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TMCNet: Water Rights Almost Up: Project Has Used Duke City Supply

[July 20, 2008]

Water Rights Almost Up: Project Has Used Duke City Supply

(Albuquerque Journal (NM) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 20--SANTA FE -- For decades, the exclusive Las Campanas subdivision has used millions of gallons of Albuquerque's San Juan-Chama water rights to offset what it pumps from Santa Fe's Buckman well field.

The 1986 agreement between Albuquerque and the Santa Fe subdivision, where model homes start at more than half a million dollars, expires in 2011.

Given the scarcity and rising value of water, it's no surprise lawyers for Las Campanas would like to exercise an option to continue the arrangement.

And it's no surprise the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority staff isn't eager to do so.

The agreement allows Las Campanas to offset up to 1,600 acre-feet of water pumped from Buckman a year -- a touchy political issue in the City Different. If the agreement isn't renewed, the subdivision would have to find other water rights.

It's a good deal for Las Campanas, which still pays a price far under current market value for the water.

Whether the Water Authority will grant an extension could become a point of contention.

"The question that has to be examined is the legal obligation under the contract and what obligation does the water authority have beyond 2011 and what obligation does Las Campanas have?" said John Stomp, the Albuquerque water authority's water resources manager.

"I think there's a difference of opinion."

The contract, signed in 1986 by the city of Albuquerque and Santa Fe County Ranch Resort, Las Campanas' predecessor organization, pro- vides the subdivision with the right to use up to 1,600 acre feet a year of San Juan-Chama water leased by the water authority from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. An acre-foot equals 56,000 gallons.

The contract gives Las Campanas the option to renew the lease beyond 2011 for three five-year periods.

But the contract also says Albuquerque can "curtail delivery of said water" if it needs the resource to meets its own municipal needs, fulfill obligations incurred before the agreement with Las Campanas or because of circumstances beyond the authority's control.

Las Campanas attorney Charles DuMars maintains the contract clearly states if Albuquerque can't show it needs the water to survive, it must offer the extension.

"We need to know what the hydrology tells us. If Albuquerque needs the water, then we'd have to look elsewhere," DuMars said. "They haven't demonstrated that. Las Campanas hasn't determined that."

Stomp pointed to the upcoming opening of the water authority's San Juan Chama Drinking Water Project, which in early 2009 is expected to begin diverting river water to be treated and used as Albuquerque's primary drinking water source.

The water authority is considering whether it needs the water rights it has previously leased to Las Campanas.

"Do we need it for our municipal needs?" Stomp asked. "I'd say yes."

Well water use

Las Campanas' domestic water supply, as well as about 20 percent of its golf course water, comes from Santa Fe's Buckman well field along the Rio Grande.

Las Campanas' use of water from the city wells predates the city's acquisition of the water system in the mid-1990s and exploded into a political issue as drought hit northern New Mexico several years ago.

An effort by Santa Fe to bring Las Campanas -- which has two 18-hole golf courses -- under the city's drought-time water use restrictions set off a political and legal fight tinged with class warfare. Bumper stickers that say "I'll stop watering my garden when Las Campanas stops watering its golf courses" can still be seen around town.

The city and Las Campanas reached an agreement in 2003 under which Santa Fe agreed to sell the subdivision a large portion of its sewage effluent to water the golf courses. Las Campanas agreed to cut water usage by more than half, reduce watering during city-declared drought stages and pay commercial rates for water.

When the Buckman Direct Diversion project, a joint venture between Las Campanas and the city and county of Santa Fe to pipe about 3 billion gallons of San Juan Chama water into the Santa Fe area from the Rio Grande, is completed -- expected in 2011 -- the subdivision will start drawing its water from that source.

But Las Campanas will still have to offset some Buckman well field pumping -- 250 acre feet the year following the opening of the river diversion project and decreasing gradually after the Santa Fe diversion project comes on line.

Water rights leased from the Albuquerque-area water authority would be used to cover this continuing need, DuMars said.

They might also be used directly as a backup resource in the event the Santa Fe diversion project were to somehow cease operations for short periods of time.

Still, "we will not be in crisis if it's not renewed," DuMars said of the contract.

"On the other hand, we're entitled to have it if it doesn't injure Albuquerque."

Las Campanas can still cover the pumping offsets required for the Buckman well field in the event a contract extension isn't granted, he said.

He said the subdivision will be able to cover the offsets though other options, including searching out other San Juan-Chama contractors for water rights.

Finding more rights could be difficult and potentially much more expensive for Las Campanas, with substantial up-front costs possible.

Las Campanas appears to have a pretty good deal with the water authority, paying the same acre-foot amount assessed by the Bureau of Reclamation when the contract was signed in the 1980s.

That totals, Stomp said, $50 per acre foot, plus some additional administrative costs and other fees.

The water authority currently leases native water rights for $500 an acre foot, Stomp said.

Permanent water rights can cost between $15,000 and $25,000 per acre foot, according to Santa Fe water lawyer Kyle Harwood.

"The cost of water, the value of water, the need for water has changed significantly since 1986," Stomp said.

DuMars said Las Campanas, in the event of an extension, is willing to negotiate a new price.

At full build-out, Las Campanas will use around 1,300 acre feet of water a year, DuMars said, although that figure is lessened by the use of wastewater effluent on the subdivision's golf course. The effluent is purchased from the city of Santa Fe at a rate of $2.05 per 1,000 gallons, plus administrative fees and taxes.

To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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