Water authority authorizes $21,505 to clean, paint fixtures

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority officials had not viewed their intake structure at Ute Lake from out on the lake, and when they did recently, they found some work needed to be done.

“We don’t see this side, because we’re not in the water,” Orlando Ortega, executive director, told the board on Thursday.

The ENMWUA board on Thursday authorized the spending of $21,505 to have Clovis-based Preferred Painters clean and paint the fixtures on the lake side of the intake structure to improve appearance.

The water-side intake structure elements had been neglected since the facility was constructed in 2016, Ortega said. In addition, he added, several buoys that mark the intake structure on the lake should be replaced.

The intake structure is awaiting the completion of pipelines that will carry water from Ute Lake in Quay County to a water treatment plant in Curry County north of Clovis, with a booster pump station that will lift the water to the top of the Caprock. Treated water will then be piped to a point near Cannon Air Force Base, where the water will be diverted to Clovis and other locations.

The board on Thursday also approved easements that will allow sections of the pipeline that will transfer treated water to Cannon AFB from the treatment plant to cross four private land parcels.

Jim Honea, project manager for Jacobs Engineering, told the board on Thursday that, including the four parcels for which the board approved easements on Thursday, there are five properties that have finalized easements for that pipeline.

Seven other properties are in appraisals, and owners of eight properties have had easement offers sent to them, Honea said.

The total cost of that pipeline is estimated at $44.7 million, according to the ENMWUA website.

Construction began on Sept. 27 on another pipeline that will take water from Cannon Air Force Base to Portales, Honea reported to the board on Thursday.

So far, about 7,000 feet of pipeline has been laid down, Honea said, including crossings of areas of Blackwater Draw that may contain archeological resources. Honea said archeologists are monitoring the construction to ensure protection of areas potentially containing artifacts.

Planning, design and property procurement is also advancing for a part of the pipeline that will carry untreated water from the top of the Caprock to the water treatment plant, Honea said.

In other matters Thursday the board:

• Approved an updated asset management plan for the ENMWUA, which was last updated in 2018, Ortega said. The plan helps the district operate, maintain, rehabilitate and replace infrastructure in a cost-effective manner, Ortega said. In addition, the plan document states, “The plan also forms a basis for the financial plan, operational plan and the authority’s rate structure. Mike Morris, board chairman, added that the plan keeps officials informed that “policy has been reviewed and things are updated.” Currently, the plan recognizes only the intake structure at Ute Lake and completed pipeline sections that connect at Cannon AFB as assets.

• Learned from Haleigh Marez, office manager, that the authority garnered revenues of $4.6 million and recorded expenditures of nearly $6.5 million in September. From July through September, the authority recorded nearly $7.8 million in revenues and just over $6.8 million in expenses.

• Learned from Jacquelynn Bowens, support services manager, that Ute Lake’s storage had dropped from 153,100 acre-feet of water on Sept. 22, to 149,300 acre-feet on Thursday. The lake’s elevation had also dropped from 3,779.08 feet above sea level on Sept. 28 to 3,777 feet above sea level on Oct. 21.