PRC and Blanco Head to Supreme Court

NM Watchdog - “Forget about it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” That was the last line of the classic movie Chinatown in which Jack Nicholson playing a private investigator stumbles onto a bigger story about the politics of water and the people behind it.
On August 25, 2010 the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) fined a small privately-owned water utility company in Dona Ana County named Picacho Hills Utility Company and its owner, Stephen Blanco, $1 million dollars for violating 40 rules of operating a public utility.

The $1 million dollar fine is the largest fine ever handed down in PRC history. The fine was $950,000 assessed on Mr. Blanco personally, and $50,000 on his utility company.
Stephen Blanco claims he is not in violation of state public utility laws and that there are larger forces behind the scenes of the PRC with political aspirations and economic incentives who want to take away his company and its valuable water rights. Read full story here: News New Mexico

PRC and Blanco Head to Supreme Court