ALBUQUERUQE (June 18, 2020) – New Mexico Wild Executive Director Mark Allison released the following statement today in response to the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission’s decision to end the Environmental Impact Statement Process for the Gila Diversion Project:
“On behalf of our board of directors, staff, and over 13,000 active supporters, I thank the Interstate Stream Commission for deciding to not authorize proceeding with the Bureau of Reclamation to complete the National Environmental Policy Act process for the Gila Diversion. The NM CAP Entity has never been able to demonstrate a project that would be technically or financially viable. Even at this late stage, essential questions remained unanswered. What limited information there is suggests that the most recent proposal intended to benefit only a handful of property owners for a product that they couldn’t afford. As New Mexico revenues strain under the weight of a precipitous decline in oil prices and COVID-related economic hardships, it would have been neither prudent nor responsible to spend additional funds on the DEIS for such a fundamentally flawed project. Now we can get on with the business of local, shovel ready water conservation projects that benefit everyone.”
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ABOUT THE NEW MEXICO WILDERNESS ALLIANCE: The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance or “New Mexico Wild” is a non-profit 501 (C)(3), independent, homegrown, grassroots, conservation organization dedicated to the protection, restoration and continued respect of New Mexico’s wildlands and Wilderness areas. With staff and thousands of supporters throughout the state, New Mexico Wild is dedicated to the rights and the value of citizen involvement in protecting increasingly rare wild places within public lands. Just as freedom is every American’s birthright so too is Wilderness.
