SOCORRO — To Monte Edwards, who has a house and a few head of cattle on his land in Datil, the 130-foot deep well that provides his water is crucial.
“That well supports everything I do,” Edwards said Tuesday. Which is why Edwards and a large group of neighbors made the 60-mile drive to Socorro to register their concerns about a proposal to pump groundwater from a nearby ranch and pipe it to the Rio Grande Valley.
The occasion was a state hearing on an application by Augustin Plains Ranch to install as many as 37 wells and pump an amount equivalent to Albuquerque’s entire annual water consumption. The application does not specify who among the Rio Grande Valley’s cities and farms might buy the water.
Lawyers for those who object to the project say the state should throw out the application, saying it amounts to water speculation, which they argue is prohibited under state law. The ranch’s attorney Tuesday countered that such an interpreration of state law would effectively preclude any large private sector water development projects in New Mexico.
State hearing officer Andrew Core said he would prepare a recommendation based on issues raised at Tuesday’s hearing, with state Engineer Scott Verhines making the final decision in the case. Core said it was unclear how long that would take.
Edwards and other residents in and around Datil, adjacent to the ranch, fear pumping water from the high country west of Socorro could drain the aquifer that feeds their wells.
If attorneys for a broad range of project opponents get their way, the proposal will be thrown out long before the state has to make a ruling on whether the fears of Edwards and his neighbors are well founded. Before the state even begins considering whether the pumping will cause harm to high country residents, it should dismiss the application because it is simply too vague to be considered, argued Bruce Frederick of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.
The problem, Frederick said, is that the ranch’s water pumping application does not say where the water will go and who will use it. For a water transfer to be legal under New Mexico law, it must specify the “place and purpose of use” on the pipeline’s receiving end, he said.
Representing Augustin Plains Ranch, attorney John Draper said such an interpretation of New Mexico law would effectively prevent private parties from building large water projects to meet the Rio Grande Basin’s “increasing demand for water.” He said a state permit to pump should be allowed as a first step toward the development of an important project to meet New Mexico’s growing water needs.
In a similar case, state officials last year ruled against a proposal to pipe water from Fort Sumner to the Santa Fe area because it failed to identify who would be using the water on the receiving end. Frederick and other lawyers in the Augustin Plains Ranch case say the same principle should apply.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at jfleck@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3916
