Water taskforce fielded questions at town halls; answers on website

CLOVIS — Across four town halls last month, members of the task force charged with developing Clovis’ Master Water Assurance plan fielded questions on nearly every aspect of their strategy to secure a sustainable local water supply beyond the coming decades.

Those questions now have 20 pages of answers, provided by the Water Policy Strategic Planning Team’s chair and Clovis City Commissioner Ladona Clayton.

The document is accessible from the city of Clovis website: http://www.cityofclovis.org or http://www.cityofclovis.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CITY-OF-CLOVIS-TOWN-HALL-MEETINGS-MASTER-WATER-ASSURANCE-PLAN-2017.pdf

The task force was commissioned in January by the Water Policy Advisory Committee and spent six months developing the five-fold plan first presented at a WPAC meeting in August. A town hall in each of the city’s four districts followed in September, after which Clayton made another presentation to WPAC at its Oct. 10 meeting. The plan is scheduled to come once again before WPAC next month and, pending approval, at last before the Clovis city commission.

Attendance was modest at the town halls, which occurred weekday evenings Sept. 11, 12, 19 and 20, Clayton said.

One of the most commonly addressed topics across the town halls concerned possible changes to the local agriculture industries. In response to one such question posed at a Sept. 20 town hall, Clayton wrote:

“Our intention is that the agriculture industry continues to thrive. Our goal is to ensure that agriculture remains viable and strong in our community, as it constitutes 70 percent of our economic base and has provided food to our families for generations. ... What we are proposing is just the beginning, and embedded in the heart of the (Master Water Assurance Plan) resides the understanding that land and water practices have to change in eastern New Mexico.”

Answering a similar question from a Sept. 11 town hall, she writes that “Clovis and Curry County are not considering stepping away from agriculture. Agriculture has been the bedrock of our community and the regional economy for more than a century and is an integral part of the customs and culture of Curry County.”

As for area farmers’ openness to trying new land and water use practices, the task force was optimistic.

“Farmers are quite resilient, and they realize how changes in the (Ogallala) Aquifer and other natural water sources require a shift in land management practices,” says a response to another Sept. 20 town hall question.

“Several farmers have already converted to dry land farming, and many are making significant efforts to conserve water. Some farmers have either converted to cattle or considered converting from irrigated farming to raising cattle,” reads a response to a Sept. 19 town hall question.

The heavy focus on agriculture stems from forecasts presented by state Bureau of Geology officials at the August WPAC meeting, predicting as little as five or 10 years of agricultural water remaining in parts of the aquifer if practices continue exactly as they are now.

That’s the more pressing issue in terms of water supply, as stores of domestic water are not in danger of depletion any time soon.

“EPCOR has ample water at this time to meet the needs of the Clovis community. Clovis is not in danger of running out of domestic water in five years, 10 years, or even 20 years,” reads a reply to a Sept. 20 town hall question.

Conservation resources provided by EPCOR to its water users have “already reduced the peak daily demand from 11 (million gallons per day) to (8 million gallons per day),” it continued.

The task force also hopes to reduce current groundwater needs by about one-third through completing the city’s water reuse system. Reuse water can be put to work for “landscapes and industrial purposes”, leaving “the highest quality water for household and drinking water,” said the response to a Sept. 11 town hall question.