This act [70-12-1 to 70-12-10 NMSA 1978] may be cited as the 'Surface Owners Protection Act'. History: Laws 2007, ch. 5, § 1. ANNOTATIONSEffective dates. — Laws 2007, ch. 5, § 11 made the act effective July 1, 2007. Relocation of access road. — Where the oil and gas lessee's existing access road was washed out by the adjacent river and made impassable; the lease granted the lessee authority to utilize the surface property as was reasonably necessary to carry out its business; and there was a strong likelihood that erosion would continue in the future if the river bank were rebuilt and the existing road repaired, the court did not abuse it discretion when it authorized the lessee to relocate the portion of the eroded road in an alignment that had the least impact on the landowner's surface rights and ordered the lessee to compensate the landowner on the basis of the value of hay that the landowner would have grown on the area occupied by the relocated road. XTO Energy, Inc. v. Armenta, 2008-NMCA-078, 144 N.M. 212, 185 P.3d 383.
New Mexico Legal Code