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Letters to the Editor (June 19, 2025)
It’s time to join Valencia Water Watchers
Editor:
As Valencia County’s people know, since early 2020, Valencia Water Watchers has been opposing the Niagara water bottling corporation’s attempts to take more and more of our precious water from the Rio Grande aquifer.
In February of 2024, the Los Lunas Village Council voted 3-2 to approve Niagara’s request to more than double their water takings — from 285 acre-feet/year (afy) to 600 afy. (That 600 afy is more than 195 million gallons of our water, to be extracted every year from the aquifer.)
In January of this year, the village and Niagara finally signed a contract to close the deal. Now what?
The next step is for Niagara to acquire (paper) water rights for the additional 315 afy of water. (That’s 102 million gallons/year more than they are already taking.) Niagara will obtain these water rights by leasing them from PNM, and possibly other rights holders.
In late May, Niagara submitted a “request for water-rights transfer” to the N.M. Office of the State Engineer.
Anyone who will be affected by Niagara’s plan to extract that additional water has the right to file formal protests, stating how the taking of that water will cause harm to themselves and to the community.
This is where you come in. Here is how you can help.
VWW is joining local governments and other agencies to formally protest OSE’s pending approval of the transfer of water rights to Niagara.
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We are looking for people who are willing to do one or both of the following:
1. File a personal protest against Niagara’s requested water-rights transfer. (VWW can help with this.)
2. Join VWW as a water-rights holder as we file a protest against Niagara’s request for a water-rights transfer. VWW is an organization with standing.
Would you like to join us in this continuing opposition to Niagara’s taking of our water?
If you are interested in finding out more, and possibly joining in the formal protest, please fill out this simple “Join VWW to Protest” form, tinyurl.com/StopTakingOurWater. VWW will get back to you with more information soon.
Please feel free to pass this message on to people you know who do reside in the affected region. There is no “Los Lunas aquifer,” so the water Niagara takes will impact all living beings in the Rio Grande / Albuquerque Basin!
K.A. McCord
Los Lunas
Valencia Water Watchers
Threat to America
Editor:
Let’s review some terms:
Banned words: you heard of banned books. Trump took it further. His regime instructed federal agencies to avoid or limit use of words or phrases on their banned list, including “mental health,” “climate crisis,” “safe drinking water,” “hate speech,” “victims” and hundreds of others.
Dictatorships influence what their citizens think and believe through words. George Orwell in “1984” warned about this.
National emergency: Trump declared several. For example, the erratic one declared a national energy emergency. The U.S. pumps out more oil and natural gas than ever before. Some is even exported. Oil companies have permits to drill more wells but aren’t; it is not economically feasible. The last true national emergency was on September 11, 2001.
Reciprocal tariffs: Trump inflicted a raft of stiff tariffs on the rest of the world, claiming they were reciprocal. But no country had announced a new tariff on U.S. goods when Trump took office. His tariffs, most of which are illegal (Congress legislates tariffs) were unilateral, not reciprocal. Trump, himself, negotiated the existing trade deal with Canada and Mexico in his first term. If that agreement was unfair, why did he sign that?
Sanctuary cities: There is no definition in law of a sanctuary city. This term was invented by Trump and his cabal. It was created as a tool to persecute cities that don’t toe his politically extreme line.
Right now, armed Trump storm troopers without arrest warrants, wearing uniforms without the name of their government agency (if even part of one), and no name tags, pick people up off the street without evidence of laws being broken, simply because the Trump regime wants to. You never know when these storm troopers might come to your neighborhood and pick up someone.
Know this: Trump and his cabal will expand the categories of people they pick up as long as they think they can get away with it. Don’t expect any justice from the six Trump cult members on the Supreme Court.
Trump is just a vindictive, paranoid bully who holds grudges, against anyone whom he thinks wronged him. The Trump regime is the real and present threat to Americans.
James Rickey
Los Lunas
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