What's going on, Albuquerque?

Draining New Mexico: NM Aquifer to be pumped for over 17.5 billion gallons of water a year

To be honest, one thing that concerns me a bit about moving to a desert locale is, well, the general lack of water. I hear the predictions about how Albuquerque has something like 40 years of water left for it's residents, but I'm optimistic that through conservation, education and better technology many of the water problems can be minimized. That's obviously not going to happen overnight, and that's why I find stories like this alarming... No mention in the local ABQ news that I saw.

Draining New Mexico by Arthur Versluis at Counterpunch.org

"It began with a non-descript legal notice in the local paper, the kind of thing most people don't ever really look at. The notice said that in Catron County, New Mexico, Augustin Plains Ranch LLC intends to drill thirty-seven twenty-inch water wells, down to a depth of 2,000 feet, to withdraw 54,000 acre-feet of water a year from the high desert aquifer. In case you're not up on how much water that is: an acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, so the proposal is to pump out over 17.5 billion gallons of water a year from these wells in the high desert country of New Mexico."

Arthur Versuis responds:
". . . the project would pump out billions of gallons of ancient underground water and dump them into the shallows of the Rio Grande - until when? Until the aquifer is depleted? The whole profligate project is the very epitome of squanderville, so absurdly anti-conservationist that one can scarcely believe it has been proposed, let alone seriously considered."

I don't live in Albuquerque yet, so I can't claim to have a finger on the pulse of what's on people's lips or the important issues to local communities. I have to imagine that this is something that almost everyone in New Mexico would want to know about and ultimately have some say in how their water resources are used.

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Comment by Neonnoodle on December 7, 2007 at 4:42pm: Apparently Catron County Connection (http://catroncounty.blogspot.com/) is a blog with a link to info regarding this project: http://www.catroncounty.net/water/

I have no idea how water rights work, and who can officially right a protest letter, but I think the link above has the information. Looks like the deadline for an initial letter of protest is December 16!

Comment by Neonnoodle on December 7, 2007 at 4:49pm: Upon further investigation...

You have the standing to file an objection or protest if you object that the granting of the application will:
* be detrimental to your water right/s; and/or
* be contrary to the conservation of water within the state and/or
* be detrimental to the public welfare of the state.

You must show how you will be substantially and specifically affected by the granting of the application

A valid objection or protest must be legible, signed, and include your complete mailing address.

http://www.catroncounty.net/water/8.htm

Comment by Jackson on December 7, 2007 at 5:34pm: I've been asking that same question for years Doug. A pipeline makes perfect sense to me.

Comment by freekbuoy on December 7, 2007 at 11:19pm: You could actually bring the issue to the state Supreme Court under the "great public importance" doctrine.

Gotta love the trivia.

Comment by Rodrigues on December 8, 2007 at 6:09pm: There needs to be an overhaul in the laws and in people's minds about how we use water. Even here in Albuquerque, do we need lush golf courses in the desert or green front yards? These things use millions of gallons of water that is sucked out of the aquifer, then lost to evaporation or swept away in the Rio Grande. Why live in New Mexico if you're going to try your damndest to make it look like Florida, and empty the aquifer while you're at it?

Comment by bleve on December 8, 2007 at 11:23pm: Thanks Neonnoodle for the post and the follow up. Even this cursory bit of information is offensive enough to draw strong opposition. I think all three requirements for objection can be met when you take into account that it takes about 6,000 years to replenish anything that is taken out of the aquifer.

I'll have to look into this cause it sounds so grossly foolish it doesn't really make sense.

Comment by John Fleck on December 9, 2007 at 9:53am: There's a lengthy story in this morning's Journal by Rene Romo, with some good detail on the government processes involved:

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/268260nm12-09-07.htm

Comment by Jennifer Concklin on December 9, 2007 at 3:08pm: What freaks me more is that the Sun Cal corp. owns 55,000 acres west of Albu. and intends to develop. Where is that water going to come from and how can the water supply sustain all the people this development would bring??

Comment by bleve on December 9, 2007 at 10:52pm: Even scarier is the amount of land in this state that is owned by relatively few people... ie. Ted Turner. For years many have wondered the reason for buying up so much land in this state. Currently the public discourse has so much to do with oil, but the real looming resource issue has to do with water in the coming decades. If catastrophic wars can be started in the name of oil we really need to contemplate the grave hazards of water scarcity and water monopoly.

This is an old list but it is quite revealing... http://members.aol.com/wmpb/CrossLand/

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