La Jicarita

The Interim Land Grant Committee of the State Legislature met on August 26 for a presentation by Enrique Romero, Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty Division. The agenda was the Ruben A. Valerio, et al. v. Cristobal de la Serna Land Grant lawsuit.

In layman’s language, this is the lawsuit that resulted from Cultural Energy KCEI radio station’s attempt to erect a radio tower on Picuris Peak to increase its broadcast range and expand the station’s capacity. The radio station currently owns 142 acres on the mountain top that it acquired from Roy Cunnyngham but must quiet title the land with a wide range of various property claims—from individuals, deceased persons, and the Cristobal de la Serna Land Grant. These are mostly varas, or narrow strips of land that extend from the top of the mountain down through Llano Quemado to the Francis Martinez acequia.

What makes this process so difficult is that many people have not perfected the title to their land. Instead, they use the 1941 assessment survey to describe the land they own. It’s called a survey but it’s really just a map to determine who to tax. The 1941 assessment survey has no field notes, recording where the information came from, and it doesn’t show any point of origin for the survey. There are no dimensions or compass bearings for any of the lines drawn on the map. It’s not a survey that can show where exactly your land is. If you want to get a second mortgage on your property, if you want to sell your land and get title insurance, you have to actually have a professional survey made and be able to quiet title it.

In the lawsuit, Ruben A. Valerio represents his deceased father Candido Valerio, who filed the first quiet title complaint against Cultural Energy, subsequently negotiated with Robin Collier, KCEI manager, and became a plaintiff along with Cultural Energy. Cristobal de la Serna Land Grant, represented by Northern New Mexico Legal Aid, filed a motion to dismiss Cultural Energy’s quiet title suit.

In 2004 a new law was added to Chapter 49 of the Statutes of New Mexico that created a new designation of land grants that have to apply to the legislature to become political subdivisions of the state, giving them sovereign immunity from quiet title suits. The remaining Federal land grants would not have this immunity. These are the two additions:

• Section 42-11-1 grants immunity from suit to “[t]he state of New Mexico and its political subdivisions” for cases “involving a claim of title to or interest in real property except as specifically authorized by law.”

• Section 49-1-1 states that “[a]ll land grants-mercedes in the state or land grants-mercedes described in Section 49-1-2…shall be managed, controlled and governed by their bylaws, by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and as provided in [the Land Grants Act] as political subdivisions of the state.”

In 2024, when the Cristobal de la Serna Land Grant filed a motion to dismiss Cultural Energy’s quiet title suit, it cited the two above statutes. But after Cultural Energy’s attorney Ernest Padilla filed a strong brief, Eighth Judicial District Judge Emilio Chavez affirmed Cultural Energy’s right to quiet title and also noted that there has been no case law on this issue since 2004 that sets any precedent. The Land Grant appealed the district court decision to the Court of Appeals.

After the New Mexico Court of Appeals and the New Mexico Supreme Court both turned down appeals, on August 6th the NM Court of Appeals wrote a definitive 13-page opinion in favor of Cultural Energy and the Valerio estate:

“While Section 42-11-1 grants immunity to ‘political subdivisions’ from suit to quiet title, Section 49-1-1 does not declare that land grants-mercedes are political subdivisions in all respects and instead directs that land grants-mercedes should be ‘managed, controlled and governed….as political subdivisions.’ Considering the language and purpose of the Land Grants Act, as well as the nature of land grants-mercedes and common lands, we conclude that the Legislature did not intend to provide blanket immunity to land grants-mercedes for quiet title action.”

“The Land Grants Act was passed in order to ‘create a board of trustees’ that would ‘manage their common lands’ (the boards).” The common lands managed by the boards “are jointly held as private property by the heirs of the land grant,” (Rayellen, 2014-NMSC-006, ¶ 39), and the purpose of a quiet title action is “to determine and quiet the title of real property . . .  against any person or persons, claiming title thereto, or parcel or portion thereof,” (see NMSA 1978, § 42-6-1 (1945). Thus, any quiet title action involving the common lands of a land grant-merced does not involve a governmental function but instead is a private property dispute.”

If the court had decided in the Land Grant’s favor, individuals as far away as Walmart and Cruz Alta would be denied their right to quiet title their properties. It’s hard to know if the 2004 legislators understood the ramifications of their decision to amend state statutes to give land grants power over quiet title. The Court of Appeals more specifically answered that question:

“[W]e decline to rely solely on the shared language between [the statutes] and conclude that based on the nature of land grants-mercedes, the purpose of the Land Grants Act, as well as its other provisions, the Legislature did not intend for its 2004 amendment to Section 49-1-1 to extend Section 42-11-1 immunity to land grants-mercedes for suits to quiet title.”

The Cristobal de la Serna has the right to appeal to the New Mexico Supreme Court by September 8, although that court previously declined to hear the argument and sent it back to the Appeals Court. In all probability, organizations like the New Mexico Land Grant Council that supported the Cristobal de la Serna Land Grant will push to bring the issue before the legislature once again. That was expressed at the Interim Land Grant hearing by several of the attendant legislators, none of whom were in the 2004 legislature.

During that discussion, Assistant Attorney General Romero emphasized that he thought the court is stepping into the legislative role and didn’t agree that there is a distinction between land grants’ internal and external governance that inhibited their right to deny quiet title.

The Interim Committee will meet next in Taos on September 16th & 17th

Editor’s Note: These events are credited to Jean Stevens, Director, Taos Environmental Film Festival, 2015-2022.

“The World is My Country”

 A Broadway song and dance man turns his war guilt over bombing civilians into electrifying action that galvanizes war-weary Europe, sparks a movement and helps pave the way for the UN unanimously passing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Taos Public Library, Saturday, September 19, 1 to 3 pm, free.

Kay’s Tribute to Pat

The community of Las Vegas celebrated the tenure of Pat Leahan at the Las Vegas Peace and Justice Center on Friday, August 28, and Robin Collier of KCEI and I went over to join in from this side of the mountain. Robin recorded the event and I listened to Pat and her comrades tell stories of the Center’s incredible history of 22 years of service to the community.

Pat Leahan

Pat first came to town 30 years ago on a serendipitous vacation trip from Minneapolis and ended up staying, easing into a job at the United World College (UWC) as Community Engagement Liaison. A perfect fit for Pat, who loves young people, she began to connect students with people and activities in the local community. A handful of these students were at the celebration and spoke about how they were encouraged  to share the community organizing skills they learned with Pat when they return home.

United World College students

The mission of the Peace and Justice Center is “Providing free services in partnership with our community in 4 overall categories: Access, Education, Advocacy and Solidarity.” In practice that means getting involved in all kinds of social and environmental justice issues: inadequate medical services; union organizing; prison reform; Integration Center; low income services; animal advocacy; voting rights; protecting the Gallinas River, ICE interventions, and oil and gas regulation.

That last item, oil and gas regulation, was a highly contentious issue that Pat, along with comrades in Mora County (Las Vegas is in San Miguel County), took on despite political pressures from the industry. La Jicarita covered much of this issue over the course of 2013 to 2015 (see La Jicarita, June 4, 2013). It all started when several oil and gas companies sought permits for exploration drilling and potential fracking in Mora and San Miguel Counties and came to a head when a legal organization from Pennsylvania, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CDLEF) came to town and proposed that both counties adopt what they called “A Bill of Rights” that would ban oil and gas development outright. Pat and her comrades had already been organizing to educate the public, form relationships with elected officials and county staff, and partner with other county organizations that were working on the same issues or had already passed tougher regulations (e.g. Santa Fe County). The Mora County Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance, promulgated by CDLEF as a test of local sovereignty, and opposed by those who advocated for local zoning restrictions, was found unconstitutional in district court. The two counties then went on to pass zoning ordinances to protect against oil and gas development in sensitive county locations.

Pat also ran a progressive talk show, Community Peace Radio, for youth and adults, every Saturday on KFUN (AM 1230) or KLVF (100.7 FM). Over two decades she invited everyone to speak—children, students from the World College, activists from all over, including Sophia Martinez and John Trudell, union organizers, environmentalists, government representatives—and there was music, too. Robin Collier, Paula Garcia (than a Mora County Commissioner), and I went on the radio to discuss the ramifications of the proposed “Bill of Rights.”

Robin Collier of KCEI

Pat also supervised the Masters of Social Work students from New Mexico Highlands University in their UWC-USA Social Work internships. As a woman tied to so many organizations and people in the Las Vegas community she vows to stay in touch—and keep affiliations—after she moves to Philadelphia to be closer to her family.

Pat was a true force in the community—and a devoted dog lover who’s own dogs and everyone else’s were treated with tender care. I will miss her friendship and solidarity. Vaya con Dios, Pat.

Screenshot

 

Letter to the Editor By MARY ROSE

More water studies are not needed for The Hydrogen Facility in Questa, New Mexico.

The fact that the water source was switched at the last moment in the fall of 2025, after years of public relations meetings with KCEC [Kit Carson Electric Cooperative] and the Mayor of Questa who claimed it would be ‘reclaimed water from the former mine’—indicates a lack of transparency that has existed from the beginning.

It would be good to see in writing from Chevron why the water source changed from treated wastewater to well water.

The concerned public has been going to every single meeting: Questa Council meetings (although the Mayor of Questa has not allowed discussion of the Hydrogen Facility to be placed on the council agenda), KCEC Board meetings, Taos County Board of Commissioners meetings, and many other meetings to voice opposition to an extremely water-intensive, inefficient Hydrogen Facility.

The Hydrogen Facility cannot be built without hollowing out our water table to do it. Wells are already running dry, global warming is rapidly worsening, and New Mexico is in a historic megadrought with town after town declaring severe water shortages.

The cold, hard fact is that the climate in New Mexico has changed to aridification. Climate change is real. 

In fact, in 2022, The New Mexico Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force concluded that the state faces ‘a dire 750,000 acre-foot water shortage over the next 50 years due to climate change and higher temperatures.’

Given this statewide study—and the recognition of the lack of water New Mexico is facing—the Hydrogen Facility should never have been proposed in 2022.

The study goes on to say that, driven by rising temperatures, shrinking snowpack, and chronic over-pumping, the state’s renewable water supplies are projected to decline by 25% to 30%, threatening communities, agriculture, and ecosystems. 

Temperatures across New Mexico are expected to rise 3 to 7 degrees higher than normal, severely reducing surface runoff and natural aquifer recharge. This is already happening.

In light of this new reality, the Questa Hydrogen Facility should not be constructed—it should be cancelled.

A responsible stewardship of the environment, and the future of the community, would recognize this new reality and make the right decisions not to go forward with the Hydrogen Facility–but instead–ensure that future generations in Questa will be protected and be given the opportunity to thrive.

DOE Again Denies Access to DNFSB at Nuclear Weapons Facilities; Contact Your Elected Officials

Once again, the Department of Energy and its semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration has denied the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board access to nuclear weapons facilities, including at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  At a time when LANL is ramping up production of plutonium pits, the triggers for nuclear weapons, the DOE is restricting access to the Board and its resident inspectors preventing them from fulfilling critical oversight and public reporting responsibilities.  As a result, the public is no longer informed about potential issues of adequate protection at defense nuclear facilities.

The Board provides oversight of DOE and is independent in the execution of its mission.  It is part of the Executive Branch of government. 

Further, the five-member Board has been eviserated because neither the recent Democratic nor Republican administrations have filled positions on the Board. Currently there is one Board member, which means the Board cannot issue formal recommendations without a quorum – all to the detriment of the public.

The Board is governed by the Atomic Energy Act which requires that the Energy Secretary “shall fully cooperate with the Board and provide prompt and unfettered access to such facilities, personnel, and information as the Board considers necessary to carry out its responsibilities.”  

Based upon a lack of jurisdiction argument, DOE falsely claims that it has the authority to deny the Board access to facilities, personnel and information among other improper denials – again, all to the detriment of the public. 

Senator Martin Heinrich: 202 224-5521
Senator Ben Ray Lujan: 202 224-6621
Representative Melanie Stansbury: 202 225-6316
Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez: 202 225-6190
Representative Gabe Vasquez: 202 225-2365

Get all the details at nuclearactive.org

By KAY MATTHEWS

A group of about 20 people went on the forestry tour of the work being done in the Vallecitos/Chamisal area by leñeros and local contractors as part of the Rio de Las Trampas Watershed Planning Project. We started at the leñero 56-acre site near the Transfer Station, which is managed by the Las Trampas Land Grant.

The first stop was in largely ponderosa pine, which was thinned to favor the larger trees with clumps of juniper left for wildlife. The leñeros are required to take all of the woody material down to a diameter of three inches. The resulting slash is lopped and scattered along the ground for future treatment with a masticator. This is an alternative to burning that is being implemented in both the leñero and contractor sites. The Rio de Las Trampas Watershed Planning Project that oversees the thinning and provides the funding,* determined that using a masticator is actually more cost effective than burning. There are downsides with masticating, however: it essentially moves fuels around and can suppress slow burning embers if a fire does move through the area. But community people have long expressed their fears of prescribed burning, so mastication is the preferred alternative

Leñero unit of ponderosa pine

The second stop was in another ponderosa pine area thinned by the contractor Conley’s Lumber Mill, based in Española. The company contracted the project to another company that hired immigrant labor from Michoacan. J.R. Logan, who oversees the contractors, said they had done excellent work. The contractor was paid $1,400 to thin—the same prescription as the leñero site—and $800 an acre to pile the slash. The slash will also be masticated. The wood is left on the ground for the community to gather.

Ponderosa pine contractor site

Priscilla Lopez, asistente; Doug North, mayordomo; Wilbert Rodriguez; Rachel Bean, Forest Stewards Guld; Arnold Lopez, Las Trampas Land Grant

Doug North and Priscilla Lopez, mayordomo and asistente of the leñero project, encourage people to come get the firewood.

The third stop was also in a ponderosa pine contracted area (Wood Sharks) but has a different prescription. Here an initial entry leaves 200 trees per acre with a pattern of six or seven clumped trees with clearings in between. The contractor is making wind rows of the slash piles that will be burned by the Forest Service. The cost of this contract is $3,000 per acre for everything. There will need to be maintenance entries every five to ten years.

J.R. Logan, Taos Soil and Water Conservation District; Judy Goldberg, recording; Peggy De’Scoville, State Forestry

The fourth stop was in another leñero site, this time of predominantly piñon/juniper. Here the prescription also calls for clumped stands where the natural root system exists. This provides for wildlife cover as well as open space for grass growth and snow accumulation in the winter. The slash will be masticated, except for some that will be spread out along the access road. Everyone on the tour agreed that this made much more sense than the kind of Wildland/Urban/Interface (WUI) thinning along the highway and was aesthetically more pleasing.

Piñon/Juniper leñero site

There are many more acres of piñon/juniper in the project area. Approximately 40 more are slated for leñeros while project managers will determine how the rest should be treated or  left alone. Caron National Forest Planner Peter Rich was on the tour and explained that in Forest Service terms, piñon/juniper is treated with WUI mandates as demonstrated by the thinning along SH 76, while ponderosa pine is treated as forest restoration. In terms of fire suppression, total fire suppression in piñon/juniper is mandated because of its high severity burn capabilities, while ponderosa pine has a better chance for “managed fire” because of the possibility of low intensity, on-the-ground burns. This led to a discussion of whether there can be any “managed fire,” or what is colloquially referred to as “let it burn.” In the conditions that exist today—extreme drought exacerbated by no winter snowfall, megafires, and an ever increasing climate crisis—the protocol is essentially total suppression. In a situation such as the current Frijoles Fire, which is burning uncontrolled in the Pecos Wilderness, suppression amounts to air drops and fire breaks along the borders of the adjacent communities.

* Partners include the Rio de Las Trampas Forest Council, the Carson National Forest, Taos County, Forest Stewards Guild, Taos Soil and Water Conservation District, State Forestry, and Ecotone Landscape Planning.

 

On August 11, a quorum of the Questa City Council, minus the absent Mayor John Ortego, called for a special meeting within 72 hours to address Kit Carson Electric Cooperative’s proposed hydrogen plant and solar array. Mayor Ortega, an employee of KCEC, has been accused of approving the hydrogen project, and the funding to support it, without oversight or approval of the City Council. Council members had been trying for months to get the project on the agenda and to meet with KCEC without support from the mayor.

Work on the project has been ongoing despite the fact that the Council doesn’t know if a proper County work permit has been issued and has never seen the United States Department of Agriculture’s application that supports the project (a FOIA request for all pertinent USDA information has been submitted). The Council never approved the $20 million that funds the solar array, where work has also begun. At one point Councilor Daryl Ortega, after questioning how the Questa city attorneys had failed to ascertain if KCEC had obtained a permit for the project, announced in frustration: “Without a permit this project needs to be shut down!” The crowd erupted in applause.

When the meeting was opened for public comment, Honorio Justin Rael, the law school student and Questa native who wrote the complaint filed by Questa acequias against the USDA’s approval of the hydrogen project, had this to say:

[T]onight I want to talk about some internal controls based on my 11,000-page IPRA [Inspection of Public Records]. So I reviewed the entire thing, and one thing has become crystal clear to me about the Village of Questa.

The people who make decisions for this town do not sit on that board. It is the Questa Economic Development Fund. The Questa Economic Development Fund is an independent Chevron-funded nonprofit partner, but they are not an elected governing body.

Yet their agendas are probably four times the size of any agenda I’ve seen from this village. And you know how we’ve never gotten any updates on what’s going on with this project? Well, they get monthly detailed updates from the mayor. Last year, they made teams to complete the zoning ordinance that allowed this project to move forward without a project-specific vote.

They made a team to develop a communication strategy concerning the project using the Questa del Rio News. And they’ve discussed ways that village meetings can be controlled to limit public backlash. The point being that an advisory board has been formulating zoning, public communications, lobbying grants, major financing strategies, and the public access to its own government with basically zero input from the village council.

The $20 million grant makes this problem concrete. Now, I’ve never heard of this, but on February 1st, the mayor submitted an ECAM [Energy Conservation and Management] grant on behalf of the Village of Questa. He requested approximately $35.2 million. And the application stated that the public funding would be used exclusively for infrastructure owned by KCEC. Then the people funding the grant, ENMRD, notified the mayor that Questa had received a reduced partial $20 million award. Kit Carson then told the mayor, quote, seems you only have to approve that you accept this partial $20 million and then we are good to go. All the other steps are the standard contracting that we can work through.

Kit Carson treated the acceptance of a $20 million grant as something that the mayor could approve alone, after which Kit Carson would handle the rest. Was there a resolution approving this application or accepting the award? No.

Now, who will own the infrastructure? Nobody knows. Who is responsible for compliance, repayment, or a potential claw-back? I’m asking you to put some guardrails on the Questa Economic Development Fund. Make it clear to them that they can advise and assist, but they may not represent the village, formulate final policy, or commit village resources without council authority.

La Jicarita will let readers know when the Questa City Council special meeting will be held once it’s determined.