NM CAP Entity hears presentations and addresses authorization for design of a diversion, part 1

Editor's Note: This is part 1 of the New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity meeting on Tuesday, March 1.

By Mary Alice Murphy
For www.grantcountybeat.com 

The New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity met on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at the Grant County Administration Center to discuss and approve items on a long agenda, which included an executive session.

The agenda was approved with a change, moving an item to the front of the agenda, so that the newly selected Grant County representative could vote on items requiring approval. The entity had received the Grant County Commission resolution to replace Commission Chairman Brett Kasten, as the representative, with Commissioner Gabriel Ramos, and the alternate, Anthony Gutierrez, with County Manager Charlene Webb.

Kasten was unable to attend the meetings at the time set in the Open Meetings Act resolution by the entity, and Gutierrez had been named NM CAP Entity director.

During public input, Allyson Siwik, Gila Conservation Coalition executive director, said on her way to the meeting, she remembered a comment made by CAP Entity member Howard Hutchinson at the last meeting. He said: "Now that we're in control, rather than the ISC (Interstate Stream Commission), there will be more transparency."

"From the public point of view, we're not hearing any more," she said. She alleged items were decided in committees and the information was not brought out in public meetings. "The Bureau of Reclamation in its Value Study, said a project would cost $800,000 to $1 billion. I was surprised to learn that Deborah Dixon, the ISC director, had communicated to the ISC about the project configuration. That was not done in a public meeting. It reminded me of the violation of the OMA, when the Gila/San Francisco Water Commission brought the G.K. Baume proposal for financing and approved it without any public comment.

"I would like to know today, what was communicated to the ISC," Siwik said.

Donna Stevens, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance executive director, talked about Senate Bill 248, which "instructed the ISC to provide $13 million to the Regional Water Supply project. I attended the Conservation Committee meeting. Many spoke in favor of the bill. The only ones against it were the ISC and the CAP Entity." The bill was introduced in the recently concluded New Mexico legislative session, but died in committee.

"The ISC distribution of funding is highly inequitable," Stephens alleged. "Deming got 98 percent of its project paid for. The Gila Basin Irrigation Commission got 70 percent, but the Grant County Water Commission got only 14 percent of its requested funding for the Regional Water Supply project.

"It can be done immediately and does not foreclose the building of a diversion," she said. "The ISC and CAP Entity do not prioritize furnishing water to southwest New Mexico and are fixated on a diversion."

Gerald Schultz of the New Mexico Natural Resource Conservation and Development projects spoke on the subject of public involvement. "The CAP Entity has created a necessary Finance Committee, a necessary Technical Committee, and a potential NEPA Committee to accomplish tasks that the Entity needs to make decisions. While a Public Involvement Committee would not operate exactly as these other ones, it would also be made up of Entity members whose task would be, for example, to craft informational releases to the public as if it was one person speaking rather than each Entity member speaking to the public about what is happening."

He continued: "Organizations like the Entity should seek out the public and present information to them, not for the public to try and find out what is going on. There should be periodic public information meetings, not for just a few people to show up at these meetings and pass information on by word of mouth. The Entity cannot rely solely on the media to keep the public informed; the media doesnG