{Editor's Note: This is part 1 of a two-part series of article on the July 3, 2018 meeting of the NM CAP Entity.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity at its regular monthly meeting on July 3, 2018, had no members of the public come forward to comment, so the first item of old business addressed a letter received from the NM Attorney General, which notified the entity that it had been determined that the entity had not violated the Open Meetings Act.

On April 18, 2017, former Interstate Stream Commission director and retired engineer, Norm Gaume, submitted a statement to the Attorney General alleging violations of the OMA by the entity. On June 18, 2018, the AG's office issued a three-and-a half page detailed document stating they had reviewed the complaints that the Entity had failed to take action with its contracts in public meetings. "Based on our review, as discussed below, we conclude that the NM CAP Entity did not violate OMA as alleged in the complaint."

Entity Member Howard Hutchinson, representing the San Francisco Soil and Water Conservation District asked if the entity should respond.

"I feel we have danced to Mr. Gaume's tune long enough," Allen Campbell, representing the Gila Hotsprings Irrigation Association said. "We should just continue to ignore him."

Ty Bays, representing the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District said: "Not only has Mr. Gaume lied to this board, he did not have his facts straight in this complaint."

The next agenda item readdressed the presentation and submittal of a project confirmation package to include maps and an official letter from the NM CAP Entity that the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) analysis can proceed based on the information provided to the joint leads (the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Interstate Stream Commission) related to the proposed action.

"Stantec (formerly Occam Engineers) has cleaned up the maps to show the way the river has changed since earlier maps," Entity Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez said. "They have removed lands south of Bill Evans Lake that Freeport-McMoRan requested be removed, as have the lands around and below the birding area."

He said the package includes the addition of two wells in the Upper Gila, but hydrology would be needed to see if they are feasible.

In the San Francisco Basin, Gutierrez said, Stantec is looking at 7,000 acres with the potential to use AWSA (Arizona Water Settlements Act) water, although there is no conveyance to the area at this time.

The letter attached to the package would clarify the removal of adjudicated water from the proposed action and its storage.

"My letter goes over the proposed action on the Gila, the San Francisco and in Virden and includes the removal of two ponds in Gila and one in Virden," Gutierrez said. "The letter identifies the critical habitat in the area and the impact any improvements to conveyances will have on the habitat. We won't improve any conveyances until the critical habitat is identified."

Hutchinson said he thought it likely that there would be no disturbance of critical habitat by the construction and conveyance. "But. I think it would be prudent to go with the assumption of impacts, so the assessment can be done. We have missed the window for the willow flycatcher."

Gutierrez said the maps are for the purposes of the members of the CAP Entity and "do not preclude private owners from developing water. We have the federal action that allows New Mexico to take the water and it has funding. We do not want to deny anyone the right to develop for, say an orchard, but additional NEPA may be required.

 

"We are still trying to provide the yield model and the economic and business plan," he continued.

Vance Lee, representing Hidalgo County, asked about the land ownership issues near Virden. "Are they BLM land?" Gutierrez confirmed that they were BLM land.

CAP Entity Attorney Pete Domenici said the previous evening's and the upcoming scoping meetings would be poster-board presentations, with ad hoc verbal discussions. "Last night, the ISC and BoR were recording as questions came up. A couple of the questions were, 1) What are the cost estimates? 2) What are the benefits and who is lined up to use the water? If this letter is approved, Reclamation still wants the cost estimates for the various components. I presume we are going to provide them. We had them. As an example, what will the Virden ponds cost? Where will the funds come from—the construction funding or the baseline funding? These are still questions coming from the residents. When is the cost information going to catch up with the maps?"

Gutierrez said the entity does have the cost estimates, which were included with the last statement to the Bureau of Reclamation. "We have identified the infrastructure. We have identified where we will get the lining for the ponds, which is probably more expensive. We already have cost estimates, and they are changing for the better, not worse."

Domenici said: "I think we should refer to the cost estimates, so we can say they are estimates in reference to that particular document. They are relevant today."

Gutierrez said more detailed analyses would be coming from Dr. Ward at New Mexico State University for the construction, operations and maintenance and the cost of the water. "The yield analysis will determine the details. I think the comprehensive analysis will come within the next couple of months."

About the previous evening's session, Gutierrez said: "We had good input once we got past the rhetoric of 'it's a huge project,' 'it will have a huge impact on the environment.'"

Hutchinson said in looking at the San Francisco, the residents and Catron County CAP entity representatives had documented the 7,000 acres between Spurgeon and Pleasanton that have no water rights. "There's probably another 15,000 acres without water rights, so the 4,000 acre-feet allocated (by the AWSA) for the San Francisco Basin will never be enough water to provide for all the private lands. If you attach a water right to the AWSA water, it would go from $145 an acre-foot to worth $10,000 an acre-foot. We would be talking about a huge benefit. When Grant County and Hidalgo County look at their private lands without water rights, they will find the same thing—private lands without water rights attached. The total 14,000 acre-feet of AWSA water won't touch the amount of lands sitting there without water rights."

Lee noted that no one had discussed the Redrock area. "There is a lot of land irrigated, but also a lot lying fallow that was irrigated."

Dave Maxwell of Stantec said the engineers had previously completed most of the cost estimates. "New components include reconstruction of the Pleasanton and Riverside ditches. One of the problems is that this project keeps evolving. We can provide estimates by your next meeting of this board, but you need to recognize they will change. The yield model may show that some components are not needed or don't need to change."

Domenici came back to the scoping meetings and asked that the cost estimates already submitted to Reclamation should be made available to the public by the Bureau of Reclamation.

"Every time we change something, we need to say and keep the costs remaining about the same," he continued.

The maps will change. "We need to keep reiterating that we know the costs and we are trying to have all costs paid by the construction funding."

Darr Shannon, Entity chairwoman, said: "We cut the costs way down. Maybe you should take those costs with you to the scoping meetings. The changes to the maps have not changed the costs. The maps show how the water will get there. We don't foresee the reconstruction of historic ditches. Even on the San Francisco, there are existing diversions. We have identified where water can be used by using existing infrastructure. We are doing everything we can not to elevate costs."

She noted the engineers still need the design plan. "All these are preliminary estimates that haven't changed. We've just identified where the water can be used. We don't want people to think 'they,' meaning we, don't know the costs."

Campbell said since it is a display presentation, the maps can be in a separate section pointing out potential users, then "you talk about the costs."

"The public position for scoping is to get input," Gutierrez said. "It's a way for the public to identify and request other alternatives. The report will come out within the next couple of weeks. There may be alternatives that may make the project better."

Domenici said it's public output without the understanding of the costs. "We are working diligently to do it quickly, but we need to make it clear we are chasing the construction funding and using it the best way we can. The public has to know and not wonder what the board has been doing in the past three years. If there are no costs attached, they don't come away with any idea of what we've done. You should have that cost estimate document there at the meetings."

"The more we can cut confusion," Shannon said, "the better we will be."

Lee asked if that information could somehow be gotten out to people who were at the meetings. "I'm guessing you got public information from them. If you are going to email them, send the cost estimates to go with the maps. It's concise information."

"I gave my personal information to at least 30 people last night," Gutierrez said. "They were people who still thought it was a mainstream dam, but the Bureau of Reclamation did a good job of telling them it was not so. I will speak to the joint leads. I don't know if they want to change what we provide, because that would deprive Albuquerque and Santa Fe of the same information."

Hutchinson suggested adding the cost estimates to the letter attached to the packet. Domenici concurred. Hutchinson echoed it to have it as part of administrative record.

"We can do more pamphlets with cost estimates," Gutierrez said.

Maxwell said the engineers could come up with the cost estimates by the end of the week, so they are available for the next scoping meetings.

Gutierrez asked that the addition of the cost estimates to the letter for the packet should be part of the motion.

Shannon summarized the motion, which included the letter and the cost estimates of the current proposed action to be part of the packet submitted to Reclamation. The motion was approved.

In reference to the second amendment to the joint powers agreement of the entity with the ISC, Gutierrez said it is on the agenda for the July ISC meeting.

Dominique Work, ISC attorney attending by telephone, said the reason it was not on the June agenda was because it was not received by the agenda deadline. "It will be on the agenda for the July 19, 2018, meeting."

Gutierrez noted that the entity had not considered if the ISC may want to make changes. Shannon said if the ISC requests changes, it will come back to the CAP Entity to discuss.

The next article will cover the new business, the executive director report and the roundtable discussion among members.

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