Saturday, October 27, 2007

Community discusses concerns at farm, livestock meeting

Argen Duncan El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

State Rep. Don Tripp would like to see legal allocation of Rio Grande waters and wolf reintroduction in Catron County paused where it is for a few years.

Speaking at the annual Socorro County Farm and Livestock Bureau meeting Oct. 24, Tripp addressed a number of topics, including water and wolves.

Tripp said water issues are foremost in the upcoming 30-day legislative session.

"Adjudication is a real serious issue in this valley," he said.

Adjudication legally establishes who has rights to how much water. Without this procedure, Tripp said, it's impossible to have a priority call-up, when junior water users are required to give up water to senior users in a shortage.

"And I'm afraid we're still 20 years away at this pace," he said.

Tripp later said adjudication might take 40 years.

He would like to see more money allotted to speed the process.

The state engineer already wants to issue licenses for water with established ownership. Tripp doesn't oppose the idea.

Also, he said he doesn't mind limits on the annual amount of water pumped from domestic wells, but doesn't want the state engineer to deny permits for those wells.

"I think total denial can cause a whole lot of problems in our state," Tripp said.

As for the state water reserve, in which the state government would buy water rights and hold in case of various needs, Tripp said he didn't want the government to own more water.

"They want to triple the amount they can buy," he said.

Tripp believes the state government would be the last to give up water in a priority call-up.

Tripp wants to fund Ute and Navajo water pipelines, as well as adjudication of American Indian water rights in the north part of the state.

After Tripp's speech, San Antonio farmer Dennis Harris said Gov. Bill Richardson had proposed giving about two-thirds of the San Juan River to the Navajo Nation.

"That's a third of the water that comes to the state of New Mexico," he said.

Harris said fewer than 50,000 people would control that portion of water.

Tripp agreed the situation could be a problem and said he wanted to adjudicate the water before the federal government issued an order on the matter.

"It's a hard pill to swallow, but we're going to have to get something done," he said.

Tripp doesn't want the federal government to order the state to give the reservations all the water they claim. He said the state has a chance of avoiding the outcome if New Mexico has a signed agreement.

Farm Bureau Regional Director Clay McCauley said the bureau is afraid the Navajos would sell the water downstream to California cities, making the water lost to New Mexico.

Tripp also spoke about the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolves into Catron County.

"It's an issue that just keeps festering," he said.

Tripp believes the difficulties are due to the bad management of bringing problem wolves from Arizona into Catron County. Reintroductions have happened in other places without such problems, he said.

He would like to see the government leave the wolves that aren't causing problems in the area but bring no new ones in for a few years.

McCauley later told the meeting attendees they needed to go to wolf reintroduction scooping meetings. One is scheduled for Dec. 1 at 11 a.m. in Socorro.

McCauley said the government wants to reintroduce wolves in an area from the border of Arizona and California to Southeast New Mexico, and in between I-40 and I-10.

"Folks, we've got to participate in these things, because if we don't, they'll eat us alive," McCauley said.

aduncan@dchieftain.com

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