Sometimes the way to try to save a controversial bill is for the sponsor to temporarily take it off a committee's table.

When Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, learned his fellow Senate Conservation Committee members Tuesday were bound to deep-six his bill that would give the state engineer authority over deep, brackish aquifers, he asked to "temporarily table" it.

Cisneros said he hopes the state engineer can work out concerns over House Bill 262 with the committee and the energy lobby that oppose the bill, so the senator can revive it. "There was a lot of concern by various entities, petroleum producers, electric industry, mostly industry," Cisneros said. "I was looking for a way to resolve those concerns."

The deep-aquifer issue is haunting the State Engineer's Office and people concerned over the state's water supplies. The bill would place deep aquifers under the State Engineer's control and require a permit from people wanting to tap into them for domestic and municipal use.

Under current state law, aquifers that begin at 2,500 feet below ground or deeper and contain nonpotable water can be pumped without a permit. No one has to apply to the State Engineer for a permit to pump, the way they must for shallower domestic or municipal wells.

Oil and gas interests are concerned the bill could increase costs for energy drilling and open producers to legal protests over water rights. "There's a fear that there could be negative impacts, delays to projects, water permits could be protested, and the works could be gummed up in ways no one foresaw," said John Bemis, assistant commissioner of oil, gas and minerals at the State Land Office. "We're not saying it is a bad deal. We're saying from the oil and gas perspective, it may impact production negatively, and that wouldn't be in our best interest."

Oil and gas leases make up to 95 percent of the State Land Office's revenue, Bemis said.

The State Land Office also wants to protect its claim to nonpotable water in deep aquifers "so that it might be used to generate income from those lands," according to comments the agency filed on the bill.

Bemis said a bill this controversial was better handled in a 60-day session.

Until recently, oil and gas drillers were the only ones tapping so deep underground, looking for fluid of a different type. Oil drillers use the briny water as part of their operations. Their activity is overseen by the Oil Conservation Division, not the state engineer.

No one thought the day would come when developers and counties like Bernalillo would want to punch a pipeline almost a half mile deep just to pull up water for their future customers. Building a deep well and treating the water to drinking water standards was exorbitantly expensive.

But as available water supplies in the state's growth corridor along the Rio Grande shrank and the technology for treating the water has improved, those deep aquifers have begun looking tasty to developers.

And the State Engineer's Office is starting to see the interest. Would-be deep aquifer pumpers don't need a permit, but they must file a notice of intent to appropriate water. Jess Ward, district supervisor in the State Engineer's Albuquerque office, said the only deep aquifer notice his office had dealt with was one by Midway Raceway in 1997.

In the last year and a half though, his office has received three notices, including one this month. Sandoval County filed two of the notices to drill and test deep aquifers near Rio Rancho. "We're treading into new waters here," Ward said.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.