Data may ultimately decide the case against Augustin Plains Ranch LLC and its effort to pump 54,000 acre-feet of water per year from beneath the San Agustin Plains Basin.

And data currently being collected by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources could be used to determine the outcome of the case.

The bureau is a non-regulatory research-oriented division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology in Socorro.

"We're just starting a hydrology study concerning how the San Agustin basin connects with Alamosa Creek," the bureau's Stacy Timmons told a group of about people protesting Augustin Plains Ranch's application to drill 37 wells up to 3,500 feet deep on the north and south side of U.S. 60 near Datil.

The gathering — held last month at the Magdalena Public Library — was organized by the San Augustin Water Coalition, a citizen's group whose mission is to protect resources and look out for the welfare of people in the area.

Among the speakers were Bruce Fredrick, an attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. He said the protesters' complaint against the Ranch could be resolved much like a court case, and would rely on testimony from experts in the areas of hydrology and geology.

Fredrick said each said was likely to present water models, based on data that's been collected.

The Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources data is relevant, because it is in the process of being collected and the most up-to-date.

Frank Titus, a geologist who has been involved in hydrology in New Mexico for more than 50 years, was also invited to speak on the issue and offered insight into what little is known about the San Agustin Basin.

Stacy Timmons and her husband, Mike, who also works for the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, finished off the evening with a PowerPoint presentation outlining the studies being done in the area.

Stacy Timmons said the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources collects data that is provided to state agencies, such as the State Engineers Office, which will rule on San Augustin Ranch's application.

No hearing date has been set. The State Engineers Office is still in the process of finalizing the list of protesters, which totaled close to 900 after an amended application was published in 2008.

Timmons said two programs initiated by the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources are already underway in the San Agustin Plains Basin.

One is a geology mapping program that's supported by federal funds with a state match. It maps the distribution of different types of rocks in the area under study, she said, and identifies the location of faults.

A second mapping study involves the aquifer below the basin. It relies on funding provided through the state legislature.

"Mapping is being done right now in the Oak Creek and Kelly Well quadrangulars south of Datil," Timmons said, adding that the mapping of those areas is expected to be completed in July of next year. "We'll be doing Alamosa Creek in September, 2012, to inventory springs, measure well water levels and flow measurements for the streams and springs."

Mike Timmons said the research is a matter of time and scale. That is, the data could be used to measure how much of an impact a reduction of groundwater would have over decades.

In response to a question from the audience, he said it was too early to tell anything from the data collected so far, but the study is off to a good start.

"It's encouraging and we are very much looking forward to broader results," he said.

The results would be pertinent to the Augustin Plains Ranch application, since the study is taking place in the very region of the San Agustin Basin.

Although the public notice for the application stated that any impairment of existing rights caused by pumping would be replaced or offset, that's not enough to satisfy many residents who fear pumping of that much ground water could lower the water table and cause them to drill deeper wells. They — and dozens of government agencies that have also filed protests — are also concerned about the impact on the environment and the quality of the water they draw from their wells.

The Catron and Socorro county commissions, the Village of Magdalena, U.S. Forest Service, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District the Socorro Soil and Water Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management are among the government entities who are protesting.

The application indicated Augustin Plains Ranch planned to pump and divert roughly 17.6 billion gallons of water from the basin each year to be used for domestic, livestock, irrigation, municipal, industrial, commercial, environmental, recreational, subdivision and related, replacement and augmentation purposes.

The application proposes providing water by pipeline to supplement or offset the effects of current uses and for new uses to decrease stress on the Rio Grande Basin water supply.

It also proposes irrigating 120 acres of land within a 1,290-foot radius of each well, for a total of 4,440 acres on Augustin Plains Ranch land.

Titus said residents should be concerned about the Ranch's application.

"Right now, the water table stays stable and it's capable of producing some water," he said, adding that conditions could drastically change if Augustin Plains Ranch is permitted to pump that much water from the aquifer. "People will end up with lower water tables and may have to drill a lot deeper — and the quality of water may not be too good."

Titus said New Mexico Tech graduate student Dan Blodgett did the first in-depth hydrogeology study of the San Agustin Basin in 1973. He explained that it could be determined that the San Agusutin is a topographically closed basin that contained a lake after the ice age.

"Then the climate changed and the lake disappeared. It leaked," Titus said.

The leakage from the lake formed the aquifer below, but it only holds so much water.

Titus said if enough water is pumped from the aquifer, it would cause the land above it to settle. It might even cause the Very Large Array, located just to the east of the drilling area, to tilt.

Titus said other than Blodgett's abstract and the research currently being conducted little data exists on the San Agustin Basin.

Stacy Timmons said the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources had provided the State Engineer with data before for other purposes. She said the agency was aware that the bureau was conducting studies of the San Agustin Plains Basin.

Timmons said the bureau was happy to share the data it's currently collecting with the State Engineers Office.

"It's important that they not make decisions under false pretenses," she said.

Contact T.S. Last