For 25 years, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center has worked every day to protect our region's water, land and air from toxic pollution; and to help New Mexico's many and diverse communities protect their environment.
State Rejects Ranch’s Water Application
An application for a permit to pump massive amounts of groundwater from beneath the San Agustin Plains in west-central New Mexico was denied by the New Mexico State Engineer last Friday.
“I’m very happy about the state engineer’s decision,” said Bruce Frederick, an attorney with the Environmental Law Center who represented about 80 of more than 200 protestants. “We think it was compelled by law and absolutely correct. We only wish that the application was thrown out a few years ago when the application was first submitted. There was really no definite project that application wanted to do. They just wanted to stake a claim to a bunch of water.” El Defensor Chieftain
State Denies Sale of Groundwater
The Augustin Plains Ranch LLC investment group proposed drilling a field of wells on the ranch, near Datil in the high county west of Socorro, and piping the water to somewhere in the Rio Grande Valley to meet long-term shortages there among farmers, cities and the state. But the project team never said who would use the water and how. By failing to be specific about where the water was going, the project’s backers failed to meet the requirements of state law, Verhines ruled.
The project amounted to water speculation, which is illegal, said Bruce Frederick with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, one of the lead attorneys for a group of rural residents who fought to block the project. It is the second recent state ruling to conclude speculation is not allowed under state water law. “All this ruling does is confirm what anybody who knows about water law and cares about water law already knew,” Frederick said Monday. Albuquerque Journal
Official Rejects Request to Pump Water from Catron County to Santa Fe
A New Mexico hearing examiner recommends denial of a permit to a New York company seeking to pump millions of gallons of groundwater from Catron County in Southwestern New Mexico and make it available to cities including Santa Fe.
Bruce Frederick, who handled the case for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said the application sought rights to the largest amount of water he knows of from a private entity… Frederick said the application should never have been accepted by the state engineer. “We could have saved the state and the parties tens of thousands of dollars if someone at the [State Engineer’s Office] had recognized the application was invalid on its face,“ he said. Santa Fe New Mexican
NM Water Official Rejects San Augustin Application
The state’s top water official has denied a request from a New York-based commercial venture that sought to drill more than three dozen wells in western New Mexico.
Bruce Frederick, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said Tuesday that his clients were pleased with the state engineer’s decision. He had filed a motion to dismiss the application on behalf of about 80 groups and individuals.
“The state engineer’s decision confirmed what most objective water lawyers already knew — you can’t take the public’s water unless you have a concrete beneficial use in mind,“ Frederick said in a statement. Wall Street Journal
NM State Engineer Denies Application for Water Grab
SANTA FE, N.M.— The water rights application filed by a New York based corporation, seeking to “appropriate” 54,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year from the San Augustin basin in Catron County was thrown out last Friday by the New Mexico State Engineer. (See OSE order)
Bruce Frederick of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center filed a motion to dismiss the application on behalf of about 80 parties in the case. Frederick says he and his clients were very pleased with the decision. “The State Engineer’s decision confirmed what most objective water lawyers already knew — you can’t take the public’s water,” says Frederick, “unless you have a concrete beneficial use in mind. In this case, the applicant just wanted to hoard the water until its value increased enough to justify selling the water or the entire project on the open market. This is commonly how ore deposits like gold, copper and silver come to market, but under our Constitution, water belongs to the public and cannot be hoarded or exploited like a mineral resource.”
Learn more about the case.
NM Regulators Scrap Carbon Emissions Rules
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WTW) — New Mexico regulators pulled the plug Friday on the state’s effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among coal-fired power plants, refineries and other large polluters.
Bruce Frederick, a staff attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said the evidence and the law don’t support the board’s decision. He accused the board, Public Service Company of New Mexico, and other utility and oil and gas interests of meeting privately and deciding to institute a new proceeding to repeal the rule rather than letting a court decide the issue. WSOC TV