Haretip
09 March 2005, 08:05 PM
Senate votes to sue Texas over acreage
By Walter Rubel/Current-Argus Santa Fe Bureau
Mar 9, 2005, 04:14 am
SANTA FE — The Senate voted Tuesday to sue Texas for the return of land in a move that the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, likened to a “slap fight” between neighbors.
Robinson said there are 603,485 acres of land along the north-south boundary with Texas that was erroneously appropriated to Texas due to a surveyor’s error. The bill directs the attorney general to sue for the return of land, as well as compensation for mineral rights, oil and gas royalties, property taxes and grazing privileges that have been lost due to the mistake.
“The purpose of suing Texas, it’s like a slap fight with your neighbor — you don’t want to do a heck of a lot of damage, but we do want to wake them up to the fact that Texas has not always treated New Mexico well,” Robinson said. “We’ve kind of been treated like a stepchild.
“When we were trying to get into the union, they always demanded that we forsake this strip of land, and it ends up with Texas having this windfall. It’s all prime Permian Basin land.”
Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Jal, said the land in question is well worth fighting over.
“My home is less than eight miles from this line, and I can tell you that is some of the richest oil and gas country in Texas,” Leavell said. “If it wasn’t for that, the University if Texas would probably be a junior college.”
Leavell said the state shouldn’t stop with just the disputed land.
“While we’re after this, we ought to go after them for the water in the Ogallala (aquifer),” Leavell said.
“You look at the east side of New Mexico and you just go right along the line to the west side of Texas, and they have pipelines bigger than Volkswagons that pump water out and literally drain New Mexico. And they have no consideration of what it is doing to us,” Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell said. “If we just move that line over, then we can sell them the water.”
Robinson said the ongoing water dispute with Texas is part of the reason why New Mexico should go to court to seek return of the land.
“Very often, what you accomplish by filing a lawsuit — it’s just like a manager in baseball coming out and reading the riot act to the umpire. You might not get that particular call changed, but it’s the next one you want,” Robinson said. “And the next one we’re going to fight with Texas is over water.”
Robinson said Texas has set aside about $19 million to sue New Mexico over water rights.
Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said the state shouldn’t stop with the 603,000 acres in the northern part of the state.
“I think we should broaden our effort to reacquire El Paso, which was equally maliciously taken from us,” Ortiz y Pino said.
Robinson said El Paso the southern border between the states is based on where the Rio Grande was in 1850. He said when it was time for a water master to determine that boundary, Texas brought in several engineers, while New Mexico relied on the memories of sheep herders.
“The water master relied only on the data of the Texas engineers, and his statement in the report to the U.S. Supreme Court said, ‘the only evidence supplied by New Mexico was from some illiterate Mexicans who testified as to what they remember when they were 11 years old.’”
The bill passed on a 33-0 vote and now moves to the House for consideration.
The bill is SB555, and can be found on the Internet at legis.state.nm.us.
By Walter Rubel/Current-Argus Santa Fe Bureau
Mar 9, 2005, 04:14 am
SANTA FE — The Senate voted Tuesday to sue Texas for the return of land in a move that the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, likened to a “slap fight” between neighbors.
Robinson said there are 603,485 acres of land along the north-south boundary with Texas that was erroneously appropriated to Texas due to a surveyor’s error. The bill directs the attorney general to sue for the return of land, as well as compensation for mineral rights, oil and gas royalties, property taxes and grazing privileges that have been lost due to the mistake.
“The purpose of suing Texas, it’s like a slap fight with your neighbor — you don’t want to do a heck of a lot of damage, but we do want to wake them up to the fact that Texas has not always treated New Mexico well,” Robinson said. “We’ve kind of been treated like a stepchild.
“When we were trying to get into the union, they always demanded that we forsake this strip of land, and it ends up with Texas having this windfall. It’s all prime Permian Basin land.”
Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Jal, said the land in question is well worth fighting over.
“My home is less than eight miles from this line, and I can tell you that is some of the richest oil and gas country in Texas,” Leavell said. “If it wasn’t for that, the University if Texas would probably be a junior college.”
Leavell said the state shouldn’t stop with just the disputed land.
“While we’re after this, we ought to go after them for the water in the Ogallala (aquifer),” Leavell said.
“You look at the east side of New Mexico and you just go right along the line to the west side of Texas, and they have pipelines bigger than Volkswagons that pump water out and literally drain New Mexico. And they have no consideration of what it is doing to us,” Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell said. “If we just move that line over, then we can sell them the water.”
Robinson said the ongoing water dispute with Texas is part of the reason why New Mexico should go to court to seek return of the land.
“Very often, what you accomplish by filing a lawsuit — it’s just like a manager in baseball coming out and reading the riot act to the umpire. You might not get that particular call changed, but it’s the next one you want,” Robinson said. “And the next one we’re going to fight with Texas is over water.”
Robinson said Texas has set aside about $19 million to sue New Mexico over water rights.
Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said the state shouldn’t stop with the 603,000 acres in the northern part of the state.
“I think we should broaden our effort to reacquire El Paso, which was equally maliciously taken from us,” Ortiz y Pino said.
Robinson said El Paso the southern border between the states is based on where the Rio Grande was in 1850. He said when it was time for a water master to determine that boundary, Texas brought in several engineers, while New Mexico relied on the memories of sheep herders.
“The water master relied only on the data of the Texas engineers, and his statement in the report to the U.S. Supreme Court said, ‘the only evidence supplied by New Mexico was from some illiterate Mexicans who testified as to what they remember when they were 11 years old.’”
The bill passed on a 33-0 vote and now moves to the House for consideration.
The bill is SB555, and can be found on the Internet at legis.state.nm.us.