ALBUQUERQUE — The New Mexico Wildlife Federation strongly encourages its membership to urge the state’s Interstate Stream Commission to quit wasting taxpayers’ money on planning for the ill-conceived Gila Diversion Project. Years of planning efforts have yielded little and it’s time for New Mexico to direct the remaining federal project funds to regional water projects that will benefit thousands more state residents.
The NMWF is pleased to share this announcement from The Adobe Whitewater Club about the diversion project:
PLEASE TELL THE ISC: STOP FUNDING THE GILA RIVER DIVERSION EIS AND THE NEW MEXICO CAP ENTITY
The ISC will vote on Thursday, June 18th whether to: 1. continue funding the Gila Diversion environmental impact statement,2. continue working with the diversion supporters’ group the ISC created.
The ISC has spent $16 million on Gila diversion planning.No plan has been viable. The draft environmental impact statement is plain wrong and tells whopping falsehoods.
Please write the Commissioners. Ask them to stop funding both the EIS and the diversion supporters’ group. Request a NO Vote on BOTH questions.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement is a Disaster
“Reclamation’s economic analysis shows that all action alternatives, including the Virden Valley (Alternative D), are not economically viable, nor are they financially viable without funding commitments.” This is a quotation from the Department of the Interior on page 3.
The draft EIS is the enemy of facts, science, economics, and truth. It denies the 1950s drought and it denies climate change. It violates Department of the Interior policies that require scientific integrity.
Reclamation counted the water lost to evaporation in shallow storage pond as if that water were available to use. Reclamation’s cost estimates are much too low.
The proposed Virden Valley unit will require perpetual state subsidies without which it will be abandoned. The water will be neither reliable nor affordable.
HOW MUCH SUBSIDY? WHO KNOWS?
The Ardent Diversion Supporters’ Group (their real name is the NM CAP Entity) has wasted millions in State of New Mexico funding since 2015. They have nothing to show for it other than multiple failed concepts. They lost their federal funding by blowing past all their deadlines.
The State Engineer and the Director of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission are asking the ISC to Vote YES on both questions. We Are Asking You to Request Commissioners to Vote NO!
KEY FACTS:
_ $16 million in the ISC’s public funds has been spent on diversion planning for false information and gross misrepresentations of the truth, without accountability.
_ The ISC’s original diversion dam proposals were on the wild Gila River within the Gila National Forest, upstream of the Mogollon Creek take-out. Those are history. So are several subsequent bad “phases,” as the ISC calls them.
_ The $70 million remaining in the ISC’s fund for southwest New Mexico should pay for drinking water infrastructure and create construction jobs soon. These funds could help upgrade public water systems serving thousands in Southwest New Mexico communities and colonias OR provide a small amount of unreliable and expensive water for 5 to 10 irrigators.
CONTACT INFO & LOGISTICS FOR ENGAGING IN THE ISC DECISION
The ISC Commissioners are:
Aron Balok: ab@pvacd.com
Bidtah Becker: bidtahnbecker@navajo-nsn.gov
Greg Carrasco: greg.carrasco@farmcreditnm.com
Paula Garcia: lamorena@lasacequias.org
Mike Hamman: mikeh@mrgcd.us
Mark Sanchez: msanchez@abcwua.org
Stacy Timmons: Stacy.Timmons@nmt.edu
Tanya Trujillo: tanya.trujillo3@state.nm.us
Staff presentations to ISC are scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, June 16. The ISC deliberation and votes will be held Thursday morning, June 18.
Send your email comment to the ISC 24 hours in advance of the vote: ISC.Commission@state.nm.us
Instructions regarding public participation in ISC meetings are on the specific meeting agendas. https://www.ose.state.nm.us/ISC/isc_meetings.php