Cease Pumping

State Engineer tells Glorieta camp to stop pumping water into creek

The Office of the State Engineer is apparently changing its tune about whether water use at the Glorieta camp falls within state rules. Nearby homeowners complained to the office this summer and autumn about what they said was wasteful behavior by the owners of the property, who were pumping water from wells into a pond and letting overflow run down the Glorieta Creek. But a state engineer spokeswoman told SFR in late October that the camp was "functioning within the limit of the water rights."

According to a letter mailed Dec. 5 by Ramona Martinez, of the engineer's Water Rights Division, that's no longer the case.

Martinez writes that the office conducted a site visit to the camp on Nov. 6 and then issued a verbal order that operators must cease pumping into the pond and creek "until all issues pertaining to their water rights, current use, and administrative matters have been addressed and resolved."

Lela Hunt, still spokeswoman for the engineer's office, did not immediately respond to two requests for information about the development.

Anita Nugent, whose formal complaint prompted the letter from Martinez, says she's somewhat relieved that the state seems to be finally taking her concerns seriously. Increased pumping of wells at the camp coincides with loss of water in her well and wells belonging to at least five of her neighbors. The camp, which opened its pond for community swimming a few days last summer, changed hands in the spring of this year.

"I'm definitely glad they are interested in it," she says of the state engineer. "It wouldn't matter who it was. And I don't care if they have a water park if they use the water wisely."

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