Anti-diversion bill heads to House Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 24, 2021
With the majority Democratic members of two key state legislative committees recommending in hearings over consecutive Saturdays that a House bill to sideline the Gila River diversion group “do pass,” the future of the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project has never looked so imperiled.
As the bill, titled “Water Trust Board Projects and N.M. Unit Fund,” heads to the House floor for a vote as soon as this week, N.M. CAP Entity Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez made an appearance at a work session for Grant County commissioners on Tuesday morning. Like all of the presenters at the work session, Gutierrez made his presentation by video. He began his talk with a disclaimer that everything he was about to say might soon be rendered moot by the passage of House Bill 200.
Bill to sideline diversion group passes committee Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 17, 2021
A bill that seeks to sideline the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project received a “do pass” recommendation by the state House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee on Saturday in a 5-3 party-line vote.
Committee member and District 15 Democratic state Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil attended Saturday’s hearing but did not cast a vote regarding House Bill 200.
District 50 N.M. Rep. Matthew McQueen, sponsor of the bill, titled “Water Trust Board Projects and NM Unit Fund,” explained the proposed law’s purpose to the committee, which met virtually via Zoom due to the pandemic, by telling them why he wanted to use a different title for the legislation.
February 12, 2021
Gila diversion group asserts primacy as legislation threatens Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 12, 2021
With a proposal in Santa Fe threatening its very existence, the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project the group that was formed in 2015 to build the ultimately unsuccessful Gila diversion project is having to defend the role it could play when it comes to administering the more than $80 million in the N.M. Unit Fund.
The massive pot of money is destined to be spent, per the 2004 federal Arizona Water Settlements Act, either on a ※New Mexico Unit,” i.e., a surface water diversion, or on ※other water utilization alternatives to meet water supply demands in the Southwest Water Planning Region of New Mexico.”
February 8, 2021
Bill to preserve mine cleanup funds moves ahead Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 8, 2021
The New Mexico House Committee on Energy, Environment and Natural Resources voted unanimously last week to advance a bill that would establish a “Mining Act Forfeiture Fund,” with the aim of ensuring that, in the event a mining company defaults on its promise to clean up a closed mine site, the financial assurance put up by the company would be used “only to complete the reclamation plan or closeout plan to which the financial assurance had been dedicated.”
The bill’s sponsor, District 36 state Rep. Nathan Small, a Las Cruces Democrat, said that he worked with Freeport-McMoRan, environmental advocacy groups, the New Mexico Mining Association and state agencies like the N.M. Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department “to ensure this legislation is acceptable by all parties.�
February 1, 2021
Air Force opts not to fly F-16s over Gila Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 1, 2021
(Press File Photo by Geoffrey Plant)
Mike Ferris, shown testifying, was one of more than 500 people who showed up to a December 2019 public hearing at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center regarding the draft environmental impact statement related to the proposed expansion of military training flights in southern New Mexico. The hearing was one of eight that were held in affected communities across southern New Mexico.
According to a final environmental impact statement released last week, the U.S. Air Force has determined that expanding military airspace over the Gila National Forest and Silver City in order to accommodate an annual 10,000 F-16 training flights out of Holloman Air Force Base is not the best way to fulfill its goal of “optimizing the training airspace