Española businessman Richard Cook appears to be making a bid to drill deep-water wells on his land west of Santa Fe near Las Campanas.

A notice of intent to drill four wells — at least 2,500-feet deep — on private land off N.M. 599 near the state Department of Game and Fish offices, was filed with the state engineer this month and published in The New Mexican March 9.

Each well could pump up to 25,000 acre-feet of water — billions of gallons — annually.

The Caja del Rio Partnership, the company that filed the notice, is not registered with the Public Regulation Commission.

The address provided on the drilling notice, however, matches the address for other PRC-registered businesses and county-recorded properties belonging to Richard P. Cook. Cook owns several other registered businesses in real estate, mining, concrete and construction.

A company with a similar name — Caja Del Rio, LLC — is registered with the state commission but is listed as inactive, with no address given.

Cook did not return calls to his home or office seeking comment.

The notice is among a slew of similar ones filed with the state engineer in the last year as developers seek to secure a relatively unregulated new source of water around the state. Deep aquifers beginning 2,500 feet below the surface or deeper, and containing brackish water, can be pumped without a permit from the state engineer. Developers had ignored the water until recently because it was undrinkable. Modern technology for treating salty water to drinking water standards, coupled with the rising value of water, has companies interested in tapping the deep aquifers.

House Bill 19, which gives the state engineer more control over deep aquifers, passed the Senate on Thursday and is awaiting the governor's signature. Companies that have already filed notices will likely have their right to drill grandfathered in.

Six other companies have filed notices of intent to drill deep wells in Santa Fe County on state trust land. All are listed as limited liability companies and are represented by the same Albuquerque attorney, Michelle Henrie, but she said those companies have declined to disclose their names.

Dallas Rippy, assistant commissioner of renewable energy and commercial resources at the State Land Office, said often his office only knows the names of the attorney or other representatives of companies that lease resources on state trust lands. If they do find out the names of company owners, those are not usually in the written record, he said.

For the parcel linked to Cook, the County Assessor's Office could find no property tax record for the land. In addition, the county mapping department said the parcel didn't appear on its maps.

The County Clerk's Office found a deed dated March 2008 that transferred the 301-acre parcel from Louis Gonzales, who owns several other tracts of land in the county, to the Caja del Rio Partnership.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.