One corporation’s request to divert billions of gallons of water away from Socorro and Catron counties and export it, in some cases, to other states, will hang county residents out to dry, opponents say.
The application, filed by Augustin Plains Ranch LLC in 2007, asks for permission to drill 37 wells not exceeding 3,000 feet deep “in order to divert and consumptively use 54,000 acre-feet per year in Catron and Socorro counties.”
Opponents have until Feb. 11 to file motions questioning the validity and specificity of the application.
Opponent Eileen Dodds wrote a letter to the Office of the State Engineer that said Catron and Socorro Counties can’t survive the aquifer mining.
“There is a delicate balance between usage and supply that the industries of our counties have nurtured for well over 100 years in just Catron County,” she wrote. “Socorro has a much older history of conservation and usage. … This excessive mining of our groundwater is not sustainable.”
Opponent Lynn Kennedy said Augstin Plains Ranch would extract about 17.6 billion gallons of water annually if its application is approved.
“To put that in perspective, the city of Albuquerque uses between 30 and 35 billion gallons of water annually,” she said. “So just over half of Albuquerque’s annual usage.”
Legal representatives for Augustin Plains Ranch LLC were unavailable for comment.
The application says the groundwater will be used for “domestic, livestock, irrigation, municipal, industrial, commercial, environmental, recreational, subdivision, and related, replacement and augmentation purposes of use.” It also says some of the water will supplement water exported from the Rio Grande to other states.
In her letter, Dodds wrote that the two counties’ inhabitants and industries are placing enough stress on the limited available resources. She said ranching and hunting, major industries in the area, and quality of life will be affected if the permit is granted.
Opponents’ motions will be discussed at a May 20 hearing with the Office of the State Engineer, which has jurisdiction over water rights disputes. Opponents can no longer sign up for the hearing, which costs $25 to attend, because the July 20 sign-up deadline has passed.
Kennedy said the issue drummed up about 900 opponents, but many dropped out because of the $25 hearing fee.
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Karin Stangl, OSE Planning and Communication director, said that a public hearing will take place as early as fall 2011.
Once opponents voice their concerns, Stangl said, the applicant will have to prove that once granted, the permit will not infringe upon existing water rights or damage public welfare and conservation efforts.
Stangl said OSE won’t rush to judgment without hearing opponents’ complaints.
“This is kind of an unusually large group of protestants (opponents) for a case like this,” she said. “Obviously, there are a lot of people protesting who feel their water rights might be impaired, so each one of them will have an opportunity to talk to the hearing examiner and make their case.”
