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Thursday, February 2, 2006

Efforts to Keep Water in Estancia Basin Advance

By Beth Hahn
Mountain View Telegraph
    On Friday, one of the Estancia Basin Resource Association's most urgent goals came closer to reality with the introduction of House Joint Memorial 53 and Senate Joint Memorial 36.
    The memorials call for new requirements in the way the state engineer evaluates water transfer requests— especially in the case of the Estancia Basin.
    EBRA president Art Swenka said the memorials are critical to the basin's fight to keep water in the area, rather than allowing other governments— such as Santa Fe's— to buy the water and transfer it out of the basin.
    "We certainly need the lawmakers' support," Swenka said Tuesday.
    If passed, the joint memorials will require the state engineer to evaluate the water supply of a government seeking to import water from another area of the state. If the government has other water available, it will not be allowed to mine or transfer water out of a different basin, according to the language in the memorials.
    In the Estancia Basin's case, the basin is already a "critical management area" and a "closed basin"— meaning that water taken from the basin is not being replenished at an equal rate and that there is no other source of water, such as a river, that communities served by the basin can use.
    About a year ago, the Santa Fe City Council considered a multimillion-dollar deal that would have given the city access to millions of gallons of underground water near Estancia. The water would have been piped to a desalination plant near Santa Fe and cleaned for the capital's use.
    East Mountains and Estancia Valley residents rallied against the plan, for fear that it could drain already low water levels in the valley.
    The Estancia Basin Resource Association formed to protect the basin's water and to lobby for legislation to protect the basin's water.
    Senate Memorial 36 and House Memorial 53 are the results of EBRA's efforts. Similar memorials were introduced in 2005 but did not pass before the end of the session.
    Currently, both memorials are being considered by House and Senate committees.
    For the memorials to become law, Swenka said, residents need to express their support to the memorials' sponsors— Rep. Rhonda King, D-Stanley, and Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas.
    "It's really critical that we get the communities and the people of the basin to support these memorials," Swenka said.
    King can be reached in Santa Fe during the session at (505) 986-4438 and Campos can be reached at (505) 986-4431.