By Lynn Janes
On December 21, 2023, the Grant County Water Commission had a regular meeting at the city annex building.
Karl Pennock of RCAC (Rural Community Assistance Program) will be working closely with Stantec after this presentation they will doing today.
Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, gave an update on funding. The letters of intent needed for colonias funding will be due January 8, 2024. The application deadline will be March 8, 2024. A new funding mechanism has come in and will be specifically for mining communities. The town of Hurley has received $1 million for the wells at the airport and will be fully funded and will not require a match. They should be receiving that soon. Originally the application had been for $620,000 and they would be using matching funds to do the whole project but instead they received the full amount to do the project and the extra funds can be used on the lift station. Now that leaves the discussion of where the ISC (Interstate Stream Commission) monies will be used. January 16, 2024, the commission will be doing a presentation in Santa Fe and everyone with the commission will be needed to attend. Lucero and Laura Phelps, Community Development Manager Freeport McMoRan, will be putting the presentation together and have it updated.
Lucero said she had been going to a number of meetings with water leaders and state legislators and they all have been in line with this project. Regional water projects have been very much part of the conversation and believe in the regionalization. Some of the legislators will be carrying bills to increase the water trust board another $330 million.
Alex Brown, Silver City town manager, said as they go through the presentation today, they will see the numbers for cost will be big. "There is no better time to do this and get 100 percent paid because of the many opportunities out there."
Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, introduced a member of the team working on the project. Stephen Parker, civil engineer with Stantec, came to give a presentation of the two possible choices on the waterlines. This will be a work session and a time to ask questions. They will be giving the commission a questionnaire later to obtain the priorities of each community. Parker went over the background of the project and alternatives. They will also be going over costs and priorities. This project started in 2014 and they have updated it for today. He explained the location of the waterlines. The two new mayo- elects attended and were given a recap of the project.
Parker went over both alternatives and pointed out one would be more rural. One would have a direct line to Hanover. They discussed the use of raw water and chlorination happening at the point of each community. Brown pointed out that the first alternative would allow for more possible development, and they had to consider not just today but the needs 30-40 years down the line. A lot of discussion happened around the raw water and chlorination and who would have responsibility. They also had several questions about the different alternatives and what it would mean for each community. One of the questions brought up had to do with who would be paying the cost of the upkeep of the regional water commission. Brown said it would be a shared cost with all the people sharing the system.
Parker pointed out that this line would just be for transmission lines and not for end users. These lines supply water to communities and not end users. This water would have to be chlorinated if it went to end users. The reason for the use of raw water has to do with not needing to flush the lines periodically and allowing them to save water. De la Vega explained why they would be doing the system this way. Parker said the intention of the transmission lines is to deliver a reliable water supply. This would allow the communities to expand.
Lucero made the recommendation for the members to allow them to continue with the presentation so they could see the whole picture and then they might have more clarity of each alternative. That way many of their questions might be answered. It would also solve some of the confusion.
Stantec went over all the pros and cons of each alternative. Each one had weaknesses and strengths.
Brown said nothing in each community would change, this would just provide a reliable source of water for everyone. It would also open the region for growth.
Arnold Lopez, mayor elect for Santa Clara, suggested that they do a field trip to better understand the project. Brown said the current maps they have will probably have some changes as they move forward and agreed the field trip idea would be good. Parker also agreed that would be a good idea and he valued their opinions.
De la Vega said they could dig in deeper when an alternative was chosen for the project. This will just be the first step and thought the idea of going to the site would be a good next step. At that time, they can go over the finer intricacies. Today would be just the first step.
They discussed the needs for electric in each alternative. Some of the members said they had not had a lot of problems and solar came up as an alternative. Brown said solar could offset costs and could be put at each station. Lucero said none of the funding sources would rank them higher for using solar. Parker said at this time they had plans for a diesel generator at each station for back up.
The members wanted to talk about the possible development between Santa Clara and Hanover and some other areas and who owns some of that land and will it be developed. Parker said, "We are not aware of the ownership of that property." Lucero brought up they needed to be thoughtful of that possible development. She also brought up some people have had their wells go dry and they don't have any kind of clout. No data has been available, but Lucero said she has a lot of calls concerning that.
The cost between the two alternatives currently will be approximately $20 million. Parker went over the reason for the difference on each alternative. Brown said the cost will be a lot but not to be scared off. The first alternative will be over $68 million and alternative two would be over $87 million. De la Vega said, "There is a lot of funding available out there." If this project can be done with a 100 percent grant it becomes a benefit for all the communities. He said for Silver City it would be a huge benefit. He encouraged them to all look at what would be good for their community. Parker asked each community to fill out their questionnaire.
Brown went over the two alternatives and the priorities. They needed to look at the one with the biggest benefit for economic impact. Alternative two would allow for the most opportunity of development with residential and commercial. Lucero said they would have a lot of potential for economic development and needed to view it long term. Lucero said she thinks of the economic development, and she brought up Fort Bayard and the potential for business and housing development on the Highway 180 corridor. All of that must be considered and looked at. The state owns some of that land and they have begun to lease that out which is something the land office has started doing.
Phelps showed concern about the current people needing water along that line to Hanover and how would that be done and if that would be taken into consideration. Brown said the system would be for providing reliable water to all communities and then those communities could connect them into their system and the communities will be driving the development. He brought up Fort Bayard. The system would supply Santa Clara with reliable water and then Santa Clara would supply Fort Bayard. "We can't ask them to supply water to every little piece. The intent for the system is to get water to the communities and water associations and then they are responsible to get the water out to the residents."
The commission decided on alternative two unanimously. This one will assist in the ability to provide more economic development.
Next meeting will be held February 2024. The exact date will be determined later.
Adjourned