Cities Water Needs Could Deplete Rural Areas

Rep. Dennis Kintigh (Chaves)

Veritas New Mexico - Communities in rural New Mexico are watching apprehensively as the Rio Grande Valley’s growing water needs threaten to deplete their water resources, two state legislators said recently. Attorneys for members of several of the communities have challenged applications to the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) by the developers of two large projects to transfer water from other parts of the state into the Valley. One project, Berrendo LLC, would transfer more than 2 billion gallons of water a year from a site near Fort Sumner to somewhere near Santa Fe. The second project is asking the OSE for permission to drill 37 wells on the San Augustin Ranch in Catron County, then pump about 17 billion gallons of water a year to the Rio Grande. An OSE hearing examiner denied Berrendo’s applications Feb. 8 on the grounds the company failed to name an actual end user of the water or a move-to location where the water would be used — requirements under New Mexico’s water law and constitution, which states that beneficial use is the basis, measure and limit of a water right. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Cities Water Needs Could Deplete Rural Areas