Butte, Boyd, and the Lower Rio Grande (quick post)

From Colorado Springs, this is a quick-post update on the Lower Rio Grande adjudication issues we've touched on here before - namely, the long-standing dispute over the Elephant Butte Dam (aka the Rio Grande Project). Of all my interviews, and interactions, during the last 7 months spent in New Mexico - this may have been the thorniest and the one topic where an interested party said they were "not able" to talk to me because of this pending litigation. The problem is that, even without a conversation from said source, people continue to write about it, talk about it. Fun stuff. Here's a story from the Rio Grande (NM) chapter of the Sierra Club on the LRG and the tangled mess of private, state, and federal interests involved. The great-grandson of Nathan Boyd, Scott, continues to pursue this in Gerald Valentine's court in southern New Mexico. The next date to watch: April 8, 2010 - the day the state of New Mexico has to make the feds an "offer of judgment" on how much water rights are held in Elephant Butte. Stay tuned!
A tip of the hat to SB and SS for providing this story, and the background associated with it. I miss New Mexico already...(Figure from NM Sierra Club chapter)

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