Water authority signs off on additions

CLOVIS — With a flourish of pens and a light round of applause among board members, the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority signed off on the latest additions to an "incredibly significant" development for the project's storied history.

In a special meeting Monday morning, board chair and Clovis Mayor David Lansford called the contract for the "Finished Water 2" interim pipeline "one of the biggest deals that's happened in eastern New Mexico.

"This is a proud day for me," he said. "This is many years in the making."

Vice-chair Ron Jackson concurred, reflecting on the eagerness years ago for shovels to hit the ground once ENMWUA was formed to establish a pipeline connecting local communities with a long-term water source in Quay County's Ute Reservoir.

With an official "notice to proceed" given to Oscar Renda Contracting Inc. last week and additional phases of the 7 1/2 mile pipeline authorized this week, that long-anticipated construction effort will begin as early as month's end, according to ENMWUA Administrator Orlando Ortega.

"I think this is a moment of celebration," board member Ladona Clayton said in the brief morning meeting.

FW2 will establish a 33-inch transmission pipeline starting northwest of Cannon Air Force Base and continuing southeast to an EPCOR water storage system at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Brady Avenue; the contractor has just shy of a year to complete it, according to a press release.

"The pipeline will ultimately be able to provide a water supply to Clovis residents and CAFB from interim groundwater sources and eventually from a surface water supply at Ute reservoir," continued the release last week from ENMWUA.

The board next meets Nov. 15 in Texico.