Water Case Being Appealed

Copyright © 2012 Albuquerque Journal

A partnership that wants to pump groundwater from its high desert ranch in west-central New Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley went to court Monday to appeal a state decision to deny its water rights application.

“We believe this is a great project that deserves a hearing,” said Tom Carroll, spokesman for Augustin Plains Ranch LLC, in a statement issued Monday afternoon. “We would like to go forward and make our case to the state that we can deliver a large volume of new water in a sustainable manner, with no impairment to the ranchers in the area.”

State Engineer Scott Verhines late last month turned down the Augustin Plains Ranch’s proposal to pump 54,000 acre feet of water per year — an amount equivalent to the Albuquerque metro area’s entire annual municipal and industrial water consumption. Verhines ruled the project violates state water law by not specifying where the water will go and who will use it.

The Augustin Ranch partnership says that, in general, the water would be piped to the Rio Grande Valley for use there, but it refuses to name any specific users.

Verhines’ ruling had the effect of throwing out the case before the state even considered complaints of Datil area ranchers that the proposal would deplete the area’s aquifer and threaten their water supplies.

Now the Ranch’s owners are asking a state district court to overrule him and give them another chance to make the case that their project can benefit the water-short Rio Grande Valley without harming the Datil-area ranchers.

Bruce Frederick, the attorney for many of the area residents fighting the project, said the court should throw out the appeal.

“I am not surprised,” he said. “However, I think the appeal has no merit and should be dismissed.”
— This article appeared on page C02 of the Albuquerque Journal