El Defensor Chieftain: Protesters to fight ‘water grab’
The New York City based corporation [Augustin Plains Ranch LLC] filed an application with the state Office of the Engineer two years ago, to drill 37 wells with 20-inch casings in order to pump 54,000 acre-feet of groundwater (about 17.6 billion gallons) from the San Agustin Basin each year. The wells would be located north and south of U.S. 60 just inside Catron County’s eastern boundary, between the Very Large Array and the town of Datil.
An amended application, filed in May 2008 and approved by the State Engineer in August of that year, called for an increase in the depth of the drilling from 2,000 to 3,500 feet. It also expanded the area of proposed places of use to any areas within Socorro, Catron, Sierra, Valencia, Bernalillo, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties that are in the Rio Grande Basin.