By Hannah Grover
Members of the Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee expressed concerns during an April meeting about how a proposed subdivision could impact water resources in the East Mountains.
The proposed Campbell Ranch development could lead to 4,000 new homes as well as two golf courses being built in the East Mountains area.
The Edgewood Town Commission heard arguments in the Campbell Ranch case in March, ultimately choosing to send the proposal back to the town’s planning and zoning commission.
The water planning committee consists of representatives from various communities within the East Mountains, however, Edgewood currently does not have a representative on the body. The Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee hopes that will change in the future. The committee was formed in 1993 amid concerns regarding dropping groundwater levels in the East Mountains.
Committee Chairwoman Krista Bonfantine said the concern, at a state level, is that a municipality is considering a development in a different area than the town itself is located in, meaning the Campbell Ranch development would draw on an aquifer that Edgewood proper does not rely upon.
“They’re essentially externalizing the impacts,” she said.
The Campbell Ranch development would be located near New Mexico Highway 14 in an area that Edgewood annexed in 2001 after the developers proposed the subdivision. The area where the subdivision would be built is in Bernalillo County, which is a different county than the town proper.
The developers of Campbell Ranch state that they have the water rights to build the subdivision, including access to some senior water rights predating most of the other water rights in the region.
One concern that the water planning committee members expressed is that the subdivision could move forward with requirements that the people who buy the individual parcels will drill domestic drinking water wells, resulting in thousands of new wells in an area where residents are already struggling with water scarcity.
The developers dispute claims that there’s not enough water to support the development and say that the wells that have gone dry in the area were relatively shallow.
Bonfantine said if Edgewood chooses not to impose any water planning regulations and instead chooses to “exploit a loophole” that allows domestic wells to be drilled to provide water for the subdivision, “essentially it’s a water grab on the surrounding community.”
She said the water commission is trying to get a better understanding on whether the water resources in the area are adequate to support the proposed development.
Erwin Melis Jr., a hydrologist with John Shomaker and Associates, said Edgewood could benefit from the development because it would provide property tax revenues.
“I would say that’s probably a driving force. I wouldn’t say it’s greed, but it’s certainly homes equal taxes and groundwater is a victim here,” he said.
Bonfantine agreed.
“If you can take your taxes from a place and stick your straw in the neighbor’s cup, that’s a good deal,” she said.