By Mary Alice Murphy

Although facilitator Rosemary Romero said at the beginning of the meeting on the Regional Water Plan on Wednesday, May 11, 2016, that it would be the final meeting, after questions and discussions, it became obvious that things remained to be completed.

Joanne Hilton, who serves as a contract hydrologist for the Interstate Stream Commission on the multi-region planning process to build input into a State Water Plan, said: "If we find need of further discussion, we can come back, if needed, in June."

She said the overview of the plan had been released and received comment. "We are in the process of finalizing it to go to the ISC for acceptance."

"The state created, in its technical sections, consistent criteria to be used across the 16 regions," Hilton said. "We have been addressing comments as to whether they were relevant to each region. You will get a revised copy, although the ISC is still reviewing comments."

Allyson Siwik of the Gila Resources Information Project noted that the ISC had received a lot of comments from the environmental sector, which dug through the data and went through it in minute detail. "We'll see how the ISC handles the comments."

Hilton said she has seen a summary of the comments. "The ISC will come back with changes and with a memo to each region."

"There has been no talking to the Steering Committee, but the ISC will decide and that's that," Siwik said.

Romero said the consolidated comments are in a single document that she can send the draft of, based on the ISC's criteria.

"Can we make comments on the comments?" Siwik asked. "We recognize the Gila diversion is controversial and will be dealt with in the Gila process.

"We have strong concerns because the document is written in a biased way to support the diversion," Siwik said. "Yes, we would like another meeting in June. It's very selective and not fair to our citizens. It's not objective; it's biased. I think we need a discussion in June."

Hilton said the same methodology is being used for the Southwest Regional Water Plan as everywhere else in the state. "We will got back to the program director to determine how best to address this concern."

Siwik said the technical data was flawed.

Ty Bays, representing Freeport-McMoRan on the Steering Committee said he had found false statements in the summary of comments. He said No. 29 alleged Freeport was trying to "get out from under a lease of water form the Starks Wellfield, because no one wanted to buy the 3,000 acre-feet of available water."
"That is no longer true," Bays continued. "We have 63,000 acre-feet of water rights and are using 70 percent of our water rights. Not all to the mine. Some is leased to area livestock producers. We are running full bore at Chino and in some cases, using 100 percent of our rights."

Another comment said copper was about $2 a pound. "It's actually today at $2.15. Analysts are not predicting it will go down farther for the next decade."

A comment said that Cobre Mine is still closed and has not reopened. "Cobre Mine is in the process of permitting to reopen," Bays said.

Bays said a comment alleged that the Tyrone Mine had shut down. "Tyrone Mine is active and has not shut down. A comment also says that Freeport laid off more than 200 people. That's not true. We laid off 43 and many others took early retirement.

Siwik said much of her data was taken from an AMEC report from 2010, based on 2009 numbers.

Romero said the ISC staff researches to make sure data is accurate.

"If you through the process and if you find things that are not factual, will we get a report on those findings?" Marilyn Alcorn, representing the Southwest New Mexico Food Policy Council, asked.

"It sounds like we need a more comprehensive memo," Hilton said.

Romero confirmed that the ISC is not taking things at face value. "They will look at factual aspects."

"Because it's controversial, I think it's important to have the comment that the Steering Committee support for the Gila diversion is mixed, with some strong supporters and some strong opposition," Alcorn said. "If the ISC has signed off, we need to get the real facts out there."

Bays confirmed that the Stark water rights are leased. "We cannot sell something we do not own. We are not trying to sell other people's water rights."

He said he agreed that the support for the Gila diversion is mixed. "It's factual, but it waters down a lot of projects."

Siwik said people had different reasons for opposition, "but everyone agrees that the regional water supply will provide water to 90 percent of county residents."

Bays said he also had an issue with the education project, "because it's a waste of money. I also think the Twin Sisters effluent project is too much money."

After more discussion, Alcorn suggested the earlier use of the word "collaboration" shouldn't be there.

Bays agreed because he said if the project were taken out, it would be disenfranchising a lot of people who support it. "It's better to strike the word collaboration."

Siwik also noted that the documents give two different names for the regional water supply, and the proper name is the Grant County Regional Water Supply Project.

Priscilla Lucero, who as Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments executive director, has served as the chair of the Steering Committee, said she had seen other inconsistencies.

Siwik also questioned the language of declining groundwater supplies, as some areas have seen increases. "Why are we not seeing groundwater recovery, as it's an important issue to highlight?"

Robert Esqueda, Silver City Utilities director, asked why the projects weren't listed by ranking.

"We decided not to prioritize," Hilton said. "Not everyone has been here every time. We will put a statement to show they are not ranked."

Bays said the rest of the community will read the document and will look at the top ones as recommended ones.

Lucero noted that the Steering Committee list needed to be updated.

Siwik noted that the ISC allocated $3 million to water conservation, and by application, several entities across the four counties had received funding for that purpose, depleting the amount set aside.

Alcorn pointed out that at the recent New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity, the proposed budget had set aside $850,000 to pre-bank water for a future diversion.

Lucero said in Columbus, they are doing a preliminary engineering report on U.S.-Mexico border groundwater management. "In some border areas, the master plans may be incomplete. The Border Authority is the contact for that project."

Esqueda asked for a clarification of the recharge water credits. "The return flow credits came to the town from an application to the Office of the State Engineer. They will be put toward the Hurley project. AWSA funded $2.1 million for that project."

Lucero said she would update several projects. For instance, the COG provides training to local governments on rainwater harvesting. Bayard has a water quality protection plan, and so does Santa Clara.

"Silver City has a draft that we need to complete," Esqueda said.

Siwik said a new group, Silver City Watershed Keepers, is working on watershed protection and is an educational resource.

Carolyn Koury of the Gila National Forest said in the Gila Wilderness the New Mexico Environment Department had designated outstanding national resource waters in about 2008. "We've also done a lot of mine clean up on the forest and have been fencing riparian areas."

Siwik said the San Vicente tailings had been cleaned up.

Bays asked that the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District be put as a partner under watershed management for its enhancement projects.

Esqueda asked to add funding to address septic systems.

Lucero said Lordsburg has a water conservation plan. "I could get you a list of municipalities doing water loss planning."

Siwik said, in industrial conservation, the Deming wastewater effluent was going to the power plant. She added that the regional pipeline of the water supply project would be doing adaptive work to rest the other municipal well fields.

Esqueda said the water supply project would supplement each community's water supply. "They will be able to purchase the water and ultimately we can draw water from that well field (at the airport)."

Hilton said there was still a chance for edits to the project, programs and policies document. "The PPP is sorted by county."

Lucero suggested they be sorted by project lead on the left, because there were inconsistencies with some under Grant County actually being Catron County projects.

Romero said the purpose of the list is to be eligible for Water Trust Board funding.

Hilton said she was hearing they should be sorted by project lead. "We can also sort by source. There is some redundancy. We left on the list all that were reported."

"It's not final yet," Romero said.

Siwik asked if costs were going to be totaled. Hilton said it would be hard because some were in ranges of costs. "We won't use the word collaborative, but we will say they are key projects. For the process for finalizing, does everyone want to meet again? We will make the edits and we will talk to the ISC on the comments. We have to have everything complete by the end of June. The schedule for this region will be in October for ISC acceptance. Who will be representatives to present it to the ISC? Ideally one should be an elected official."

Eileen Dodds of Catron County suggested that Anita Hand, Catron County commissioner, be one, and Lucero the other.

Hilton said the presenters would be part of a conference call a few weeks before. Romero said others in the group could listen in.

"Do you want to continue as a group," Hilton asked, "after the ISC facilitated process closes? Do you want to continue meeting as a Steering Committee?"

Romero noted that the COG took the lead, and its board already meets regularly.

"We need to retain the information and maintain the records," Lucero said.

"The master list can be updated," Romero said. "Leadership can still be discussed. In other regions, they have done memoranda of understanding. The COG sends out the applications."

"Will you want to meet regularly?" Hilton asked again. "The state water plan needs to be reviewed every five years. These regional water plans will inform the process for the state water plan."

Romero asked if the watershed subcommittee wanted to continue meeting.

Martha Cooper of The Nature Conservancy said Commissioner Gabe Ramos is the lead in the Eco-Watershed Committee. "I don't know if this one will continue. We provided a lot of information for this plan."

Lucero said she would provide a list of projects for acequias, which should include those of the Soil and Water Conservation districts. "I can give you what we have. We will stick with the ICIPs (Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plans) for 2016."

It was decided the group would meet for the final facilitated meeting on Thursday, June 9, from 1-4 p.m.

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