By Mary Alice Murphy

New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity Director Anthony Gutierrez gave a report on the proposed action to develop Arizona Water Settlements Act allocated water at the Grant County Commission work session on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016.

"I will talk about the proposed action the CAP Entity sent to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to get the National Environmental Policy Act process started," Gutierrez said.

Alternative 4, which involves a diversion and aquifer storage and recharge (ASR) in two phases, is the first part of the proposal.

"The ASR would require inundation of land to create wetlands," Gutierrez said. "We would divert near the Gila Gage when the water is at high stages and put it in the aquifer. The proposal is basically to slow down the water. We would inundate the floodplain so we can hold the water back a little longer."

He said farmers in the Gila Valley have problems in May, June and into July, with the river at low flow, when they most need irrigation.

"We would save the spring runoff for months when we need it most," Gutierrez said. "With the recent burn scars, the snowpack melts more quickly without the trees to shelter it, and it comes quickly."

The diversion proposed would use a Coanda screen, which would basically be a subsurface diversion. "We would have no real dam that would inhibit fish passage, for example. The second part of the first phase would be to have collection wells (called Ranney wells), which would provide additional infiltration areas to store water for the Virden Valley, where agriculture is even greater than in the Upper Gila Valley.

All the water in the Gila River right now, during irrigation season is in the ditches, so the river runs dry. "Agriculture is taking its rightful water, but we would use the collection wells to inject water directly into the ditches leaving water in the river."

Also part of Alternative 4 would be development of the Winn Reservoir, which would hold 3,500 to 4,000 acre-feet of water, about double the size of Bill Evans Lake.

"We can expand up the canyon by excavation to get up to 10,000 acre-feet of long-term storage," Gutierrez said.

"There is an immediate need for the farmers and the river to have water and a long-term need for water storage," he said. "The Virden Valley has rights to water the farmers are not able to access, so the storage would benefit the Upper and Lower Gila valleys."

Phase 2 of Alternative 4 would be delivery of water from the diversion site near the Gila Gage to Winn Reservoir. It includes a gravity-feed concept, which would fill the reservoir to about 70 percent full.

"The diversion is the building block to any of the aspects of this proposed action," Gutierrez said. "It doesn't create an impact to the ecology. We are focusing on that."

Another part of the proposal includes Alternative 1, which has the same diversion point at the Gila Gage. "It takes water to Spar Canyon by pipeline conveyance. It would be partially gravity feed, but pumping would be required to fill Spar Reservoir, which can hold about 45,000 acre-feet, about 15 times the size of Bill Evans Lake. The Arizona Water Settlements Act and the Consumptive Use and Forbearance Act allows for up to 60,000 acre-feet of storage. In this reservoir, we can store a lot for municipal use."

The rest of the proposed action includes improvements to existing diversion infrastructure in Redrock and Virden.

In addition, the proposal includes 17 diversions on the San Francisco River, where water could be captured at high flows into on-farm storage ponds during high flood stage. The water would be primarily for agricultural use.

Gutierrez gave a brief overview of costs. "We wanted to pay for the first phase with money we have on hand. The cost of $84 million includes $28 million in indirect costs and a 50 percent contingency. This money will pay for the building blocks of developing water in the Gila-San Francisco basins."

He said during the NEPA scoping phase, alternatives could be added or subtracted. "We have a huge push for non-diversion alternatives, but we would have to change the JPA language."

"In Phase 2 the amount of water taken out of flows increases by 6,000 acre-feet, because the infrastructure will already be there," Gutierrez said. "We can do Phase 2 or 3 with the original Phase 1. They are designed to fit together."

Gutierrez noted the same diversion, same pumps and same Ranney wells work with every phase.

"The phases may not be needed for 50 years," he said. "We want to make sure we have sustainable water for all four counties."

He said he had been in preliminary negotiations on Bill Evan Lake, speaking with Freeport on recharge of the Mimbres system using existing infrastructure.

In spite of Silver City being opposed to a diversion, a Balleau (an engineering firm) report talks about the need for recharge. "The regional water system, which links communities from Hurley to Tyrone, identifies a diversion to do recharge of the Silver City well fields."

"We need a balance of surface water, groundwater and mining water, plus conservation to meet needs," Gutierrez said. "Since the hold harmless funding is going away, with conservation, it decreases the amount of water being provided by Silver City, which decreases the town's revenue."

In the overall scope, Gutierrez said a lot of conservation practices could be done. "I'm seeing a lot of water harvesting. Van Clothier is promoting putting that water into the aquifer."

Gutierrez said putting structures alongside roadways could cause roadways to fail. "It's difficult to replace roads. Our infrastructure is not built for that sort of things. A lot of planning is needed."

He noted that New Mexico has been letting a lot of water go to Arizona. "The CAP Entity has been identified as not being financially responsible. But my computations on the value of the water that has gone to Arizona over the past 50 years is at least $264 million."

Gutierrez also said that a senior water right in Arizona is set aside for New Mexico, but can't be accessed by the state because it's in San Carlos Reservoir. "We're trying to negotiate in Arizona that value to use in New Mexico. We are building the building blocks and attempting to get revenue to use for other projects. If we can identify a revenue source in recharge and with Arizona, we'll have revenue forever."

Commissioner Gabriel Ramos thanked Gutierrez: "I appreciate your bringing the truth forward and to getting the cost analysis told."

Commissioner Ron Hall asked what would come next in the process.

"We are entering into the preliminary NEPA and then the notice of intent," Gutierrez replied. "The deadline to be complete is December 2019. A lot more engineering needs to be done. If you look along the river, there will not be a dam on the river. We are trying to do the diversion with little impact."

Commission Chairman Brett Kasten asked if the infiltration area was on private or government land.

"Some is on The Nature Conservancy land, which has an agreement with the state of New Mexico," Gutierrez said. "We are trying to work through the language, but building wetlands is not doing anything detrimental to the ecology. Then there is some Forest Service land and some private land, as well as more state of New Mexico land. A pipeline underground would have temporary impact, but then none."

"The infiltration would get the water to more slowly dry the river or would it stay in the river?" Kasten asked.

"The collector wells will deliver water to ag, but would also keep water in the river," Gutierrez said.

Kasten asked if Phase 1 could be stand alone, if no more funding were available.

"Yes, for agriculture, but not for municipal use," Gutierrez said. "A New Mexico State University study identifies potential crops that could increase economic development up to $5.2 million annually. I think what we have proposed is beneficial for agriculture, southwest New Mexico and for the economy. Long-term Spar could provide water for municipal use, although Winn could not. It's on the wrong side of the river. Spar could be linked to Bill Evans Lake to use infrastructure to the Mimbres Basin."

Kasten asked if all the water would be AWSA water.

"Once it goes through NEPA and once the infrastructure is in place, the water can be used for adjudicated water; Globe Decree water, which is now in the San Carlos Reservoir, but is for Virden; and for AWSA water," Gutierrez said.

"If we can deliver water for longer periods of time, there is a huge benefit," he continued. "That water can be used for any water use."

The rest of the meeting will be covered in a future article.