[Editor's Note: This four-hour meeting will be covered in multiple articles. This portion continued the old business portion of the agenda.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

At the Tuesday, May 2, 2017, New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity regular meeting, several items of old business elicited discussion among the members.

This portion begins with the revised scope of work for AECOM, the contractor for 30 percent design to proceed with the NEPA process, to analyze and evaluate components for a potential revision to the proposed action of the New Mexico Unit.

Entity Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez said this scope of work would address the Phase II b services. "In Phase I, the scope had administrative tasks and then led to the determination of a proposed action."

He said tasks relating to the evaluation of the Freeport-McMoRan infrastructure and how it could benefit the entity had been taken out of Phase I. They have been put back into Phase II b.

"In preliminary conversations, we took out the Freeport tasks and added in the Aquifer Storage Recharge in Phase II," Gutierrez said.

Because the proposed action became infeasible to build a diversion and storage near the Gila Gage, the entity instructed Gutierrez to find other proposed actions. "I went back to Phase I."

He pointed out components that needed more evaluation. Component 2 in Phase 1 comprises irrigation diversions.

"The Gila Basin Irrigation Commission is considering improvements to its diversions for delivery of water," Gutierrez said. "They have a wish list and a realistic list. One of the tasks in Phase II was to evaluate for adjudicated water and possible diversions. We are looking at Mogollon Creek to Winn Canyon storage area."

Component 6 from Phase I is storage in the Cliff-Gila Valley, "as we are no longer able to do ASR in the upper valley," Gutierrez said. "Then we have the potential for on-farm storage and ASR in Phase II."

He noted that because not everything was done in Phase II, "we still have a budget with some money left over."

Phase II, task 7, includes the Gila Valley, Redrock and Virden. "We moved forward only with the Upper Gila Valley, because we needed information from The Nature Conservancy and the state of New Mexico. When they took the results, both said the proposed action near the Gila Gage wouldn't work for their groups. We can take the contingency money to put together Phase II b. We have $530,000 left."

When Gutierrez went back to Phase I, he took other considerations and put them into a scope of work for Phase II b, which also involved the San Francisco, "where we have identified two potential locations."

He noted also in Phase II b is the potential Mogollon surface diversion. Also included is the groundwater pumping Component No. 6 of Phase I. Phase II b also has the Ranney wells and pumping for Winn Reservoir, which has the potential for gravity flow, but would require pumping to fill it. The full gravity option is not in Phase II b, which includes the pumping aspect.

"I tried to keep the same overall project without the Upper Gila site, Gutierrez said. "We still have the potential for Mogollon and pumping."

He said he has heard a lot of questions about yield. "We have several yield models and discrepancies among them. There has been conversation about an independent yield model."

Aaron Sera, representing Deming, which is the second fiscal agent for the Entity, asked if it wouldn't be better to have a completely different yield model.

"In our discussions with AECOM on yield, this would be more in depth on how much each component of a New Mexico Unit would yield," Gutierrez said.

Allen Campbell, representing the Gila Hotsprings Irrigation Ditch, said the biggest cost in a yield model is the data, not the formulas. "The data is one set. AECOM could delete the formulas from the ISC model or another model and recreate it without looking at everyone else's. I can send my work. It's a good idea to do the model without prejudice. AECOM has not done its own yield model."

Entity Attorney Pete Domenici, Jr., asked how an independent yield study could be done.

"My guess is to go to the original USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) date and mine that," Campbell said. "It can be up to 40,000 entries into the model. Go from the daily form of data and use the CUFA, which requires data at 8 a.m. every day."

Domenici asked Sera if he would want the entity's engineer to do it. Sera replied that he is satisfied with having AECOM do it.

"We need to have the work done, simultaneously while coming up with a proposed action," Gutierrez said.

Paco Larson of AECOM said the firm has three yield models available, the ISC model, one by Gaume and Campbell's model. "We can do our own yield model for each component and incorporate them into a single model. What is missing is a rigorous yield model for each component to determine the water balance of water that comes in and leaves. We use GoldSIM software, which can even out the data."

"I get heartburn over evening out," Campbell said. "Things have changed in grazing and in forest management. We have 35 years of Mogollon data. I suggest those years be the baseline because it reflects what could have been harvested."

Larson said he would need to look at the data. To a question, he said the yield model would have to look at the San Francisco River data, too.

Esker Mayberry, representing the Fort West Ditch, asked who owns the Ranney wells on the river, to which Gutierrez said the U-Bar Ranch owns them. "Can we ask the landowner if we can use them first, before we spend money on it?"

Gutierrez said he is trying to work with the Gila Basin Irrigation Commission. "The Nature Conservancy did applaud the design of the diversion, and the organization is still willing to work with us. We are still trying to work with the state."

"After discussion and hearing the concerns from (Vance) Lee, (representing Hidalgo County and serving as chairman for the meeting), we added a component to evaluate and quantify the benefit to downstream users without another diversion downstream."

Wendel Hann, representing the Gila Farm Ditch, said: "Related to the Upper Gila, we are looking at three locations. I presume we have back up ownership?"

"If we use collector wells, we can do them anywhere," Gutierrez said. "Potentially, we can replace push up dams at existing sites. The intent is to store water when it's available. Other factors can also be looked at, such as adjudicated rights."

"Is ASR (aquifer storage recharge) the only option for storage or is Winn still there?" Hann asked.

Gutierrez said Winn has already been evaluated and is still an option.

"On the Gila Farm, we just finished a full across-the-river gravel, push-up dam," Hann said. "Two spillways have been there for many years.

"The Gila River currently has three major diversions," Hann said. "We have the full across-the-river dam to get the leftover water that comes from upwelling from irrigation."

He continued: "Since the 1880s, we've had dams. This whole idea of maintaining a wild riverGÇödoes that mean taking out 100s of hours of work to build diversions that have been there more than 100 years?"

"The AWSA is a way just to add flood water in an environmentally careful way to add onto and let us fulfill our water rights," Hann concluded.

Gutierrez noted that it is hard to get water out of a dry stream. "We want to keep water in the river for the river to be more natural."

Lee said: "Downstream, we need water taken out in January for us to use in June."

"We should be able to remedy that at least partially," Gutierrez said. "That is the intent of what we are trying to do."

Campbell pointed out in section 14.1 of Phase II b that it says Technical representative. He said that representative should be the engineer the entity is attempting to hire.

"I attend those meetings," Gutierrez said.

Sera noted that the scope does not mention Luna County or what the Freeport-McMoRan evaluation might do for the county.

"We are still in conversations with Freeport," Gutierrez said. "The intent is to provide water for municipalities or for agriculture or well recharge to the Mimbres aquifer. The infrastructure already exists."

Domenici said to him the most important part is that AECOM will assist in preparing a letter to Reclamation. "We gave a letter to Reclamation in July 2016. We will continue to refine and develop the cost of NEPA, which is significant, at about $7 million. We have lost the two highest priorities of last year that would have provided the focus of NEPA. We need to refine the deliverables from the board and send an updated letter to Reclamation with the updated information."

"The goals have to be the likelihood for success for NEPA," he continued. "Page 6 is the critical juncture to bring technical and legal input to Reclamation."

He said the task the scope is giving to AECOM "boomerangs to the board to make a decision with financial and time constraints. We need to be prepared to act quickly to vet ideas and choose something."

Gutierrez said in conversations about NEPA with the Bureau of Reclamation, he was told that the costs and time required are dependent on the size and complexity of the project."

Lee asked if the revised scope of work would lessen the time and cost, to which Gutierrez said it could extend the scope or reduce it.

Sera moved to approve the revised scope.

ISC non-voting representative on the entity board, Kim Abeyta-Martinez, said the ISC director is trying to accommodate the NM CAP Entity by holding a special meeting of the ISC to approve the revised scope.

In a brief report, this author, who has the contract to provide website services, said technical issues had slowed down the development of the website, but it was live at nmcapentity.org and had a few documents posted. Some pdfs were too large for the software and had to be downsized. She also invited board members to let her know what phone number and/or email address they want posted to the site. She can be reached at waterinfo@nmcapentity.org.

Gabriel Ramos, representing Grant County, suggested that members use the email addresses and phone numbers of the entities they officially represent.

The next article begins to address the new business on the agenda.