U.S. Water News Online
LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Two El Paso, Texas residents have appealed a water permit issued to Dona Ana County and an El Paso-based development group, contending there was a conspiracy involving the developer and the governor to take water that belonged to the El Paso residents.
The appeal by Charlie and Phyllis Crowder, filed in state district court here, adds an obstacle to efforts to resolve decades of legal battles over Santa Teresa water.
A bankruptcy court in late December approved a deal to transfer $6.4 million of water rights from Crowder Investment Company to Dona Ana County and the Verde Group. The water rights had been tied up since the Crowder family, which owned the Santa Teresa Service Co. before Sunland Park condemned the utility, filed for bankruptcy court protection in the early part of the decade.
El Paso-based Verde Group and the county received permits earlier this summer to use 19,000 acre feet of water in the Santa Teresa area for a cross-border development, an idea proposed by Charlie Crowder years ago.
Crowder, who once owned large tracts of land in the Santa Teresa area, claimed the water rights in the 1970s when he drilled wells in the area. The Crowders once claimed about 110,000 acre feet of water.
The appeal does not directly challenge the permit, but rather the state engineer's cancellation of the rest of Crowder's declaration by issuing the permit for less than the full water claim, said the Crowders' attorney, Peter B. Shoenfeld of Santa Fe.
State Engineer John D'Antonio denied canceling any water rights. He said a former state engineer, Eluid Martinez, ruled in 1994 that the Crowders' claim was only about 29,000 acre feet.
D'Antonio said the dispute was not over water rights, but rather over a permit that grants the right to use water.
The state engineer is not permitting the use of any additional water rights in the basin surrounding Santa Teresa.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver recently denied the Crowders' appeal of the bankruptcy court's approval of the water permit sale.
Charlie Crowder has alleged a conspiracy involving Gov. Bill Richardson, the Verde Group and others to take his land and water.
State and county officials denied the accusations. The Verde Group declined comment, saying it does not talk to the media.
The governor acknowledged that early last year he supported a proposal that would have granted the water rights permit to the state Border Authority, a plan Crowder backed. When the Verde Group's proposal came up, the Border Authority idea died.
Richardson said he opted to support the Verde Group because of the financial backing and reputation of those involved.
Crowder called the Verde Group's backers a group of well-heeled, out-of-state players. Its principals are from Texas, Massachusetts and Chihuahua, Mexico.
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