The Utton Center at The University of New Mexico School of Law is hosting a series of community meetings beginning this week to discuss the Aamodt water-rights settlement and what it means to Pojoaque Valley residents.

The meetings are organized by the center's Joe Stell Ombudsman Program and will give residents an opportunity to question attorneys involved in the water-rights case. Settlement Judge Michael Nelson will attend the meetings.

Darcy Bushnell, director of the Stell Ombudsman Program, said Santa Fe County officials requested help setting up the meetings after a county poll showed many respondents didn't understand the settlement. In addition, New Mexico's congressional delegation asked for the meetings in light of legislation pending in Congress regarding the Aamodt settlement.

Bushnell said her staff members "explain process and provide information to people so they can make educated choices. We do not give legal advice."

Aamodt is a decades-old case involving the water claims of four pueblos and the non-Indian residents in the Pojoaque basin north of Santa Fe. The pueblos, the state and other entities reached a settlement agreement in the case a couple of years ago. But some non-Indian, private well owners in the valley never stopped protesting the terms of the settlement.

The meetings organized by the Utton Center "have been organized with the explicit goal of providing an opportunity for local folks to ask whatever is on their minds in small, local settings where they can have adequate face time with those who know the ins and outs of Aamodt's history and the trajectory of the settlement," said Melanie A. Stansbury, a Cornell University doctoral candidate in sociology, who's helping with the meetings. Stansbury has been meeting with various parties in the Aamodt case for two years and is working on a book about the case. Water-rights cases are always contentious, especially those involving Indian claims, she said. "In some ways, parties in Aamodt are behaving in a much more civilized manner than in similar cases in other water basins," she said.

She said people who have continued to question the Aamodt settlement "seem to have some legitimate concerns over how the settlement was reached and how they were or were not represented," she said. "There seems to have been a real disconnect between people doing the negotiations and trying to resolve problems, and the people who are raising questions."

The meetings are all scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. at the following locations:

• Today, Santa Fe County Pojoaque Satellite Office, near Pojoaque grocery store
• Thursday, Nambé Head Start
• Tuesday, Pojoaque Parish Hall
• March 3, El Rancho Community Center; March 9, Pojoaque Parish Hall; March 10, Santa Fe County Pojoaque Satellite Office; March 16, Nambé Head Start; March 24, Santa Fe County Pojoaque Satellite Office

Santa Fe County is sponsoring the meetings and paying for them. Space is limited. Residents can call to reserve space at 877-775-8333 or 505-277-0551. Bushnell said she would arrange other meetings if the community requests them.

To learn more about Aamodt, visit the State Engineer's Office Web site at http://www.ose.state.nm.us/, current events, and click on "Aamodt information."

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


Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the day a meeting would be held at the Nambe Head Start. The text was corrected at 10:15 a.m., Feb. 24, 2010