In a move hailed by environmentalists and nearby landowners, New Mexico’s top water-rights official has dismissed as speculative a company’s application to tap billions of gallons of groundwater from a closed basin deep beneath the Plains of San Agustin in western New Mexico.The denial is the latest twist in the 11-year quest by Augustin Plains Ranch LLC to siphon off 54,000 acre-feet, or 17.6 billion gallons, of water annually and pipe it to as-yet-undetermined communities in Central and Northern New Mexico.Douglas Meiklejohn, executive director of the Santa Fe-based New Mexico Environmental Law Center and a pro-bono lead attorney for those opposing what they see as a speculative and potentially harmful project that includes international investors, says it is “by far the largest” groundwater-rights request in state history, though a spokeswoman for the Office of the State Engineer could not confirm that.By comparison, Albuquerque-area residents use about 30 billion gallons a year.In his denial of the application, a hearing examiner in State Engineer Tom Blaine’s office denounced the “striking absence of information” in the applicants’ description of the water’s end use, citing New Mexico law that prohibits water speculation and requires water rights be put to a beneficial use.No municipalities in the seven counties listed as potential customers have signed contracts to purchase the water rights, and only one, the city of Rio Rancho, has indicated an interest in potentially striking a deal.“All (the ranch) has established is that it wants to appropriate and convey water to uncommitted municipalities or entities in unknown quantities,” the decision reads.