At a momentous hearing on April 5, 2024, more than 100 community members from Catron County crowded the court room and hallways of the Seventh Judicial District court in Reserve to hear oral argument on the Augustin Plains Ranch LLC’s continuing and relentless requests to mine and hoard 54,000 acre-feet of water a year from the arid San Augustin Plains. District Court Judge Roscoe Woods heard arguments from Augustin Plains Ranch (APR) and the many allied parties opposing the transfer including the State Engineer Water Rights Division, the Catron County Commission, the Helen Hand Ranch, and two groups of area residents including the Community Protestants group, represented by NM Environmental Law Center. Agreeing that the Ranch’s request to transfer this groundwater was pure speculation, Judge Woods ruled from the bench in favor of denying the transfer as contrary to NM […]
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