Judge O. John Kuenhold has given the people working on the rules for the Valley’s first groundwater management sub-district another week to come up with a solution for protecting senior rights holders and other items specified in his ruling earlier this year. Here’s a report from Ruth Heide writing for the Valley Courier. From the article:
The modified plan went out to objectors on Friday afternoon. The attorneys said they had not had time between Friday afternoon and Monday afternoon’s status conference to review the changes in the plan, so Judge Kuenhold gave them another week, until Monday, May 4. In the meantime he asked the parties to discuss among themselves whether they could agree or disagree on the changes to the plan. Kuenhold has scheduled an August trial in the event the parties do not agree. Attorney Ingrid Barrier who has been working with the sub-district board to modify its plan told the judge she sent out draft changes on Friday including copies of appendixes addressing annual replacements, the well data base and sub-district efforts to document how it will calculate credits. She encouraged other attorneys to contact her with any questions or concerns. She added that the sub-district board is on a short time schedule to get its plan adopted and finalized by the June deadline set by the court. “We are galloping toward that,” she said.