Las Campanas commons - July 2002

Las Campanas has filed an ANSWER AND COUNTERCLAIM TO COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT filed by the City and County of Santa Fe, No. D-0101-CV-2002-01878.

Regrettably this document is not available as a computer file. However many of the defenses and counterclaims offered by Las Campanas are quoted or summarized below and listed by the Counterclaim paragraph #s (this writer’s comments are in italics):

60) Las Campanas has reduced its demand for water by 56% compared to reductions of no more than 34 % by the City.

Las Campanas does not substantiate these reduction percentages.

60) The County of Santa Fe that is a “similar customer” to Las Campanas has not reduced its demand for City water by any measurable amount.

62) If Las Campanas reduced its use of Buckman well water the City could not utilize any additional Buckman capacity because it has failed to develop new water supplies or acquire any water rights to utilize additional water.

62) Las Campanas claims that the New Mexico State Engineer has stated that the City is already using more water than its water rights would permit.

66) The City did not meet the pre-requisites for imposing Stage 3 drought restriction and therefore it is not legally promulgated and cannot be applied to Las Campanas.

If this defense is upheld could the City legally impose Stage 3 on any customer?

70) The City has singled out Las Campanas and demanded restrictions on water use by Las Campanas and has made no demand for sharing of shortages or other restrictions on the County of Santa Fe.

83) Since the City became owner of the system, it has been repeatedly informed by the Las Campanas Project that its wells were not in good repair, that wells needed to be repaired and that the failure to take action to make such repairs would cause injury to its water users and to the Las Campanas Project.

Waters users within the City have done likewise.

89) Not only has the City failed to take any action to increase its supplies in the amount mandated by the Public Utility Commission, it has failed to maintain its meters to the point that it has no functioning meters for measuring the amount provided to Santa Fe County and has no accurate record of its own water use to this day.

89) Las Campanas states that according to the State Engineer, the City has insufficient rights to support its existing demand.

92) Las Campanas believes that it is entitled to receive additional effluent in lieu of raw water and wishes to take .5 MGD of effluent after September 15, 2002 but that the City refuses to provide an additional .1 MGD of effluent beyond the .4 MGD that Las Campanas is currently using.

93) The City refused in 2002 to accept the offer of Rancho Viejo’s well capable of producing .4 MGD.

94) The City has created the water shortage by failing to acquire needed capacity as required by New Mexico law.

97) The City refused to oppose the proposed taking of its San Juan/Chama water for the Rio Grande silvery minnow. This inaction increases the need to rely on ground water from the Buckman wells.

The city is unable to store water for post 1929 storage in its reservoirs with any water other than San Juan/Chama water and that water may be taken for the silvery minnow or may not exist at all in 2003 if the drought continues.

97) The City has failed to plan for easily foreseeable shortages and contingencies.

100) Due to the City’s mismanagement of the municipal water system and its disrepair the Court should appoint a receiver to operate the system.

108) The City Water Shortage Emergency Ordinance is a taking of private property because it prohibits an otherwise legal use of water.

Furthermore the actions of the City have caused actual economic injury to Las Campanas without compensation and this is unconstitutional.

If this defense is sustained wouldn’t it apply to all other customers effected by the Ordinance?

113) The City has not demonstrated that it has not been able to meet 64% of the water demands of its customers. Therefore the declaration of Stage 3 is illegal.

If correct how can the City legally enforce its ordinance on anyone?

William J. Salman