Western Artist Left a Permanent Legacy East Mountain Water Battle Ends
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SANDOVAL PLACITAS PRSRT-STD U.S. Postage Paid BERNALILLO Placitas, NM Permit #3 CORRALES SANDOVAL Postal Customer or Current Resident COUNTY ECRWSS NEW MEXICO SignA N INDEPENDENT PLOCAL NEWSPAPER St S INCE 1988 • VOL. 32 / NO 5 • MAY 2021 • FREE IVEN East Mountain water battle ends D ILL while statewide concerns remain —B ~BILL DIVEN A section of Albuquerque’s East Mountains, defined as the Sandia Basin, has a lot in common with Placitas. For one, residents live atop a fractured and complex geology and largely rely on groundwater for domestic and livestock uses. That complexity makes it difficult to forecast the decline in water levels in the Sandia Basin, although a consultant’s study for the Office of the State Engineer (OSE) showed average declines exceed- ing current guidelines. Both areas rely on surface moisture, snow in particular, to recharge groundwater, although the complex geology affects what water goes where. The state’s history of periodic severe droughts, combined with climate-change prediction of shorter winters with less snow in the Sandia Mountains, adds to residents’ concerns about the future of their aquifers. The Sandia Basin, including Tijeras and Cedar Crest, covers four-hundred square miles, from south of Interstate 40 to the northeast corner of Bernalillo County, abutting Torrance, Santa Fe, and Sandoval counties. Placitas is in the adjacent and significantly larger Rio Grande Basin. What the Sandia Basin has that Placitas doesn’t is twenty years of community opposition, nearly 12 of those years in court, over a proposal to develop 8,046 acres of a ranch for 4,024 homes, commercial sites, and two nine-hole golf courses. Central to that was tapping up to 350 acre-feet of groundwater annually— about 114 million gallons—although with water from other local sources the developer planned to use about twice that much. The application by a Nevada company to “appropriate” the water was initially denied by one state engineer, saying water in the basin already was fully appropri- ated. After a change of administrations in Santa Fe, a new state engineer spoke in favor of the application. Ultimately a District Court judge late in 2019 denied the application as “being inconsistent with applicable principles of conservation” and its significant threat to Edmond “Ed” DeLavy existing water rights. The case remains on appeal over how much the Nevada com- pany owes the opposition for legal costs. Then in March, current State Engineer John D’Antonio Jr. ordered the Sandia Western artist left a Basin closed to further appropriations. In the order he cited the December study by consultant Tom Morrison, a professional engineer and former chief of the OSE permanent legacy Hydrology Bureau. ~BILL DIVEN The order also covers a roughly two-by-seven-mile piece of the Rio Grande Basin directly north in Sandoval County, taking in the community of La Madera. Carpenter and artist Edmond “Ed” DeLavy was looking for a The closure still allows for new and replacement domestic and livestock wells and peaceful and somewhat isolated place to land a few years after transfers of existing water rights. serving as an Army surgical technician in North Africa and Europe While the judge’s ruling and the OSE closure order don’t directly affect Placitas, during World War II. they do point toward more statewide regulatory oversight, expanded technical The war interrupted his budding career as an illustrator of west- research, and growing public concern with implications for future development ern stories working for a publisher of dime novels, magazines, and decisions. pulp fiction in New York City. Fascinated by the West after that “There are some new efforts on the part of the state, New Mexico Tech, and the 1947 trip, he returned to New Mexico in 1959, stopping at what state engineer’s office to get a better handle on the resource and the groundwater was then the Coronado State Monument across the Rio Grande levels and decline rates,” said hydrologist Reid Bandeen. “It might be time to take from Bernalillo. another look at those for Placitas.” Already widely known as a talented illustrator, DeLavy’s second Bandeen, who founded Truchas Hydrologic Associates, Inc. in Placitas in 1999, visit led, in the decades ahead, to a featured and unplanned role in testified as an expert witness for the opposition in the Sandia Basin litigation. historic preservation in Sandoval County. The go-to document for understanding the water beneath Placitas has been DeLavy had found a place to his liking, Martha Liebert, past Hydrogeology and Water Resources of the Placitas Area Sandoval County, New president of the Sandoval County Historical Society told the Mexico, published in 2000 and updated in 2008. The authors, Peggy Johnson with Signpost. But he also was about broke, she added. the state Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and Andrew Campbell of New Here, John Sinclair, a published author of Western fiction Mexico Tech, relied on past reports and their fresh research to produce a nearly and superintendent of the Coronado monument, enters this saga. two-hundred-page report mapping surface water, the underlying geology, and the Sinclair pointed to nearby land, divided into two-and-one-half-acre potential availability and quality of groundwater. parcels, designated for veterans to homestead under the last gasp of As part of their work they studied more than three-hundred private wells, two- a law that first benefited Union Civil War soldiers. dozen springs, and sources of surface water. Among their findings were isolated All Ed had to do within five years was build a house, move in, aquifers, water flowing between some aquifers, a high reliance on infiltration from and the place would be his. snowmelt and rain and some groundwater levels rising after the 1995-96 drought “So he did,” Liebert said. “He lived in (Albuquerque) Old Town that caused alarm as wells began drying up. —continued on page 4 —continued on page 5 Find the Signpost online at www.sandovalsignpost.com • Mailed subscriptions are available PAGE 2 • MAY 2021 • SANDOVAL SIGNPOST • SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1988 TABLE OF CONTENTS Up Front 1 Health 18 Youth 26 Election 10 Arts 20 Animal News 26 Around Town 12 Calendar 22 Animal Prints 28 Real People 15 Time Off 23 Classifieds 29 Night Sky 16 Gauntlet 25 MAIL: Signpost, P. O. 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This issue of the Sandoval Signpost has been mailed to every home in to pay by phone or Placitas—2,700 direct-mail—plus approximately 1,800 direct-mail to 505-771-3937 for further information. Bernalillo. An additional 1,000 are delivered for free pickup at over thirty Dr. Deidra Casaus, Board Certified Optometric Physician locations in the Placitas-Bernalillo-Corrales-and southeastern Sandoval Voluntary subscriptions from 160 Camino Del Pueblo, Bernalillo County area, totalling 5,500 copies. Placitas residents Copyright © 2021, by Belknap Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Call for an appointment today! Reproduction without permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed in are appreciated. www.thevisionstorenewmexico.com articles appearing in the Sandoval Signpost are those of the individual Thank you. authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers. The Sandoval Signpost is printed with soy ink on recycled newsprint. 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