The San Augustin Water Coalition held its 8th annual meeting on Saturday, April 16th at the Datil School gym. Over 90 people came to hear NM State Engineer Tom Blaine discuss the drilling proposal for the San Augustin Plains.

The Augustine Plains Ranch, LLC, (LLC) is working on a new application that will be submitted to his offices in the near future. He said State statutes for an application require its acceptance by his office if it meets all the criteria. He expects the new application to meet the criteria and be accepted. It will then be published in the local paper, and can be protested by the public.

Mr. Blaine said the LLC's 2007 first application was turned down because it was deemed Gǣincomplete, vague, and speculativeGǥ, and it had no end-user for the water, which is necessary to show the Gǣbeneficial useGǥ that the State requires. We should expect an end-user to be named in the new application.

Mr. Blaine made the following points in his presentation:
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