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I do not know about New Mexico since it is so much younger as a state than Virginia, but I do know a little bit about some controversies surrounding this issue in my home state of Virginia. In Virginia, there are still some property owners whose families have held their land for centuries with no break in the chain of title. Some of them can trace their family’s ownership back to Land Grants from the King of England. In many cases, these original land grants specifically mention that the grant includes title to all or a portion of a given river or stream which runs adjacent to or across the property.

I know the U.S. government has, on a “blank4et” basis, declared waterways to be public property, but I think that in the event a particular landowner can trace his title back to a document that references ownership of a particular section of a river or stream, then that owner has a legitimate claim to ownership of the waterway.

Now, I’m not saying these owners should be permitted to maintain ownership, but in such cases, if the U.S. government wants to claim such waterways as “waters of the U.S.” or “navigable waters” or “public property” or whatever, I think the U.S. government should be required to properly condemn the affected section(s) of rivers/streams using the 5th amendment power of imminent domain - and I think the owners should be justly compensated.

With that said, I suspect that such issues were probably taken care of in New Mexico at the time it was admitted to the Union.