.
.
There's a LOT OF REASONS why the
proposal by Augustin Plains Ranch LLC
is STUPID. Here are a few.
There's a LOT OF REASONS why the
proposal by Augustin Plains Ranch LLC
is STUPID. Here are a few.
.
1. The project is unproven science in action.
There is serious disagreement by almost
everyone who's looked this over about how
much water is actually in the aquifer,
and what the effects of pumping 54,000
acre feet of water per year would be.
The very real possibility that the Rio Grande
and Gila Rivers would be significantly,
adversely, affected doesn't seem to phase
the applicants, Augustin Plains Ranch LLC.
Neither does the probability that everyone's
wells in the area would go dry.
.
The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and
Mineral Resources is currently conducting
reasearch on the Rio Grande connection
to the aquifer. Their "San Agustin and
Alamosa Creek Study" will be finished in
December of 2014.
.
2. The project is all about money, period.
The worth of the water - this volume, for up
to 300 years - is absolutely incredible. You are
literally talking billions and billions, and it's all
tied to GROWTH, growth for Albuquerque,
Rio Rancho, maybe Santa Fe,
and wherever else developers and politicians decide
will be blessed with more water - for what?
Growth.
Growth of what? For what?
More of the mess they can't get a handle on now?
More stripmalls? More neighborhoods
that require grills and bars on windows and
doors, or if you're rich enough you park the
family and pets in a "gated community," so much safer -
but either way, people look out at the world
from the eye of an urban or suburban prisoner,
because New Mexico IS dangerous now.
It didn't used to be, well, not much, but it is now.
So let's grow...with no thought beyond a
fast buck and a new lease on
The Land of Enchantment!
More trash food....more teenage pregnancies....
more gang violence....more police shootings....
more stuff, and more stuff, that isn't being
at all adequately addressed now,
and sure as hell will never be dealt with
intelligently if money rules the game.
You have to love people more than money.
We can't allow decisions about water to be
made on the basis of cash (read: GROWTH).
It's unethical; it's unconstitutional,
(the words of an attorney, not a PR flack).
.
3. The project is inherently NUTS.
The very idea that somehow foreigners could
get their hands on this much water, and then
sell it back to us, the citizens of New Mexico,
when we technically OWN the water according
to LAW, is too bizarre for words.
This is a Ripley's Believe It Or Not episode.
.
4. It adds to the abysmal level of corruption.
New Mexico's report card is dismal
when it comes to honesty and ethics among
office holders and state officials alike. All
you have to do is look at the past of the LLC
Project Director, Michel Jichlinski, to see
possible problems here. He was the "Boss" at
a company that got hit with the largest fine
ever for a war-time contractor - they stole
millions of tax dollars through fraud, bribery,
accounting trickery, etc. This guy lies openly
in "Letters to the Editor" concerning the issue
before us. It's all on the blog.
Things are bad enough here already - we
don't need any additional ethical sewage.
This guy knows a lot about bribery, and worse.
.
5. Foreign ownership of our water is stupid.
Water is life! We simply cannot allow a
bunch of shadowy corporate thugs to get
their hands on the pink slip for the agua.
No one in their right mind would let this pass.
Jichlinski got his degree from the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Do you think the Israelis would allow a
scheme like this on their soil?
You'd probably be looking down the barrel of
an Uzi if you even suggested the idea.
In Israel, a land owner DOES NOT OWN
the water beneath his land, and is not free
to speculate in "open-market" realities
with the water - it belongs to the state.
Period.
Change the "state" to the "citizens"
and you've got New Mexico.
Period.
.
A foreign corporation/investors group trying to
get their grubby hands on water in Israel?
Best outcome: taken to the airport.
Worst outcome: stupidity brings its own rewards.
.
6. You don't make big deals with unknowns.
The "investors" are headed by a man named
Bruno Modena, along with his son Vittorio.
Their last escapade in the States was a
so-called eco-resort in Maine -
the details are on the blog -
it could basically be called an
entirely new form of extortion.
But almost no one ever saw them. Lawyers'
offices in New York that no one can ever find,
hidden away, on purpose obviously.
The "investors" hang out overseas it appears.
They just hire more characters here -
PR flacks, lawyers, managers of various stripes,
so-called experts - to do their bidding.
.
You don't go selling off the rights to pump
water that's the equivalent of half of
Albuquerque's thirst each year,
without knowing something about who the
hell is getting this water.
There's no transparency here - no corporate
financial statements, no tax returns, no nada.
People that hide behind corporate veils are
NOT people you want to do business with.
Everything that's known so far is OFF BASE -
you wouldn't sell these people a good dog,
but just maybe a bad one if it was a biter.
There's more if you'll scan the early posts
on the blog - January forward.
.
7. This would have horrible ramifications.
No one has ever tried to get their hands on
this volume of water in New Mexico.
They don't parade this fact; they're at least
smart enough to figure that certain realities
don't need to be brought up. It'd be upsetting.
Let's talk a "partnership" with New Mexico
"stakeholders" is what they hype publically.
They've never shown a business plan.
We have no idea what they're thinking
about what they'll give us as our portion of
the profits....I'm sure they'll be shrewd.
.
Their claim is that they have the capital
and resources to pull this off -
three to five hundred million bucks
has been mentioned in various sources,
and that is used as an excuse basically,
to let them in the door.
We Can Do It. We're Big.
We're International.
.
Jichlinski is their key on this.
He could probably float the project under
any number of corporate names - he's tied in
to a big batch of multi-national contractors,
and money boys, none of whom,
you can be damn sure,
have even the slightest interest
in what's good for New Mexico,
or America.
This craziness will be popping up all over
the state, if these guys get away with this.
Once you let this kind of evil in the door,
you're almost done for.
You'll be fighting the tide for generations,
and paying the piper.
.
International, big-time outfits are watching
what happens with water very closely....
everywhere, but the American Southwest
is a facinating point of reference because of
the severity of the drought and the cash possible
if you could pull something off....
It's all over the web....it's big MONEY action.
The "comodification" of water is real, it's
happening all over, including here in the States.
Water....they also say it's what the
future wars will be about, globally, regionally.
.
How do you think the Old West in Catron
and Socorro Counties will react?
This is a place where some of the
Vanishing West vanished,
and where some of it still lives on.
I'll make you a bet....
I'll bet you a round for the house that....
.
"The Tenderfoot"
.
There's more that could be listed....such as the
serious damage that this could do (is doing)
to international relations.
There's not much use for "foreigners"
in this part of the country to begin with.
If you add on the idea that these guys are basically
seen as thieves, water thieves....well,
you can see where all this could go....the Colts
and Winchesters and god-only-knows-what
kind of explosives (this is mining country)
will come out in time, and before you know it
you've got national and international media people
sniffing all over the place -
trying to get some background on
who's who in the water war -
which is the last thing, the very last thing,
the Modena's and their co-investors want.
Not all media outfits are bought, and/or sold.
Some really are investigators.
.
In that sense, for the "investors,"
it's a Catch 22.
If they get a green light to begin the project,
the violence will probably start right up,
which brings the spotlight of big time media attention.
And if they got that attention,
which they avoid like a vampire does
the light of day,
they'd probably either lose the project,
once New Mexicans were AWARE of it,
REALLY AWARE of it,
or have one devil of a time getting it
to completion.
.
There's everything from
archaeological sites on the pipe route,
any pipe route in this country,
to "threatened" and "endangered"
species issues,
to plain orneriness on the part of some,
to even more technical and legal arguments,
that could tie this up for a long, long time.
Or at least that's what logic tells us.
Why do these characters insist on pressing on?
The "good guys" need to remember this:
stay calm.
The lawsuits could fly
as fast as the bullets.
Get more money for the legal fund,
get ready to "dig in."
.
.
STOP THE WATER GRAB!
“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas,
went bang in the noonday sun.”
Kurt Vonnegut
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
.
.
Update: 9/23
Since this post there have been numerous
"changes" to the approach the foreigners are taking.
Now they claim they won't drain the aquifer,
but rather catch ALL the precipitation that falls
in their domain, and RECHARGE the aquifer.
Read more about it here:
http://stopthewatergrab.blogspot.com/2013/08/dr-hydrologist-weighs-in-story-of.html
.
There is serious disagreement by almost
everyone who's looked this over about how
much water is actually in the aquifer,
and what the effects of pumping 54,000
acre feet of water per year would be.
The very real possibility that the Rio Grande
and Gila Rivers would be significantly,
adversely, affected doesn't seem to phase
the applicants, Augustin Plains Ranch LLC.
Neither does the probability that everyone's
wells in the area would go dry.
.
The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and
Mineral Resources is currently conducting
reasearch on the Rio Grande connection
to the aquifer. Their "San Agustin and
Alamosa Creek Study" will be finished in
December of 2014.
.
2. The project is all about money, period.
The worth of the water - this volume, for up
to 300 years - is absolutely incredible. You are
literally talking billions and billions, and it's all
tied to GROWTH, growth for Albuquerque,
Rio Rancho, maybe Santa Fe,
and wherever else developers and politicians decide
will be blessed with more water - for what?
Growth.
Growth of what? For what?
More of the mess they can't get a handle on now?
More stripmalls? More neighborhoods
that require grills and bars on windows and
doors, or if you're rich enough you park the
family and pets in a "gated community," so much safer -
but either way, people look out at the world
from the eye of an urban or suburban prisoner,
because New Mexico IS dangerous now.
It didn't used to be, well, not much, but it is now.
So let's grow...with no thought beyond a
fast buck and a new lease on
The Land of Enchantment!
More trash food....more teenage pregnancies....
more gang violence....more police shootings....
more stuff, and more stuff, that isn't being
at all adequately addressed now,
and sure as hell will never be dealt with
intelligently if money rules the game.
You have to love people more than money.
We can't allow decisions about water to be
made on the basis of cash (read: GROWTH).
It's unethical; it's unconstitutional,
(the words of an attorney, not a PR flack).
.
3. The project is inherently NUTS.
The very idea that somehow foreigners could
get their hands on this much water, and then
sell it back to us, the citizens of New Mexico,
when we technically OWN the water according
to LAW, is too bizarre for words.
This is a Ripley's Believe It Or Not episode.
.
4. It adds to the abysmal level of corruption.
New Mexico's report card is dismal
when it comes to honesty and ethics among
office holders and state officials alike. All
you have to do is look at the past of the LLC
Project Director, Michel Jichlinski, to see
possible problems here. He was the "Boss" at
a company that got hit with the largest fine
ever for a war-time contractor - they stole
millions of tax dollars through fraud, bribery,
accounting trickery, etc. This guy lies openly
in "Letters to the Editor" concerning the issue
before us. It's all on the blog.
Things are bad enough here already - we
don't need any additional ethical sewage.
This guy knows a lot about bribery, and worse.
.
5. Foreign ownership of our water is stupid.
Water is life! We simply cannot allow a
bunch of shadowy corporate thugs to get
their hands on the pink slip for the agua.
No one in their right mind would let this pass.
Jichlinski got his degree from the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Do you think the Israelis would allow a
scheme like this on their soil?
You'd probably be looking down the barrel of
an Uzi if you even suggested the idea.
In Israel, a land owner DOES NOT OWN
the water beneath his land, and is not free
to speculate in "open-market" realities
with the water - it belongs to the state.
Period.
Change the "state" to the "citizens"
and you've got New Mexico.
Period.
.
A foreign corporation/investors group trying to
get their grubby hands on water in Israel?
Best outcome: taken to the airport.
Worst outcome: stupidity brings its own rewards.
.
6. You don't make big deals with unknowns.
The "investors" are headed by a man named
Bruno Modena, along with his son Vittorio.
Their last escapade in the States was a
so-called eco-resort in Maine -
the details are on the blog -
it could basically be called an
entirely new form of extortion.
But almost no one ever saw them. Lawyers'
offices in New York that no one can ever find,
hidden away, on purpose obviously.
The "investors" hang out overseas it appears.
They just hire more characters here -
PR flacks, lawyers, managers of various stripes,
so-called experts - to do their bidding.
.
You don't go selling off the rights to pump
water that's the equivalent of half of
Albuquerque's thirst each year,
without knowing something about who the
hell is getting this water.
There's no transparency here - no corporate
financial statements, no tax returns, no nada.
People that hide behind corporate veils are
NOT people you want to do business with.
Everything that's known so far is OFF BASE -
you wouldn't sell these people a good dog,
but just maybe a bad one if it was a biter.
There's more if you'll scan the early posts
on the blog - January forward.
.
7. This would have horrible ramifications.
No one has ever tried to get their hands on
this volume of water in New Mexico.
They don't parade this fact; they're at least
smart enough to figure that certain realities
don't need to be brought up. It'd be upsetting.
Let's talk a "partnership" with New Mexico
"stakeholders" is what they hype publically.
They've never shown a business plan.
We have no idea what they're thinking
about what they'll give us as our portion of
the profits....I'm sure they'll be shrewd.
.
Their claim is that they have the capital
and resources to pull this off -
three to five hundred million bucks
has been mentioned in various sources,
and that is used as an excuse basically,
to let them in the door.
We Can Do It. We're Big.
We're International.
.
Jichlinski is their key on this.
He could probably float the project under
any number of corporate names - he's tied in
to a big batch of multi-national contractors,
and money boys, none of whom,
you can be damn sure,
have even the slightest interest
in what's good for New Mexico,
or America.
This craziness will be popping up all over
the state, if these guys get away with this.
Once you let this kind of evil in the door,
you're almost done for.
You'll be fighting the tide for generations,
and paying the piper.
.
International, big-time outfits are watching
what happens with water very closely....
everywhere, but the American Southwest
is a facinating point of reference because of
the severity of the drought and the cash possible
if you could pull something off....
It's all over the web....it's big MONEY action.
The "comodification" of water is real, it's
happening all over, including here in the States.
Water....they also say it's what the
future wars will be about, globally, regionally.
.
How do you think the Old West in Catron
and Socorro Counties will react?
This is a place where some of the
Vanishing West vanished,
and where some of it still lives on.
I'll make you a bet....
I'll bet you a round for the house that....
.
"The Tenderfoot"
.
Postscript.
There's more that could be listed....such as the
serious damage that this could do (is doing)
to international relations.
There's not much use for "foreigners"
in this part of the country to begin with.
If you add on the idea that these guys are basically
seen as thieves, water thieves....well,
you can see where all this could go....the Colts
and Winchesters and god-only-knows-what
kind of explosives (this is mining country)
will come out in time, and before you know it
you've got national and international media people
sniffing all over the place -
trying to get some background on
who's who in the water war -
which is the last thing, the very last thing,
the Modena's and their co-investors want.
Not all media outfits are bought, and/or sold.
Some really are investigators.
.
In that sense, for the "investors,"
it's a Catch 22.
If they get a green light to begin the project,
the violence will probably start right up,
which brings the spotlight of big time media attention.
And if they got that attention,
which they avoid like a vampire does
the light of day,
they'd probably either lose the project,
once New Mexicans were AWARE of it,
REALLY AWARE of it,
or have one devil of a time getting it
to completion.
.
There's everything from
archaeological sites on the pipe route,
any pipe route in this country,
to "threatened" and "endangered"
species issues,
to plain orneriness on the part of some,
to even more technical and legal arguments,
that could tie this up for a long, long time.
Or at least that's what logic tells us.
Why do these characters insist on pressing on?
The "good guys" need to remember this:
stay calm.
The lawsuits could fly
as fast as the bullets.
Get more money for the legal fund,
get ready to "dig in."
.
"Smoke of a 45"
.
.
STOP THE WATER GRAB!
“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas,
went bang in the noonday sun.”
Kurt Vonnegut
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
.
Update: 9/23
Since this post there have been numerous
"changes" to the approach the foreigners are taking.
Now they claim they won't drain the aquifer,
but rather catch ALL the precipitation that falls
in their domain, and RECHARGE the aquifer.
Read more about it here:
http://stopthewatergrab.blogspot.com/2013/08/dr-hydrologist-weighs-in-story-of.html
.
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