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Gov’s signature sidelines Gila diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on April 6, 2021 Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 200 into law Monday. Titled “Water Trust Board Projects and N.M. Unit Fund,” the law, which was passed by the Legislature during its regular session, assigns the advisory role over how $80 million reserved for water projects in southwest New Mexico is spent to the N.M. Water Trust Board, while simultaneousl...

After hot debate, county backs anti-diversion bill Written by Geoffrey Plant on March 15, 2021 Copious time was again spent on the Gila River diversion group’s fate at last week’s regular meeting of the Grant County Commission. Discussion at the Thursday meeting was dominated by arguments for and against a nonbinding resolution in support of legislation that seeks to place the state Water Trust Board into the role ...

March 10, 2021 Most SWNM solons oppose bill to sideline diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on March 10, 2021 (Press Staff Photo by Geoffrey Plant) Last month, District 38 state Rep. Rebecca Dow and District 39 state Rep. Luis Terrazas, both Republicans representing parts of Grant County, spoke against HB 200, “Water Trust Board Projects and N.M. Unit Fund,” ahead of a House vote on the legislation. The proposal seeks to sideline the Ne...

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 F...

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 re...

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...

Legislation would replace Gila diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 3, 2021 A bill introduced last week in the New Mexico Legislature threatens to sideline the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project’s role in determining how the remaining money in the N.M. Unit Fund — totaling more than $80 million — is spent in four southwestern New Mexico counties under the terms of the 2004 federal A...

Your turn: Its time for water justice in Southwestern New Mexico Your turn I have watched, frustrated, for more than 15 years as the Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) and the NM Central Arizona Project Entity (NMCAPE) have floundered in their efforts to plan an unaffordable Gila River diversion. These groups have wasted more than $15 million in Federal funding on diversion planning, while millions of dollars in local community water projects in southwest New Mexico go unfunded.  Fortunately,...

(Daily Press File Photo by Geoffrey Plant) Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project, speaks during the group’s regular meeting in October at the Grant County Administration Building. During its first meeting of the new year, held remotely via GoTo Meeting due to the pandemic, the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project elected new officers and approved an amended version of the document that binds its members together. The revised ...