{"id":2798,"date":"2019-12-21T10:26:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-21T17:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2019-12-21T10:30:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T17:30:36","slug":"department-of-interior-denies-extension-for-gila-river-diversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/department-of-interior-denies-extension-for-gila-river-diversion\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News: Department of Interior denies extension for Gila River diversion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Immediate Release<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 20, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact: Allyson Siwik, Executive Director, Gila Conservation Coalition<\/p>\n\n\n\n

575.590.7619 cell; allysonsiwik@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department of Interior denies request for extension of Gila diversion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NM CAP Entity loses access to $50 million to build harmful project<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, the Department of Interior denied the NM CAP Entity\u2019s request for an extension of the deadline for a Record of Decision on the Gila River diversion, cutting off access to more than $50 million in construction funding for the project that would harm New Mexico\u2019s last wild river and take money away from local communities with critical water supply needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter from the Department of Interior<\/a> states \u201cThe slow pace of progress by the State since the passage of the Act shows a lack of urgency and priority by the State for delivering water supplies to rural communities that could be served by the project. Even today, a feasible project with necessary funding and contractual commitments has not been identified to enable project success. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that due to the State’s failure to make progress, an extension of the deadline identified in Section 212(i) of the Act will not be granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is great news,\u201d said Todd Schulke, Senior Staff with the Center for Biological Diversity.  \u201cPlanning for a Gila River diversion under the Arizona Water Settlements Act has gone on for 15 years and wasted $15 million without producing plans for a viable project.  It\u2019s well past time to move on and focus our attention and the tens of millions of dollars in AWSA funding on priority community water projects that can bring real water security to everyone in southwest New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Martin Heinrich, Senator Tom Udall, and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham all have supported protection of the Gila River and use of AWSA funding on cost-effective, non-diversion projects.  Additionally, they opposed an extension of the AWSA deadline for the diversion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really appreciate the hard work of our senators and Governor Lujan Grisham to protect the Gila River. What a great holiday gift this is to people who care about the Gila!\u201d stated Allyson Siwik, director of the Gila Conservation Coalition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Immediate Release December 20, 2019 Contact: Allyson Siwik, Executive Director, Gila Conservation Coalition 575.590.7619 cell; allysonsiwik@gmail.com Department of Interior denies request for extension of Gila diversion NM CAP Entity loses access to $50 million to build harmful project On Friday, the Department of Interior denied the NM CAP Entity\u2019s request for an extension of the deadline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,36,7],"tags":[66,67,9],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-59","category-press","category-welcome","tag-diversion","tag-extension","tag-gila-river","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gilaconservation.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}