Our first story is another piece about the
new application submitted by the foreigners.
The Socorro Defensor-Chieftain had additional info
that wasn't in previous articles.
It deserves a look.
We've edited the full article for brevity sake.
The link to the full article is as the bottom.
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Augustin Plains submits new application
by John Larson - July 24, 2014
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On July 14, Augustin Plains Ranch , LLC’s president Rich Radice re-submitted its application for a permit to pump, reclaim, and transport water from the west-central New Mexico aquifer up to the middle Rio Grande River area. Attached to the application were letters from Rio Rancho Mayor Greggory Hull and Rio Rancho City Manager Keith Reisberg indicating they would consider being customers of San Augustin Ranch LLC if the permit was granted.
In an e-mail sent last week, Project Director Michel Jichlinski said he believed the application contained the information needed to move the project forward.
“It was developed following many months of meetings with people across the state who have an interest in developing new sources of water for New Mexico, including water policy experts and leaders, elected officials, scientists and hydrologists, and more,” Jichlinski stated. “One of the nation’s leading financial advisory firms for environmental technologies has been in contact with us and with potential investors and believes that the project is positioned to attract the necessary equity investment it needs to move forward.”
Attorney Bruce Frederick of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center is representing approximately 80 individuals and organizations who are concerned about the impacts of pumping on livestock, wildlife, springs, and on the Rio Grande and Gila Rivers, which are hydrologically connected to the San Agustin Plains. The Gila being the last undammed river in the Southwest.
“The (latest) application is another public relations piece and suffers from the same basic legal deficiency as the prior applications,” Frederick said. “The ranch has again failed to identify any actual place or purpose of use of water. It has again only identified potential places and purposes of use. This violates a basic precept of western water law, as codified in New Mexico’s Constitution, which makes ‘beneficial use the basis, the measure and the limit of the right to use water.’”
Frederick said the fact that the company has no particular place or purpose of use in mind also leads to several practical problems.
“For example, absent any particular place and purpose of use, the State Engineer has no way of evaluating whether the requested amount, 54,000 acre-feet per year, is necessary or whether the proposed appropriation will impair existing water rights,” he said. “The Ranch is simply trying to lay claim to a tremendous amount of water, which belongs to the public before it has any need for that water.”
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New Study Ongoing
More from the Defensor-Chieftain
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Geologist Stacy Timmons describes what studies have shown
so far about the characteristics of the San Agustin aquifer.
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Stacy Timmons, interim manager of the Aquifer Mapping Program the Bureau of Geology at New Mexico Tech, said she has been collecting data since 2009, focusing on annual water level measurements, and that final results of the studies will include groundwater elevation contour map, detailed geologic maps and a technical summary report describing the nature of the groundwater system in the area.
“The project will provide impartial hydrologic information to the state’s regulatory agencies, industry and public about the aquifers and the possible hydrogeologic interconnection with Alamosa Creek and the adjacent aquifers in the Rio Grande Valley,” Timmons said. “We anticipate that our final products of our aquifer mapping should be available by 2015, and will be publicly available through the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Web page.”
Preliminary results of a groundwater sampling campaign by hydrologists at the Bureau of Geology suggest that there is limited recharge occurring in the region of the San Agustin Basin.
“The ages of groundwater that we have collected within the San Agustin Plains, based on carbon-14 dates on groundwater, is on average about 12,000 years old,” Timmons said.
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Another analysis done on the water is “examining the tritium content, which shows an average less than .5 tritium units,” she said. “This indicates that there is likely no recharge in the the last 50-plus years in the area where we have sampled,” Timmons said.
Rep. Don Tripp, a member of the New Mexico Legislature’s Agriculture and Water Committee and Water and Natural Resources Committee, said in 2007, the plan was “ludicrous. A shot across the bow. First of all, if there’s water appropriated, it has to be put to beneficial use.”
Tripp said if the latest permit are not approved, the company may try to apply again.
“They could make minor changes in the request and try again,” he said. “But any water purchase would have to be appropriated through the legislature.”
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Among the protestants currently on file are University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, USDA Gila and Cibola National forests, Cibola National Forest, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Phelps-Dodge Mining Company, Catron County Commission, Pueblo of Isleta, Middle Rio Grande Water Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, U.S. Dept. of Interior Bureau of Reclamation, New Mexico Dept. of Game and Fish, Socorro Soil and Water Conservation District, Navajo Nation Department of Justice, Coalition of the Six Middle Rio Grande Pueblos, Gila Conservation Coalition and Socorro Catron Farm Service Agency.
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A STORY FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD CAFE,
BAR, GAS STATION, MOTEL, AND GENERAL STORE
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A few years back I first heard the story
of the Augustin Plains Ranch LLC crew coming
in to the "Eagle Guest" in Datil
for a big crew dinner,
and what happend when Carol Coker,
a lady that's had a hand in running the
place for many years, found out
who these guys were.
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Let's go back a little here.
Guys from the foreigners' ranch had been
coming in for some time, but not as a group.
Individuals, or a few, buying a few groceries
and some gas, and going on their way.
From all I can gather in talking to folks,
they didn't make any effort to strike up a
conversation or "buddy up" with the locals.
There was no horseshoe pitchin' and Bar-B-Q.
This was a "closed shop" you might say.
Nobody knew who these guys were.
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Of course, in time, news about the application
from the ranch to drill the 37 wells was printed
in the local press, and the locals, well,
GOT HOT.
The main owner of the LLC,
Bruno Modena, from Italy, had never been seen.
But everything about the Modenas is secretive
and clandestine. An Italian newspaper talked openly
about the family's confidentiality obsession,
and the fact that they do not like their investors
being exposed.
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But here, in Datil, New Mexico, one sunny
day, are the lackeys for the Modena Organization -
a bunch of yahoo's working for the enemy,
completely ignorant about what they were
walking into, in terms of Western Drama
in the twenty-first century, right here!
"No sabe, the burro!" goes the old saying.
Indeed no sabe - idiots through and through,
to think this would somehow pass inspection.
The sun shone bright this day, and
scattered the darkness, as the preacher says.
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Carol Coker came around their table....what,
she must have been filling iced tea glasses or
something. She looked 'em over I am sure,
with that look that only a woman from the West
seems to have - a careful inspection and analysis of
what sort of home sapiens she's dealing with.
She also has a tongue on her, and isn't in
the slightest afraid to speak up.
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(Here I'm just giving a rough version, 2nd hand,
from a few folks I've talked to.
But it all rings true.)
Carol:
"Well, where are you boys from?....
what outfit do y'all work for?"
Someone (the dumbest one I assume) answered:
"Augustin Plains Ranch."
(there must have been a dramatic pause here)
Carol then replied:
"Well, I sure hope y'all enjoy your meal,
because it'll be
THE LAST ONE YOU'LL EVER HAVE HERE!"
I bet she sounded tough AND sweet, with a lilt,
a rough combination, but you don't know Carol.
Apparently there was more added - don't come
in for groceries or ANYTHING, no gas,
no nuthin'.
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This was a new take on the
"Your money's no good here!" line,
something you see on TV and in the movies,
but seldom witnessed in real life.
I'm sure it's all quite confusing to our
misguided Sons of Abraham,
the Modena bunch and Jichlinski.
"What kind of Balwwan
(Yiddish for moron, dummy, or cabbagehead)
refuses money, cash money?
We could be great customers, Carol!
We're your neighbors, your friends!
Be sensible, we're talking MONEY here Carol,
SHEKELS, CASH MONEY!"
It's obviously beyond them.
It's way over their heads, their cabbageheads.
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The worthless un-American mercenaries
working for the foreigners had met Carol Coker,
as good a symbol for the values and integrity
of the Old West as you could have.
Hell, she's a hero, excuse me, A HEROINE,
in this part of the country.
But women out here have been standing up
to saddle-tramp trash for a long time.
The dirtbags working for the Italians can't
go have a steak at "The Eagle,"
or get gas, or buy some SKOL or chewin' gum.
Well, good. Damn good.
Incidentally, they serve damn good steaks.
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Michel Jichlinski, the LLC Project Director,
whined about the Ranch not being able to
get gas locally in a Rio Rancho Observer
webpage last year.
The fact is Michel:
Neither you, those foreign operators you
work for, or any of your people, are
welcome in this country.
Wasn't Carol clear enough?
Get out of here.
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