Photo File -Valley Publishing Co

Photo File -Valley Publishing Co

Photo File -Valley Publishing Co

We are used to hearing about the City of El Paso fighting over water from the Rio Grande with the State of New Mexico. Years of costly litigation resulted in a settlement. Then we have the Public Utility Board and the El Paso County Water Improvement District #1 fighting beccause the PUB thinks that when it comes to buying water from farmers in the Upper Valley; the cost should be near $200.00 an acre foot. (That's about 44,000 cubic feet of water or about 329,000 gallons.) How will these problems be resolved?

One thing for sure is that the PUB is gobbling up land in the Upper Valley to obtain the water rights to that land. One incentive to land owners or developers is then to offer water lines and sewer service to these farmland tracts. Some of these deals have moved city water and sewer services outside of the city limits. Yet some people who live within the city limits don't have water lines or sewer lines constructed to their homes. These services are apparently optional even though the City of El Paso should provide these services to land that is annexed within a few years. The city apparently doesn't deduct any taxes for not providing services to these residents.

Now we have the City of Sunland Park attempting to provide water to Santa Teresa and the new development set for the mesa. The Verde Group, an El Paso based developoment consortium which owns nearly 20,000 acres up on the mesa want these water issues settled quickly. But supporters of Mayor Segura call then the "Partido Verde" as in Green Party and claim that they are "making deals with the County of Dona Ana Commissioners Court to leave Sunland Park out of the deal. And since there is a gag order imposed by the federal magistrate it is difficult to foresee where this is heading. It may lead to litigation by the Verde Group It had been suggested by Mayor Segura of Sunland Park, prior to the gag order, that perhaps the legislature will have to act to resolve the matter.

In the past, Sunland Park provided water to the U. S. Customs facilities at the port of Santa Teresa/San Jeronimo. The supporters say that it seems logical that they would be able to do the same for Santa Teresa and the Verde Group develoment. But there seems to be some politics involved. One of the protestors at the hearings in Las Cruces; Sunland Park resident Mr. Juan Santibanez claims that "the govenor (Gov. Bill Richardson) is treating Sunland Park like a slum instead of a city. He has frozen oor requests for a Community Center." Obviously, tensions are running high.

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