44th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first special session, 1999

REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF RECLAMATION TO PRIVATIZE ALL LEASE LOTS ON ELEPHANT BUTTE AND CABALLO RESERVOIRS.

WHEREAS, the United States bureau of reclamation is preparing a resource management plan for the conservation, protection, development, use, enhancement and management of land and other resources associated with Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs; and

WHEREAS, a major public concern is the future management of four hundred three lease lots at the lakes, and leaseholders have expressed their desire to purchase the lots; and

WHEREAS, the current bureau of reclamation plan is to privatize three hundred sixty-six of the lots; and

WHEREAS, exclusion of thirty-seven of the lots has caused a great deal of concern by those leaseholders; and

WHEREAS, the excluded lots comprise only fifteen acres of the total area of the two state parks and only a small percentage of the two hundred miles of shoreline available for public use; and

WHEREAS, there is no impediment to the public use of any of the shoreline adjacent to any of the thirty-seven lots; and

WHEREAS, there is an abundance of land available for public recreational development, and there is no need to remove leaseholders who have developed and nurtured the lands they have occupied; and

WHEREAS, many of the excluded lease lots are on slopes and terrain unsuitable for public use and do not meet the criteria for recreational development;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the United States bureau of reclamation be requested to recommend privatization of all the lease lots on Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs without exception; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the United States bureau of reclamation and to the New Mexico congressional delegation.