August 1, 2010: WBHA letter to Congresswoman Bono-Mack

The determination included in the DOJ letter remains consistent with the position asserted by the Department of the Interior since the infamous '69 Secretarial Order. However, there are gross deceptions and distortion of facts that I would like to address here. The single most offensive factual distortion in the letter is the contention that the '69 Secretarial Order established a meander line western boundary for the full 25 miles of "west bank" from Riverside Mountain to the La Paz Arroyo. The fact is that Secretary Udall only used the Benson Survey for the northern 2/3 of the western boundary. The southern 1/3 (8 miles) is not the meander line, not the Benson Survey, but riparian according to the Dept. of the Interior. The reason for this deception is explained below.

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