Edited from a report by Carol Pittman
Eileen Dodds from the San Augustin Water
Coalition attended the Aug 31-Sept 1 meeting
of the Legislature's Interim Committee on
Water and Natural Resources, and listened to
some informal discussion about the
WATER GRAB.
Here's her synopsis of what was said by some
of the members:
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Representative Bealquin "Bill" Gomez, District 34
(Dona Ana), said that he was not in favor of transferring
"that much water and hurting the small communities."
He further stated
"This transfer will likely impair existing water rights,
and I will not let it happen" In a personal email message
to this writer Rep. Gomez reported that he had "read out
the section of the reasons the state engineer could use to
turn down a request to move water from one region to
another. It states that if the change would harm the rights
of other people in the area it would be one of the main reasons
to turn down the request for transfer of water."
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Bill McCamley, who represents the 33rd District
(Dona Ana), stated that he wants to see subsidence studies
first. State Engineer Blaine admitted that subsidence
would be a problem, but that no study was planned.
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Senator Cisco McSorley from Dist 16 (Bernalillo),
asked for the OSE to do a psychological impact study
of the effect on the citizens losing the water. He pointed out
that there were multi-generational families ranching
the Plains, and that they had hopes of their children and
grandchildren continuing the tradition.
He is opposed to those families "losing their heritage."
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Senator Peter Wirth, Santa Fe, asked about states
that had legislation that put large transfers in the
hands of the legislators.
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And last, but not least,
Representative Candy Ezzell, a rancher from
District 58 (Chavez) stated:
"I'll fight this transfer with every bone in my body."
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A Note to Representative Ezzell:
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Our blog is sponsoring a SPECIAL PRIZE at
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“The dead weren’t scary.
It was the living you had to watch out for.”
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Eileen Wilks, Mortal Ties
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