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Thursday, February 10, 2005

Water Transfer Creates Divide

By Kathy Louise Schuit
Mountain View Telegraph
    An activist group and a government panel both claim to have the best interests of Estancia Basin water at heart.
    Representatives of both the newly formed Estancia Basin Resource Association and the 9-year-old Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee have water plans and say they want the people's rights protected.
    But Estancia Valley residents find themselves aligning themselves with one group or the other since a group of local agricultural water rights holders recently offered to sell Estancia Basin water to Santa Fe.
    The water planning committee was created in 1993 by Torrance, Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties. The committee is an advisory arm of all three governments and its activities are centered around requests from the governments.
    The resource association started in January, growing from the fervor of opposition to the Santa Fe exportation plan.
    On Jan. 26, more than 200 valley residents involved with the resource association protested the water sale at a Santa Fe City Council meeting and brought the proposal to a screeching halt.
    Some resource association members have said the planning committee let them down by not having safeguards to prevent the attempted water raid from ever getting off the ground.
    Planning committee chairman Rik Thompson says he's been told on three different occasions that he "should be hung" for his personal opinions on the water deal and for the planning committee's failure at being prepared.
    The planning committee exists to collect information, Thompson said, and to advise the three counties on water issues.
    In 1999, the planning committee produced a water plan for the Estancia Basin that was the first such plan to win approval and adoption by the State Engineer. All water basins in the state were asked to put together similar water plans.
    The water plan noted the top areas of public concern about water as:
   

The exportation of water;
   

Protecting existing water rights;
   

Maintaining a sustainable water supply to protect current valley lifestyles;
   

Recharge of the basin's aquifers;
   

Maintaining local control of basin management;
   

Providing comprehensive conservation, monitoring, education, metering, information and investigative programs; and
   

Creating a Water Resources Trust Fund.
    In addressing those concerns, the water planning committee's work is limited to requests from the county governments that chartered it, said Jim Corbin, water expert and consultant for the planning committee.
    But where the planning committee works dutifully within the bureaucracy, the resource association can assault it.
    "We're an activist group, we're not an authority," said resource association President Art Swenka. "Our purpose is to not allow exportation of water from the basin."
    This is where the paths of the two groups diverge.
    Corbin and Thompson say one of the most vital tasks is to commission studies so water users and experts can know for sure how much and what kind of water the basin and its aquifers hold.
    "Studies need to be done," Corbin said. "People might find they could afford to lose some of that water."
    As he puts it, "moving some water around could bring some economic growth to the valley." But without first looking deep into what the basin holds, no one can say that for sure.
    Corbin also said no one really knows if taking brackish water from the basin's lower levels will affect fresh water at higher levels.
    Theories on how much basin water agriculture really uses, and how much is consumed by residents and business, are also speculatively based on what the State Engineer allows for each, Corbin said, adding that very little valley water use is metered.
    Swenka agrees that studies need to be done, but the resource association intends to insist on legislative or state policy assurances that no water will ever again be exported from the Estancia Valley.
    The resource association is currently amassing a fund from membership dues, donations and large municipal contributions— Moriarty and Edgewood have already pledged more than $15,000 each.
    Thompson, a staunch supporter of water rights as private property that can be sold, strongly disagrees with a rigid position preventing all water exportation from the valley.
    As the former president of the Entranosa Water and Wastewater Cooperative, Thompson said he was privy to the exportation deal that sent Estancia Basin water to Paa-Ko.
    The water currently being used in Paa-Ko homes and on the Paa-Ko Ridge golf course was obtained by turning off irrigation to a single crop circle, he said.
    Paa-Ko is now a haven for wealthy, contributing residents whose property and gross receipts taxes directly or indirectly benefit all three basin counties.
    One thing both groups strongly support is the idea of water banking.
    "That's the one thing we totally agree upon," Swenka said.
    And both groups believe they can draw on each other's strengths to make it happen.
    "Water banking could take seeking federal funds," Swenka said. "It's a really long, drawn out affair."
    The planning committee is perfectly set up for that kind of endeavor, he said.
    Corbin said "an advocacy group (like the resource association) might be able to put enough pressure politically to get some form of water banking."
    Corbin emphasized that the Estancia Valley has already benefited from the exportation proposal, which brought water issues to the forefront of the public consciousness.
    "An engaged, involved public will get better educated on water and growth issues," he said, emphasizing that both groups are here to further that process.
    The Estancia Basin Resource Association will hold a regular membership meeting Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Torrance County Fairgrounds in Estancia. For information about the resource association, call Swenka at 384-0176.
    To reach the Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee call Corbin at 466-4605.