MAGDALENA'S WATER SHUTTING DOWN

.

.

Sometime this afternoon the water in the Village of Magdalena

is going to be shut off.  The well is going dry, we are told,

 and while there might be some temporary relief, the actual 
solution being discussed is a new well, deeper, and weeks

 (months?) away  We'll have more details up as soon as we
 gather more info.  The National Guard is coming in with a
 water tank of potable water from someplace this evening.
Other tankers, from New Mexico Tech and a private outfit,
should be here sometime tommorow.

  Stuart Dyson of Channel 4 in Albuquerque is roaming
 around the area, talking to residents and officials,
 trying to get a handle on what's going on here. 
 The Channels 4 and 13 folks, as well  as CNN,
 have either just arrived, or have already left 
with stories in hand.
.
  As unfortunate as this is, it draws attention to WATER
realities in this area, in this state.  It could also bring
 attention to the San Augustin aquifer issue.  It could
initiate the process of exposure of who these
 misguided Sons of Abraham actually are.
The press can be relentless.
The press can get damned nosy.
.
The more Magdalena's problem is in the news,
the more these media folks will dig, and when they see
 the "STOP THE WATER GRAB" or
"TELL THE GUMBA NO AGUA" bumper stickers,
well, maybe in time they'll start asking more questions.
It's in their nature, as they say. 

. 

 If these foreigners were pumping the aquifer right now,

Magdalena would most probably be looking at a new well

a heck of a lot deeper than what's currently being discussed.
Like hundreds of feet deeper.
Ask the desert dwellers of Israel if they would allow
a bunch of foreign corporate thugs to get their water;
ask them if they'd allow  such a hideous nightmare
 on their "God-given" land.
Below: the Pool of Siloam, made famous in the
New Testament, when the blind man got his sight here.
.

.
I am.  I'm contacting the Israeli government tomorrow
to ask for advice as to how to deal with water thieves, 
so we can forward it to Governor Susana Martinez.
"Desert Dwellers" have much in common, especially
with guarding their water sources from enemies,
or so-called enemies.
This is a water war,
 and the Israelis know a lot about this stuff.
.
None of these foreigners are so-called "Stakeholders."
None of them live here. None of them give a rat's ass
 about New Mexicans, or Americans.
They have passports from where? 
 Israel, Norway, Germany?
 It's all about money.
Big money.
.
The Project Director for the San Augustin project,
Michel Jichlinski, got his Masters in Economics from the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  He's also a proven thief,
liar, and general con artist.  He was the President and CEO
at the Louis Berger Group, a federal contractor in Afghanistan
and worldwide, when they got nailed for stealing millions
of U.S. dollars by cooking the books, bribery, and
cultivating a "culture of fraud" within the company,
 as the whistleblower put it.
NAILED for the biggest fine ever for a war-time contractor.
Thieves.  And this guy was the "Boss" through it all.
And now he's come to the Land of Enchantment.
God save us.
.

.

Below: Darrell Petttis, owner of The Golden Spur Saloon

in Magdalena, gives Stuart Dyson an earful about water,

drought, and the San Augustin water issue

with the foreign "investors."

It's all tied together. 

The timing is probably right on target.

Further below: Water trucker Richard Smith.

.

.

.

 Here are links to some of the news stories on

 Magdalena's water crisis.

.

http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/nm-town-runs-out-of-water/-/9153762/20444262/-/2f2aku/-/index.html

.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/local/southwest/nm-villages-water-supply-running-dry

.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3059146.shtml?cat=500
.
And here's a link to a Mountain Mail News
web article that's basically a statement from the State Water Engineer, Scott Verhines, about the Magdalena situation.
.
http://www.mountainmailnews.com/?p=2586

.

 

.Bottled water - lots of it - is available for all residents at the Fire Station.
.

.

Magdalena residents getting some water

From the Mountain Mail News
by Susann Mikkelson | June 10, 2013 | Filed under: Breaking News

.

Since the Trujillo well in Magdalena went dry last Wednesday morning, various communities and agencies have been working with Magdalena city and officials to supply water to its residents.

“Today, we received water from the VLA and Alamogordo,” Marshall Larry Curly said Friday. “Each truckload of water is being tested to ensure chlorine levels are appropriate before water is being distributed.”
Curly said that as of Friday water is being fed through the water hydrant at the highest altitude, off of Kelly Road, and it is flowing back into the city water system and providing water to many households.
“We have put 26,000 gallons back into the system as of this morning, and will have 40,000 in by the end of the day.” Curly said. “Right now there is water down to about Sixth Street, and there should be water to Tenth Street by this evening.”
According to City Clerk Rita Broaddus, the city has applied for and received an exploratory permit from the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer to begin searching for the best place to drill a new well.
“What we need now is the money to drill,” Broaddus said.
The city has requests for emergency funding through Community Development Block Grant emergency funding program out of Washington, D.C., the New Mexico Department of Finance Administration and the New Mexico Finance Authority, as well as the New Mexico Environmental Department.
In the interim, the city is also working to bring back online the Spears Well, which was taken offline six to eight years ago because it did not meet new codes with regard to managing chlorine levels. There were also some plumbing and electrical problems with the well.
“It only pumps 30-35 gallons per minute, so it is not a production well for the city,” Broaddus said. “For now, we can take the chlorinator from the Trujillo Well and put it on the Spears Well to ensure that the water is properly chlorinated.”
The Trujillo well pumped 180-200 gallons per minute, before the well went dry. The city is currently working on the plumbing and electrical to bring the Spears well up to date, and then will begin filtering water from this well into the system.
Curly said that porta-potties have been set up throughout town for residents’ use until everyone has water through the city water system again.
 .

.

.

THE BIG, BIG PICTURE

.

.

WHO OWNS THE EARTH'S WATER?

by

Paul Donahue

.

Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century:
  the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations. Fortune magazine, May 2000
.
Imagine for a moment what life will be like in the corporate-controlled world of the future. A handful of huge, powerful corporations will be responsible for all the societal services now handled by local, state and national governments - schools, police, prisons, military, mail, elections, social security, and so on. Even more importantly, corporations will control those things essential to human survival, namely food and water. If they can figure out a way to commodify the air we breathe, they surely will attempt to exert their control over the planet’s oxygen, as well. Services once provided by government agencies, accountable to voters, will be provided by corporations, accountable only to stockholders. With our governments in the sway of the corporations, our minimal democracy having eroded even further, and ultimate authority ceded to corporate- run international trade organizations, we will have lost the power to control the things
 most important to our survival.
.
Is this some remote and unlikely futuristic scenario? I wish it was, but a corporate-owned and controlled planet is closer than you might think - much closer - and unless we wake up soon and start taking back the reins, it will become a reality. One of the most important struggles being waged around the world against corporate control is over who owns our water. Water is essential to all life on the planet, from microbes to humans. If ever there was a natural resource that should remain part of the commons, this is it..
On a world scale, freshwater is scarce and becoming scarcer, with demand growing greater each year as the human population of our planet continues to swell. The rate of global water consumption is currently doubling every 20 years. With more than one billion human inhabitants of the Earth already lacking access to safe drinking water, and that number growing daily, the scenario for the future is already very frightening. The World Health Organization predicts that 48 nations will face severe water shortages by 2025, and the World Bank has predicted that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will
run short of fresh drinking water.
.
As fresh drinking water becomes more and more scarce, the world can expect violent conflicts over water to become more commonplace, destabilizing entire regions of the world. Hotspots where water reserves are dwindling include the Middle East, northern China, Mexico, California and almost two dozen countries in Africa. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a ready example of a water war already in progress, but the situation in the Middle East and around the globe will undoubtedly grow worse in the years ahead. If you think the current oil wars are bad, wait until the

 water wars really kick in.
.
Making a bad situation even worse, much worse, we have entered the brave new world of water privatization, where huge, predatory, multinational corporations are gradually gaining control over our once publicly-owned water supplies. With growing scarcity, the market value of water will undoubtedly rise. It is with good reason that Fortune magazine has dubbed water the oil of the 21st century. According to Fortune, the annual profits of the water industry now amount to about 40 percent of those of the oil sector,

 and are close to $1 trillion.

.

.

International “free” trade agreements have given a tremendous boost to water privatization. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), established by and for large multinational corporations, promote deregulation and privatization of goods and services, including water. As a result of these trade agreements, it is now difficult for a nation to control exports of its water beyond its borders, or to prevent foreign corporations from establishing water operations inside the country. As an example, under NAFTA’s rules, Canada may be forced to allow the bulk export of water to the United States. Already, a California company is suing the Canadian government for $10.5 billion because the province of British Columbia banned the commercial export of bulk water.
.
The international water cartel also receives a tremendous amount of help from international lending institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Working hand-in-hand with the water giants, these lending institutions are both actively pushing water privatization, forcing developing countries to abandon their public water systems and contract with the corporations to provide water to their citizens. The World Bank has recently changed its policy from pressuring countries to privatize their water systems, to making water sector loans contingent on privatization. With the water systems in many developing countries in desperate need of repair, the countries have little choice but to accept the terms dictated.
.
The challenge ahead of us is formidable. The corporations involved in water privatization are extremely powerful, with strong allies in government. In the words of Maude Barlow, author of Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water, “It’s important to remember that it’s a very small, incestuous circle - these water companies, the World Water Council, the World Bank,
 the World Trade Organization, the IMF.
There’s a lot of money to be made from the commodification of water, and these people know
 that whoever controls water is going to be
 both very rich and very powerful.”
The momentum for privatization is considerable.
If we are to protect our public water resources and prevent
 the nightmare scenario of for-profit corporations meting out costly water to a thirsty world,
 the time to act is now.

.

.

.

STOP THE WATER GRAB!

Public water activists argue that,

 because water is a necessity of life,

 no individual or corporation should have

the right to possess ownership and place

a value on the resource.

 In short, water is for life, not for profit.

Advocate and author Vandana Shiva

resolutely states, “Water is a commons because

 it is the basis of all life. Water rights are

 natural rights and thus usufructuary rights,

  meaning that water can be used,

 but not owned.”

Ashley Powdar

.

.

.