The Grant County Water Commission met Thursday afternoon in a brief meeting before going into executive session to discuss “the purchase, acquisition or disposal of real property or water rights.”

Hurley village Councilor Richard Maynes said a test well had been drilled on property owned by the town of Silver City, which has been offered to Hurley, because the village owns no water rights.

“We got a good test from the well,” Maynes reported. “We got about 200 gallons a minute.”

He said the well was approved by the Rural Utilities Service, and Hurley is awaiting New Mexico Environment Department approval.

“We want to tie the well field into Hurley and then into Bayard and Santa Clara,” Maynes said. “We want to regionalize it.”

He said he could not remember the exact cost, but it was in the $17 million to $20 million range.

“Would the rest of entities be interested in going into regionalization?”Maynes asked. “If it were just to Hurley, where there would be fewer beneficiaries, it would be hard to get all the funding.”

Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown said if Hurley stands alone, “there's no way, RUS would fund it, but if it were turned into a regional project, there would be a much better chance to fund all of you. Tie the storage facilities together, but each entity would maintain its own distribution system.”

Bayard Mayor Charles Kelly said the concept is good.

“We're interested, but we need to talk money. Bayard is in debt up to here for the wastewater system,” Kelly said.

Brown said the regionalization would also be beneficial to the county's water associations.

Kasten said he could not do anything without County Commission approval.

The water commission members went into executive session.

The next meeting will immediately follow the Grant County Economic Development Coalition for Progress, which will take place at 2 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 14, right after the Southwest Solid Waste Authority Board, which has the same members as the coalition and water commission.