrence. Under section D of the New Mexico Code, Chapter 7, the district attorney or the legal authority --- for example, the court --- is able to enforce an injunction, preventing any continued violations.