NM • Well limitations nultiply water right value

Rio Rancho reviews water options

JUNE 26, 2006| The city of Rio Rancho, one of New Maxico's largest and fastest-growing (near Albuqurque), has been meeting with state water officials to review their options as they consider planning for ongoing expansion.
The Rio Rancho Observer reported after watching the meeting, "Although Public Infrastructure Director John Kolessar focused on ways Rio Rancho can improve its water status, often through water rights acquisition, councilor Patty Thomas asked Kolessar a question that has been on many Rio Ranchoans' minds. 'How do we really know the water's there?'"

Bosque hearing planned for December

JUNE 17, 2006 | Farmers in the Bosque area of northern New Mexico will get another shot in December at taking issue with a proposed water rights transfer they say should not be allowed under state law.
The transfer involves water with right claims dating to before 1907, on a  supplementary well that serves about 600 acres near Belen. The land recently been converted into production of crops.
The farmers' attorney, Jesse Boyd, was quoted as saying, "This is a complex transfer. There are a lot of issues this applicant is facing. But the main issue is if the land is legally capable of being irrigated. If, in fact, this land is found to not be in the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District benefited area, and land is incapable of accepting MRGCD water, than transferring water rights into a supplementary well is moot."
A series of legal deadlines will precede the hearing which is scheduled for December 12.

North Santa Fe suit almost settled

MAY 4, 2006 | Participants in a lawsuit stretching back 40 years, involving adjudication of many water rights in an area north of Santa Fe, have indicated they are near a settlement in the case.
Parties in the long-running battle have included the Nambé, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso and Tesuque pueblos, the state of New Mexico, Santa Fe County and many private water right holders, both tribal and non-tribal.
The settlement agreement, which was signed on May 1,  is expected to resolve claims of the Pueblos and non-Pueblo parties’ use of waters of the Nambe-Pojoaque-Tesuque Basin in northern New Mexico.
Officials including Governor Bill Richardson, the leaders from all four Pueblos, State Engineer John D’Antonio, Interstate Stream Commissioners, the Mayor of Santa Fe, representatives for the County, as well as representatives for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, a representative for Congressman Tom Udall, and representatives for non-Pueblo water users were among those present at a news conference held at the State Capitol to announce the agreement.
Richardson was quoted, “I salute the Pueblo leaders from Nambe, Pojoaque, Tesuque and San Ildefonso, who have labored for all these 40 years to protect their water, the lifeblood of their ancient communities. I salute the acequia parciantes and the domestic well users who have made their homes in the valley in more recent times. Everybody has given a little bit in exchange for some certainty about the future supply of water for their needs.”

Taos settlement may be reached

APRIL 4, 2006 | Negotiations running 17 years over use of water at the Taos pueblo in northern New Mexico may have reached a conclusion. Negotiators have at least reached an agreement in principle, the state engineer's office said.
Public meetings are set for April 12 and April 19. The engineer's office reported:

The Taos Pueblo Draft Water Rights Settlement Agreement has been developed through multi-party negotiations among the Taos Pueblo, the State of New Mexico, the Taos Valley Acequia Association, the Town of Taos, El Prado Water and Sanitation District, and the 12 Taos-area Mutual Domestic Water Consumer Associations. Collectively the parties to the Draft Settlement Agreement (DSA) represent the vast majority of water users in the Taos Valley. The United States is also an important party to these negotiations. In negotiations started in 1989 by an acequia-Pueblo initiative, these seven parties have pursued a settlement of Taos Pueblo's water rights claims to the Rio Hondo and Rio Pueblo de Taos. Since August 2003, the parties have worked closely with a mediator to complete a settlement. This process has produced the DSA that is publicly released today. This joint public release is an important step toward completing a water rights settlement in the Taos Valley. While no party has yet approved the DSA, the document represents the agreement reached at the table by the local negotiators. The six local parties (that is all parties except the United States), must now review and approve the document for the process to continue. Once the DSA is agreed upon at the local level, federal negotiations will continue to develop appropriate congressional legislation that approves and funds a final agreement. The negotiating parties will pursue similar legislation at the state level.

Pueblo officials were quoted in the April 3 Santa Fe New Mexican as saying the deal appears to be generally fair.

TX • Allegations of fraud blow up water talks

APRIL 22 | A massive water agreement reached in late March may have been sundered in mid-April when a water district official asked a city council - the two entities are parties to the agreement - " did the city enter into the contract in a fraudulent manner?”
The deal involves purchase of as much as 5.5 billion gallons (over the next two decades) by the city of Sugar from the Fort Bend County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1.
District board member Leon Anhaiser said the city is quietly challenging the district's rights to the water, and said the city is planning to ask the Texas Legislature for a measure which would allow it to annex and dissolve the water district.
City council members later said that they did have in mind the dissolution of the district, and felt compelled to negotiate with it. However, one said he understood that if the district were dissolved, the water rights would return to the state of Texas. [see Fort Bend Now, April 22.]

TAKING ON THE MEXICO CITY FORUM A guest opinion in the Cook County News Herald of Grand Marais, Minnesota, blasted the approach taken at the March Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City which equated water rights with human rights.
"After the first day of the meeting, however, it became clear that the government and corporate agents were only interested in turning water management into a business opportunity, whereupon the NGOs and activists established an alternative forum intent on identifying access to clean water as a fundamental right . . . If we accept the position that water is a common good, and an inalienable right shared by all people, does that mean that folks in China or France have as much right to Lake Superior’s water as we do?
Perhaps we would be better served if we didn’t use the concept of human rights to justify our control of Lake Superior’s water, but rather, focused on Cibber’s observation that possession is eleven points in the law."