As Seen in Journal
SOCORRO — After a long delay, partly brought about by the retirement of the hearing examiner, the Office of the State Engineer has set a hearing date for a highly contested application by Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC to pump massive amounts of groundwater from the San Augustin Plains Basin in west-central New Mexico.
The hearing addressing motions to dismiss the application is scheduled for Feb. 7 at 10 a.m. at the Socorro County Courthouse before newly appointed hearing officer Don Core.
The New York City-based Augustin Plains Ranch filed an application in 2007 to pump 54,000 acre-feet of water annually from the basin. That amount translates to about 17.6 billion gallons of water, roughly half of what the Albuquerque metropolitan area uses each year.
Augustin Plains Ranch is requesting to drill 37 wells in parts of Catron and Socorro counties north and east of Datil. The water would be used for a broad range of purposes, including “domestic, livestock, irrigation, municipal, industrial, commercial, environmental, recreational, subdivision, and related replacement and augmentation purposes of use.”
Augustin Plains Ranch’s application asks that the water be pumped for the purpose of selling or using the water within Bernalillo, Catron, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro and Valencia counties, or sent by pipeline to the Rio Grande to supplement the supply.
The application initially drew more than 900 protests from private citizens, government agencies and Indian tribes. That number was reduced to about 230 after protesters were required to pay a $25 fee to remain a party in the action.
Protesters consolidated motions to dismiss and just two were filed before a Feb. 11 deadline. One was filed by attorneys for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, which is representing about 80 of the protesters. The other came from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.
In addition, a brief from Pie Town attorney Ron Shortes was entered on behalf of the Catron County Commission, himself and a few other ranches and individuals.
The opponents say that the application lacks specificity and is so vague and speculative that it can’t be evaluated or approved. They also claims deficiencies in the application, including failure to state a beneficial use.
A scheduling conference held in Socorro in November 2010 drew about 200 people and nearly two dozen attorneys. A hearing on the motions to dismiss was scheduled for May of this year but was postponed upon the retirement of hearing officer Victor Kovach.