[Editor's Note: This is the final part 2 of a New Mexico CAP Entity workshop on Aug. 14, 2019. This article covers the actual consideration of all comments received prior to the completion of this draft. Some were incorporated, some not.]

Scott Verhines, professional engineer of Stantec Inc., is the primary on the business plan, which was the topic of a New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity workshop, held at the Grant County Administration Center, on Aug. 14, 2019.Verhines began the review of the document itself, by saying that one comment received was that it was too long and

cluttered and contained too much irrelevant information.

Two comments from the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission said it had not been specific enough to state that the purpose of the New Mexico Unit is agricultural and that any other uses would require additional environmental compliance. The second comment said the document had failed to demonstrate the farmers in the proposed action areas are willing and able to pay for the AWSA water.

Verhines said he believes it was stated in the plan that the purpose is for agricultural use, but "it may not be specific enough."

"I would like you to discuss these points as we work through the document," Verhines said to the CAP Entity members.

Ty Bays, representing the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District said he believes the economics of the project "pretty well justify paying for acre-feet of water. I think the demand is there. Once the water it there, people can get it. I also think the water can be more consistent than you think. Sometimes, we have problems getting all our adjudicated rights. Consistent water supply might entice people to do double crops."

Howard Hutchinson, representing the San Francisco Soil and Water Conservation District, said he thinks a key point is demand. "When we talk about economic demand for the water, it comes from people who have no water rights. In Catron County, we developed a water use plan. We discouraged putting senior agricultural rights to domestic use. When people have the opportunity to acquire new water, the best use is for people who do not have water rights. It's the idea of promoting and preserving agriculture. Especially on a ditch, when a parciante (the Spanish word used for members of an acequia) sells his right from the ditch to a domestic use, fewer people are paying for the maintenance of the ditch. Our policy in the plan is to maintain senior rights in agricultural production."

NM CAP Entity Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez said it was difficult and "is difficult, if water is not available. Changing the project in the future by changing components after the record of decision may change costs. There's a lot of discrepancy between cost estimates, the analysis of cost of operations and what Reclamation is analyzing that the costs will be. These three are very different. While we can analyze, the real figures won't come until we have a record of decision, a final design, and we get closer to locations, and by that time, I think we will be able to amend this document and make it possible for farmers to be able to say: 'You know, I want some of this water.' I don't think we're there yet. We don't have enough known factors."

Allen Campbell, representing the Gila Hotsprings Ditch Association, said he thinks the business plan has done a good job "at casting a wide net. I think we will be surprised by the economic benefits. They are not an unknown unknown. The potential is there. Additional water will bring in new practices. The first step will have to be to better pasture. That would allow clover versus fescue, for instance. Over the years, the pastures can get better protein content. We don't know, but we can look at the good an intense grazing plan would entail. Let's guess we'll double the value of an acre with supplemental water. Let's leave the options open."

Entity Attorney Pete Domenici Jr. noted the costs in the document reflect about what water costs are.

Marcos Mendiola, representing the ISC on the phone, said the comments from the ISC in the document relate to how the commissioners feel about the business plan.

Domenici asked what the ISC objective is for the business plan. "How can we satisfy them? Yes, it is the chicken and the egg, but this is not a rate study."

Mendiola said he would talk to staff members who provided the comments and get clarification to Gutierrez.

Bays pointed out to the ISC that a lot of the members of the entity board are active in agriculture. "That might tell you that they want more water. We won't get anyone to commit to a contract because it's not attainable in this venue or any other business venue. We won't commit until we know water's available."

Hutchinson said when Catron County developed its plan, it sent a survey out to property owners. "We got a 60 percent response. Out of the survey, we had an indicated desire for 10,000 acre-feet of water, and we are allocated only 4,000 acre-feet of AWSA water. We know the demand is there. I have personally contacted livestock producers, and they have said they would happily pay for AWSA water because they are now hauling water by truck. We also had expressions of interest from those on ditches who want the water to augment what they have to irrigate their fields. We've done our due diligence. Current estimates of developing the water are well within a reasonable cost range."

Vance Lee, representing Hidalgo County, said the comment about "'willing and able to pay for water' is unwarranted, because they won't be looking at our bank accounts."

Domenici said he would like the executive summary to work for as many purposes as possible. "It has to be compelling and clear. The business plan demonstrates that the cost of water is comparable to what it costs now and is likely less than the current market value. The executive summary, the table of contents and maybe the appendices are what people will read."

Gutierrez said the business plan is a planning document for this entity. "It is not meant to justify the environmental impact statement or to change any economic analyses. This is how we feel we will do it. It's a living document. What is in this planning document is for us, not for the purposes of anyone else."

Bays suggested adding a sentence: "This water is cheaper than other water sources. We're here on this board because our constituents chose us to develop this water."

Hutchinson said when he reviews a document, he starts with skimming it and then comes up with specific comments, then he takes the 20,000-foot overview. "I think ISC's comments may be that overview. What they are asking for is in the document."

Verhines said the intent of his putting in the comments was to address items, if needed. "I agree the audience is the entity. This is your roadmap for the future."

Bays encouraged somehow putting in the document the viability of the proposed action and the support from members of the entity and their constituents.

Hutchinson said he was dismayed at the lack of anything addressing the San Francisco. "I took the outline of the business plan we developed in Catron County and turned it into a plan. The six pages lay out construction, operations and maintenance, cost benefits and a list of potential uses with examples. The Catron County plan concludes with a statement from a 2014 University of Arizona study.

He quoted: "If society is to respond appropriately to water challenges, it is important to understand the implications of limited current supplies and growing demands. Action is needed today to forestall shocks either in price fights in the need of supplies expensive to acquire or the reliability resulting from our failure to secure additional water. It is better to appreciate the value of water now than to regret our lack of understanding about the lack of water in the future."

"This is what we're hoping to accomplish here to avoid that shock," he said. "Nature abhors stagnation. We desire to have our Catron County business plan. What you do in the Gila is no business of mine. If I think you're going down the wrong road, I will recommend we withdraw from the entity."

Domenici said his goal is to get the document done. "We put the San Francisco in the executive summary. I thought of the water authority model. We will do our share, but the users are responsible for the operations and maintenance."

Gutierrez said the San Francisco has its own business plan. "We haven't incorporated into this plan, how to have each area do its own operations plan. We were focused on the proposed action, on which we don't have much on the San Francisco. We will add language that the San Francisco water commission is working on a JPA and we will include the Alternative E proposed by the folks from Catron County."

Joe Runyan, representing the Gila Farm Ditch Association referred to the value of water. "I sold 1/8 of an acre of water right for $3,500 to a resident who wanted an outside spigot. If you divide the cost of that water and compare it to AWSA water, they would be paying $40 a year for that amount in AWSA water."

Bays suggested the San Francisco business plan be a part of this business plan.

Lee made a request for an addition that the business plan will comply with all laws. "We need to also include that the New Mexico CAP Entity is the successor to the Southwest New Mexico Water Planning Group, as it's state in the Arizona Water Settlements Act."

Domenici requested adding a bullet pointing out the difference between the New Mexico Unit Fund dollars and that they are separate from the Construction funding. "We want to make it clear that the construction funding is for the establishment of the New Mexico Unit. The New Mexico Unit Fund money is available for the Unit and other water projects. The construction funding is only for the purpose of establishing the unit.

"The New Mexico Unit Fund is controlled by state and federal law," Domenici said. "Use of money from that fund must be approved by the ISC and also approved by us. The EIS allows the construction funding to offset capital costs for building the unit. Anything else would require a repayment provision built into the cost of the water."

The members recessed for lunch.

[Editor's Note: When they returned, they began addressing the comments one by one. This article will report on some additions or subtractions, as it has above. Many comments were considered resolved by previous changes to the document before it was presented to the members the day of the workshop. Many of the items will be presented in bullet format, without naming who said what.]

• Suggestion: Look at shortage agreements. Noted that cooperative agreements function well.
• Explain the relationship of AWSA water with Globe Equity water
• Add a current conditions section, specifically that one-third of Silver City's municipal water supply comes from the Gila Basin
• Address domestic wells, which allow water usage only inside a dwelling, with no water for outside use, even for pets or gardens
• Note the thousands of diversions along the Gila and San Francisco rivers that include many wells
• Some former irrigation diversions in the Gila are no longer used, but could come back with additional water
• Include the Virden area
• Include Luna County
• Consider the elimination of the verbiage 'higher-value' crops, as it suggests farmers shouldn't grow the 'lower-value' crops. Sounds like it's telling farmers what to grow
• Be aware that future development will require more NEPA analyses
• Provide language that addresses anything outside the proposed action
• Qualify the language addressing domestic use of non-consumptive or consumptive-use water
• Take the description of projects in the proposed action, add Alternative E for San Francisco, and add documents provided by members
• Adding language showing habitat enhancement through additional water.
• Add language referring to the increase in flows as a result of recent wildfires causing watershed changes
• Add a sentence on physical and legal restrictions in the region
• Suggest multiple refilling of storage areas each year
• Do not include cost sharing information as those are individual decisions
• Add citations to other economic studies, such as from Arizona and California
• Add recent letters to Reclamation and to the Secretary of the Interior to the appendices
• Confirm how cost estimates were calculated
• Explain better the operational costs
• Add the potential of doing demonstration plots for new crops and how it will be compensated
• Define the benefits of storage and usage
• Correct the types of crops in the Virden area at this time
• Address how the water can benefit recreational use and maintain agriculture in preference to additional housing that would replace agricultural uses
• Reorganize the document
• Suggest other crops that could be produced with the additional water security
• Remove any water contract language at this point.

 

Bays said that even at $300 an acre-foot, the AWSA water coupled with regular water rights could make it more favorable for livestock producers. He also suggested adding in language about AWSA water enhancing the bird and fish habitat, as the thriving populations of endangered and threatened species of birds and fish are in the developed areas of the Gila Valley, something like: "Stable agriculture sustains wildlife habitat."

Hutchinson suggested downstream users may want to store water at higher elevations to cut down evaporation losses. Verhines said the issue is dealt with in the Rio Grande Compact. Lee said there had been some debate about the practice, as moving the water downstream might increase the evaporation. Hutchinson said he didn't think that water coming from the San Juan-Chama project to Albuquerque had high evaporation rates.

Verhines said such storage of water would require how accounting of the water will be done as the AWSA water moves with other water in the river.

It was decided that the suggestion of storing at higher elevations should not be part of the business plan.

Allen Campbell, representing the Gila Hotsprings Ditch Association, said he expected some of his ideas about the increase in water availability since the fires might have made it into the document. "You address climate change, why not some reference to my work showing a doubling of water supply since the fires? It would strengthen our position that we have the potential to harvest more water. The two-page portion of AECOM's report is not correct at this time and place. We shouldn't use flawed material."

Runyan said the data has to be verifiable. Verhines said they have considered modeling Campbell's data. "We haven't been doing our own water yield study."

Bays noted that changes in watershed causing higher yields is well documented science.

Hutchinson said he went to the USGS (U.S Geological Survey) to look at flow data. 'The first flow recorded in 1890 was one of the largest I can see. Fluctuations in water flow and use are significant. If I was a betting man, I would bet on Allen's data as being the most accurate. People at desks with Ph.D.s don't have common sense like this man does.

Campbell noted that he had built a suspension bridge that has withstood floods. He built sewer plants. "I'll be glad to share my data with anyone. There are no guesses. It's just math. I would like it out there to help our position."

Verhines said any good model is calibrated to good data. "I will try to get it to someone who can use it."

Bays cautioned spending more money on studies.

Domenici noted that the AECOM and the HDR results look very different. "HDR appears to show yield as quite different from AECOM's yield model."

Gutierrez said the AECOM model was done before changes were made to the proposed action, although the amount of available, divertible water did not change. The only changes were to consumptive use and a difference in storage amounts.

Verhines said: "Yield is important to the plan, but we're not trying to replicate the models in the business plan."

Campbell said the AECOM model was so flawed that HDR bypassed its Gila data. "My data is just river flows. You can't hang your hat on models."

Verhines said he is not trying to use economic theory in the document. "We can refer to other economic reports."

Discussion took place on how to address using existing land and existing water. Gutierrez felt it was a bit early, but economic viability would have to be shown after the record of decision and before construction.

One suggested not naming crops, but a rancher suggested that listing some potential crops could enhance production. "Show possibilities."

Verhines said showing how much value current crops yield and how with the application of additional water, yields could increase over time, so that net revenue exceeds the cost of water.

"I've heard over and over from farmers that what they seek is resiliency and water security," Verhines said. "If we use 80 percent adjudicated water and add 20 percent AWSA water, it will add resiliency and security. Anything we put in here is just a suggestion."

On the issue of climate change, Hutchinson said that climate has changed for 4 billion years. Campbell said climate changes every day.

Domenici said that if climate change is true, and there will be less water, "then AWSA water is that much more important."

Verhines said New Mexico in general has highly variable precipitation. "This project or projects will help over time."

The business plan workshop concluded and led to a special meeting immediately following. The report on that meeting can be read at: http://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/52724-nm-cap-entity-holds-workshop-081419-part-1

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