Water policy committee hears project updates

CLOVIS — The Clovis Water Policy Advisory Committee met for the first time in three months, with mostly encouraging news on various water projects and conservation efforts.

City Manager Justin Howalt shared news on the city’s use of effluent water for field watering and various municipal functions, similar to an update he gave the Clovis city commission the prior week.

The city moved 12.2 million gallons of effluent water in May, compared to 4 million in May 2019. Howalt attributed the increase to a lack of rain.

For the year, 71.4 million gallons of effluent water have been used, compared to 47.7 million at the same time last year. Part of the reason for the increase was adding Yucca Middle School to the effluent pipeline’s distribution chain.

Regarding the effluent pipeline, Howalt is optimistic the project can be completed at the end of next year, with the upcoming Phase 2 taking the project from Bob Spencer Park to Colonial Park Golf Course. The original plan when the project started in 2009 was to go from the park along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, but Howalt said widening of the road has tightened the corridor and heading up Thornton Street might be the better option. Either road, he said, gets the pipeline to the golf course while hitting Gattis Middle School and Barry Elementary.

The city recently received an award of just under $4 million from the New Mexico Water Trust Board for the final phase.

“I am so glad to see us finally receiving the funding to finish this project up,” Mayor Pro Tem and committee chair Chris Bryant said. “This is not only good for the city, but the schools and the golf course. This is a wonderful project to get completed, and I'm looking forward to it.”

Mark Huerta of EPCOR Water said the company was starting to move some staff back into its offices after initially sending them home early in the COVID-19 pandemic. He anticipates a slow return, and notes the offices may be closed to the public as late as November.

Regarding water usage, Huerta said the city used an average of 7.8 million gallons of water each day in March, and the maximum day in June so far was 8.3 million gallons. The utility’s daily pumping capacity is 10.7 million gallons.

Huerta added that EPCOR will soon introduce a rainwater harvesting rebate. The $500 bill credit will help a customer offset the costs of a water catch barrel, gutters, collection systems and a concrete pad for the barrel. The utility has offered similar programs to encourage water-efficient appliances and xeriscaping.

Huerta was asked various questions about the 10 wells that were temporarily taken off-line in February due to the presence of PFAS and PFOA.

The number of wells has remained at 10, and Huerta believes the issue could be unrelated to water plume contamination at Cannon Air Force Base because between the 10 wells and the base are various wells that haven’t been impacted.

The company is looking at a pilot program to see if filtering the wells would be economically viable.

In other business at the meeting:

• The committee’s first order of business was to elect a new chair and vice chair. Bryant, who had served as vice chair under former Mayor David Lansford, was elected as chair with Fidel Madrid elected vice chair.

Also, new city commission representatives Leo Lovett (District 1) and Lauren Rowley (District 2) were welcomed to the committee. The meeting was the first one held since installation of officers from the March 3 municipal election.

• Howalt told the committee he was unable to find a water project that would match the statutory requirements of the Defense Community Infrastructure Program.

The program helps fund projects that can prove beneficial to a military base community. Howalt thinks a project can be found somewhere in the city, but there isn’t a water project that meets program criteria and can start inside the next 12 months.

• Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Administrator Orlando Ortega updated the committee on its work on the interim groundwater project that would eventually connect to the Ute Reservoir in Quay County.

The Finished Water 2 phase is 99% complete as of Tuesday, and Finished Water 3 was being prepared to take the project from Cannon Air Force Base to Portales.

The authority, Ortega said, plans to put together a groundwater development committee.

• Howalt said he’d received a letter from Curry County Manager Lance Pyle broaching the subject of offering the 240 acre feet of rights the county holds at the Ute Reservoir in exchange for the city taking the existing $53,000 in debt obligation. Howalt said he would bring it to the Clovis city commission when an offer was in writing, and advised the Ute Water Commission has relayed it had no reason to intervene in such an agreement.

• Bryant reminded the public June is water conservation month, and that information is available at city hall and the Clovis-Carver Public Library. He did counter that water conservation is always important.

• The next meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. July 14, location to be determined.