Water Issues
It was January 17th, 2008 and the Las Vegas Optic reported that rancher Alexander Milliken proposed to sell five promising wells to the City.
Milliken, whose ranch is just over the hill west of the Ojitos Frios subdivision, had drilled the wells for livestock. They turned out to have a high yield and could possibly produce 2,200 acre-feet a year. (An acre-foot is equal to 326,000 gallons.) They would be a considerable help in the City's search for more water.
The Optic story noted that the wells were near the City's Taylor well field. Ojitos Frios residents were blaming the well field for the loss of about 80 of their home wells. The City, however, denied that. It said the shallow home wells were causing one another to go dry.
Then-Mayor Henry Sanchez told the Optic he had met with Milliken and the City's hydrologist was reviewing the proposal to buy the wells. "It's not going to happen overnight." Sanchez said he was "flabbergasted" with how long such governmental processes take, "but that's the reality".
In many ways, that Optic story from the first weeks of 2008 foreshadowed what would draw the people of our area into unwanted but necessary action in the months and years to come.
- Milliken's proposal would face a protest by some Ojitos Frios area residents who held senior water rights. Their negotiations to obtain a share of the water from his wells for El Creston if he reached a purchase agreement with the City ultimately failed.
- Some in the area challenged their 2010 property tax assessment as being too high. The County denied the challenge but the State sent an appeals board to hear their case and ultimately the protest was upheld in favor of the residents.
- In September 2009, El Creston declared a water emergency in the area. Citing 16 homes that had recently lost well water, El Creston asked then-Governor Richardson and the County for help. It cited families in the Ojitos Frios area without adequate water or in some cases with no domestic well water. Some of these were retirees with low income and veterans with medical issues. Some had been hauling water from a nearby campground and driving into Las Vegas for showers. El Creston then purchased a truck and set up a water hauling service for the community. You can read more about it on this page. (Link inserted here to water hauling page)
- People with dry wells and others whose wells still produced, joined to reorganize El Creston Mutual Domestic Water Consumers' Association. An early question was if it would be wise to sue the City over loss of water in private wells due to the Taylor field. The membership decided taking that direction would last years and might be a dead end. Instead, it determined that a more productive course would be to work on obtaining a deep community well or wells, treatment plants and a pipeline system.
- Then-Mayor Sanchez was not exaggerating at being flabbergasted at how long government processes can take. It is a fact our area now knows all too well. Since 2009 the membership and Board of Directors has been working on the slow, complicated design and funding process to make this happen. You can read about what El Creston has accomplished by going here and here.
For a history of water issues in New Mexico and water terminology click here