A proposed private pipeline that would bring water to Santa Fe from Fort Sumner hit a roadblock this week when the Office of the State Engineer denied permission for a change in water rights.

State Engineer John D'Antonio announced Wednesday that he turned down an application from Berrendo LLC a day earlier because it was "vague and overbroad."

Roswell businessman Ron Green and partners wanted to transfer water rights formerly used in agriculture in the Pecos River drainage area for use in Santa Fe County and cities in the middle Rio Grande region. Their plans included a 150-mile pipeline that would climb nearly 4,000 feet in elevation.

The partnership submitted an application in February 2009 to change the place and purpose of use for the 6,600 consumptive acre-feet from its wells in De Baca County near Fort Sumner.

"While I appreciate the applicant's vision to augment water supplies to the fastest growing area of the state, this application lacked specificity in a number of key areas making it difficult to evaluate impairment or whether granting it would be contrary to conservation or detrimental to the public welfare," D'Antonio wrote in a statement to the media.

His decision came after protests from water users in Chaves and Eddy counties, the cities of Artesia and Roswell, the towns of Hagerman and Dexter, the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, the state land commissioner, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District and among others.

Protesters argued that the drawdown of water could impact individual wells and would have an adverse impact on agriculture in the area, according to the state engineer's announcement. Endangered-species protection was also at issue.

The next step for Berrendo might be to appeal the decision in District Court. Neither Green nor his attorney, John Draper, could be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Officials with the city of Santa Fe have discussed the project, including whether they would try to buy some of its water, but said they would only support it if the Fort Sumner-area governments also agreed.

The state spent tens of millions of dollars — and dried thousands of acres in the Pecos River Valley — to ensure that New Mexico sends an agreed-upon amount of water down the river to Texas.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.