Complaint Filed with Attorney General

Silver City, NM --The Gila Conservation Coalition (GCC) today filed a complaint with the Attorney General's office against the Gila-San Francisco Water Commission regarding violations of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act (OMA) in conducting business related to the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA). Complaint provided below.

"The Gila Conservation Coalition and its members are very concerned about a pattern of actions being taken beyond the eye of the public. Given the import of the decisions being made regarding how to move forward under the AWSA and the impact they will have on our members and local communities, we feel the need to pursue this action to ensure legal processes are followed in order that the public be duly informed of actions being taken on their behalf," said Allyson Siwik, Executive Director of GCC.

"There have been a lot of things happening in secret meetings, on expense-paid junkets, and behind closed doors. Now, we finally have the proof to hold these people accountable," said Todd Schulke, senior staffer and co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's time for the public to ask if we can trust this group with protection of the Gila River and the billion dollars it would take to build the Gila diversion," added Schulke.

The Gila-San Francisco Water Commission (GSFWC) is a governmental body made up of 18 local governmental and quasi-governmental entities from southwest New Mexico. It should be noted that Silver City is not part of the commission. Officially designated in 2007, the GSFWC was formed "to create a regional water commission to facilitate contracting by the parties with the Secretary of the Interior for water supplies and funding pursuant to the Arizona Water Settlements Act," according to its Joint Powers Agreement.

In 2004, Congress passed the Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA) that authorized diversion of the Gila River if New Mexico agreed to buy water from Arizona to replace what we take out of the river. $100 million (2004$) has been made available through the AWSA. $66 million of this is available to meet local water needs in southwest New Mexico without diverting the Gila River. A diversion project is expensive with costs now estimated at over $1 billion (construction, OM&R, exchange costs), will yield little to no water, and will negatively impact the hydrology and ecology of the Gila River.

Organized in 1984 to protect the free flow of the Gila and San Francisco Rivers and the wilderness characteristics of the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness areas, the Gila Conservation Coalition is a partnership of local environmental and conservation groups, Gila Resources Information Project, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity, that promote conservation of the Upper Gila River Basin and surrounding lands.