Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Lion's Gate after N.M.'s salty water

Sean Olson The Albuquerque Journal, Special to El Defensor Chieftain

Lion's Gate Water is taking an aggressive stance on appropriating brackish water deep underneath New Mexico's surface: It wants it all.

The Canadian company filed a notice of intent with the Office of the State Engineer this month to appropriate the roughly 15 billion acre-feet of salty, mineral-filled water underneath the state — including all water beneath federal, state and private land.

State engineer spokeswoman Karin Stangl said the notice of intent was rejected due to "insufficient information" provided with the application, but the company can still reapply. Stangl said her office had no other comments.

Bill Turner, a Lion's Gate Water trustee and Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District board member, said Thursday that the company wants to act as a wholesale water distributor to anyone interested in acquiring or beefing up their water supply.

"This water will be in demand at some point in the future," Turner said.

Water residing below 2,500 feet has been a hot issue in New Mexico recently, with a bill that would give the state engineer some authority over the virtually untapped water supply awaiting Gov. Bill Richardson's signature.

State Engineer John D'Antonio has called the market for the water a "free-for-all" that allows groups to appropriate any — or all — of the water with little regulation.

Up until and throughout the legislative session, companies have been filing notices of intent to appropriate the water — beating the clock for more regulation on mining the water. The state engineer's office said notices from various companies have already claimed more than 1 million acre-feet of the water per year — more than 10 times what Albuquerque's metro area used last year.

If Richardson signs the bill before Lion's Gate Water resubmits its notice of intent to the state engineer, the company will have to deal with the added regulation.

The original notice of intent singles out the existing claims for water-- including large claims from Sandoval County and SunCal — as valid but attempts to take every other drop of not claimed in the state.

Turner said his company was ready to take any other group to court that infringes on its claim. He said state law favors those who drill wells for the water first, so it's possible that organizations could beat Lion's Gate to the punch in parts of New Mexico.

Turner said he has experience in drilling deep wells for water, noting that, in 1997, he was the first one to drill a well in the Rio Puerco for a client who later went bankrupt.

The areas near Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Ruidoso and Santa Fe are all "prime" locations for Lion's Gate to start drilling, he said.

Turner said Lion's Gate plans to build its own wells and desalination plants to clean the water before selling it to cities, counties or private enterprise.

Lion's Gate also filed an application to appropriate 730,000 acre-feet of surface water from the lower Rio Grande, where the company argues there is no legal owner.

The question of the water's ownership has been the subject of a legal battle between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Elephant Butte Irrigation District since the late 1990s.

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