Dairy owner speaks in Portales

PORTALES - A local dairy owner's tour of government entities to discuss the water contamination issue near Cannon Air Force Base continued at Tuesday's Roosevelt County Commission meeting.

Art Schaap, who previously addressed the Clovis city commission and Curry County Commission, shared much of the same details with Roosevelt County commissioners on Tuesday, calling on them to put pressure on the state's environmental department to hold Cannon accountable for the water contamination.

"I just hope that we can pressure the state environmental department to be watching what they're doing at that facility," Schaap said.

Cannon is one of several Air Force bases around the country to discover Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoiac Acid (PFOA) affecting water supplies. The contaminants were present in a fire fighting foam the Air Force extensively made use of since the 1970s.

Schapp said he previously employed 40 people at the dairy but is now down to five employees, with seven of his 12 wells affected. He said he cannot sell either his animals or the milk they produce and that he and his family are in the process of flushing the contaminants out of their system.

The commission took no action.

Cannon has referred questions to the Air Force Special Operations Command public affairs office. Last week Mark Kinkade of the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center said the Air Forces' actions are based on the Environmental Protection Agency's health advisory for drinking water standards.

Also at Tuesday's meeting (all votes 5-0):

• No action was taken following an approximately 20-minute executive session held to discuss limited personnel matters and threatened or pending litigation, according to the agenda.

• The commission approved several annual housekeeping matters to keep up with the new year and changes to the board. Commissioner Shane Lee was appointed board chairman and Commissioner Matthew Hunton was appointed vice chair.

County Manager Amber Hamilton said the committee assignments approved by the commission were largely unchanged from last year besides replacing former Commissioner Gene Creighton with new Commissioner Tina Dixon.

• No action was taken on a contract for a new evidence tech position at the sheriff's office. Lt. Javier Sanchez said the individual who was going to fulfill the contract was no longer able to do so and requested the board table the contract until a new qualified candidate is found.

• No action was taken on an ordinance that would have provided property tax rebates to low-income taxpayers, killing the ordinance.

The county is required to hold a public hearing on the matter every odd-numbered year. There were no comments during Tuesday's public hearing.

Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, has pre-filed legislation that would remove the public hearing requirement. The commission approved a resolution supporting the change during Tuesday's meeting.