Santa Fe is facing the worst water crisis in its history. The City Water Department forecasts that the level of the City reservoirs will be so low within several weeks that it will not be possible to draw water from them. At that time, or earlier, the City will be completely dependent upon its wells, mainly those in the Buckman area, for all of its water supply and Stage 4 water restrictions would be imposed.
Currently under Stage 4 restrictions all outdoor watering would be prohibited as well as the issuance of building permits. The effects of Stage 4 upon the quality of life and the economy of Santa Fe would be draconian. Gardens and historic landscaping would die and take many years, perhaps decades, to replace. Residential property values would decline. City parks and school playing fields would become dust bowls. The City would become less attractive to tourists. This coupled with the loss of many jobs dependent on the building trades would severely depress the local economy.
While all Santa Feans suffer from the water shortage and the City turns brown, the golf courses at Las Campanas will remain an emerald oasis (and off limits to almost all Santa Feans). City Government does not impose restrictions on the use of water by Las Campanas as it does on everyone else in the City.
According to the City Water Department 95 % of the water that Las Campanas uses is to water its two 18 hole private golf courses and fill its numerous large ornamental ponds. Las Campanas water comes from four of the City's Buckman wells. Since 1996, during the growing season, Las Campanas golf courses have used over half of the water pumped from those wells in some months. This year those wells and a few others will be Santa Fe's only source of water if reservoir levels drop to 20% of capacity, as predicted.
In 2001, in the seven months from April through October, Las Campanas golf courses consumed about 265,000,000 gallons of water (95% of the total billed to Las Campanas by the City Water Department). This is the equivalent of 5,400 households at 7,000 gallons a month, the median household consumption, according to the City Water Department! This usage far exceeds the amount estimated by Las Campanas when it received County approval for its development.
What is the reason for this inequitable anomaly? In 1987 PNM contrived a lease of water facilities (water lease) between Sangre De Cristo Water Company (SDCW), a division of PNM, and Santa Fe County Ranch Resort (SFCRR), a general partnership composed of Meadows Resources, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PNM, and Lyle Anderson, a resident of the state of Arizona.
When Las Campanas, one of the Lyle Anderson group of companies, succeeded Meadows Resources, Inc./SFCRR it became the lessee in this water lease. When the City of Santa Fe purchased the dilapidated SDCW water system from PNM in 1995 for about $60,000,000 it acquired the Buckman wells. Concomitantly the water lease was foisted upon the City and it replaced SDCW as the lessor.
This water lease permits Las Campanas to take 50% of the capacity of the City's Buckman wells numbers 3,4,5 and 6 per annum until 2012, with right of renewal until 2027. The large amount of water pumped for Las Campanas depletes the aquifer and places an unsupportable drain by the City upon its reservoirs.
Because of widely circulated misinformation it is believed that Las Campanas is entitled to water from the City's Buckman wells because of water rights leased and owned by Las Campanas. This is absolutely not the case. Las Campanas use of Buckman well water is solely dependent upon the water lease with the City of Santa Fe. On the other hand the City has sufficient San Juan Chama water rights to utilize the output of the Buckman wells entirely within City limits.
The County required Las Campanas to acquire water rights as a condition of approving the development, looking to the day when the water lease would expire and those rights could be used in a direct diversion from the Rio Grande. However those water rights do not provide "wet water"; a direct point of diversion is required. And presently Las Campanas has none.
The water lease has a clause that states "Lessee agrees to share pro rata in the water shortage and will reduce its demand by the same percentage that Lessor's delivery of water to other similar customers is reduced." And even though the water lease was written to favor PNM's subsidiary, Meadows Resources, it has several other clauses that the City of Santa Fe could use to compel Las Campanas to abide by water restrictions.
The very validity of the water lease is also questionable since it was not an arms' length agreement, as it defensively claims, but an insider deal between two completely owned entities of PNM.
Never the less, during the water shortages that have occurred in the last few years, the Mayor and the City Council have refused to compel Las Campanas to follow any of the water restrictions placed on City users.
The obvious beneficiary of this unrestricted water use is the developer of Las Campanas who is enriched by $ millions by being able to sell lots at prices from $250,000 to $2.5 million per site because they overlook luxuriant green golf course fairways.
The water lease requires that Las Campanas pay for its water in three ways: 1) a fixed annual rent payment of $121,520 for the use of the Buckman facilities 2) a charge per acre foot for the quantity of water used ($400 in 2001) and 3) its pro rata share of annual maintenance and repair costs of the Buckman wells and transmission line.
For 2001 the City Water Department billed Las Campanas $617,278 in total for 308,580,000 gallons of water. This amounted to $2.00 per thousand gallons.
This year the base rate for City residential and commercial users has been raised to $3.94 per 1,000 gallons. With additional summer and emergency surcharges City businesses will pay $6.94 per 1,000 gallons and residential users will pay $21.44 per 1,000 gallons (on usage over 12,000 and up to 20,000 gallons per month). Meanwhile Las Campanas will continue to water its golf courses for about $2.00 per 1,000 gallons resulting in a loss to the City of $ hundreds of thousands per annum in revenue from water sold to Las Campanas.
Only the Mayor and City Council can correct this gross injustice by imposing landscape water restrictions on the Las Campanas golf courses just as they do on the residences and business of Santa Fe (voluntary compliance is not enforceable). The residents and voters of Santa Fe should demand that this be done immediately. The sooner this is accomplished the more water will be available to City users, making it less likely that Stage 4 will have to be imposed.
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William J. Salman has been a resident of Santa Fe for more than 20 years and has lived in northern New Mexico since 1946. He and his family own Santa Fe Greenhouses Inc. and farm and ranch in Mora County.
