1. Contact the State Engineers office to make sure they have your well identified. This could be
especially important for pre-basin wells (prior 1956) because there were no permits issued at
that time. This is very important, wells that are not identified will not be allowed to divert
water once the Settlement is final! Please also make sure your surface water rights (if you
have some) are correct and under the proper name while at State Engineers office.
2. State Engineers office has been adjudicating wells in this basin for several years and believes
they have adjudicated about 85% to 90% of the wells in this basin. Adjudication is a legal
process to determine who has a valid water right and how much water can be used. More
than likely, all wells had an original permit allowing the ability to divert up to 3 acre feet from
the well. Our state law is one of beneficial use, meaning you have a right to divert water up to 3
acre feet if your well permit lists that, but your right is dependent on how much water you have
actually put to beneficial use. This becomes particularly hard to identify since most people have
never metered their usage. For example: If a household has drawn 1 acre foot of water over
several years, their adjudicated right would be 1 acre foot (one acre foot is 325,851 gallons of
water). More than likely this person would irrigate a small garden and have some livestock for
this type of usage. Contact the State Engineers office to find out what your well has been
adjudicated down to. Wells are being adjudicated down to .7, .5, and .3 acre feet depending
date of well drilled and whether or not one signed up for Post 1982 Well Agreement. If you
believe your Historical Beneficial Use is more than your well has been adjudicated to, you can
protest that to the State Engineers office.
3. If you have not received a packet (all packets are generic), you can pick one up at the State
Engineers office. In this packet, there is an Objection to the Settlement Agreement Form and
Acceptance of Settlement Agreement form. The only form due by April 7th is the Objection to
the Settlement Agreement Form, but this is only if one decides to file an objection. On this
form, it has a signature for an attorney, one can file Pro Se and does not need an attorney (if
one chooses to file Pro Se, leave the signature of attorney blank). There will not be another
opportunity to file an objection once this date passes.
4. Important!! If you do not file your Acceptance of Settlement Agreement Form where one has
to make a choice on their domestic well election, you will be considered a non-responder and
the court will have to get a hold of you at a later date (State Engineer estimates a one to two
year period) to make this choice (election). Positives to making election now is one may be on
the first come first serve list for free hook up to their home from Regional Water System (RWS).
Positives to waiting may be having more information about the system. Currently, the Water
Master (State Engineer) has not finished nor has taken public comment on the Water Master
Rules and Regulations that will establish the rules and regulations in the basin. Another may be
that the Regional Water Authority (RWA) has not been established. The
RWA will be established by Santa Fe County and the four Pueblos to own,
operate, and maintain the Regional Water System. A Joint Powers
Agreement (JPA) will be completed between Santa Fe County and the four
Pueblos to do so. This document has been in negotiations for more than
four years already without public comment. Please see attached document
with notes on draft JPA. With these two documents incomplete, you are
being asked to sign a contract without many important details being
disclosed.
Some additional facts:
1. Many have asked about the cost of a water bill if they hook up to the system. This is highly
dependent on two things, the rate schedule that hasn’t been established yet and the amount
of usage. Santa Fe County believes it would look like their current rate schedule they use other
places. There has been about 300+ wells in the basin that have been monitored by the State
Engineers office for many years and their current usage is an average of 3/8 (.375) acre feet of
water per year. Please understand usage will vary hugely from household to household. Using
SF county rate schedule for usage of .375 acre feet, a monthly bill would be $87.83. Using City
of Santa Fe rate schedule for usage of .375 acre feet, a monthly bill would be $113.73 (a couple
assumptions made here because they charge different rates for four months). Obviously, these
are today’s dollars, people would probably not be hooked up for 6 or 7 more years.
2. If an individual who has a well does not make a choice on their domestic well election by the
last date offered (currently State Engineer estimates between a year and two years), this well
will be entered into the court as accepting the settlement agreement and agreeing to hook up
to Regional Water System. Whether the court accepts this entering is unknown. Because all
packets went out first class stamps instead of certified mail, it is likely many did not receive a
package. It is important that all your friends, neighbors, and family are notified (in case they
never received packet) so they can make their own decision rather than the court making that
decision for them. There is time right now (at least a year), but we must be diligent when the
deadline approaches.
3. If you believe you have friends, neighbors, and family that wish to file an objection. Please
notify them to pick up packet and file by April 7th.
The information above is to allow one to become better informed in making a decision and
recommendation of action items at this time. Most important, please pass this information to
friends, family and neighbors.
No comments:
Post a Comment