Opinion: Ute Pipeline: In search of common sense

I am against the Ute Pipeline project. In fact, I am convinced that if it goes on as planned it will be the biggest waste of taxpayer money in New Mexico history.

When you realize that I am a Logan resident and business owner your first reaction will probably be that you can’t listen to my opinion because I am not objective. Although that is true -- I am not objective -- hear me out.

Facts are still facts regardless of where they come from. I acknowledge that Curry and Roosevelt counties need water. The problem is they are about to spend more than $800 million under the assumption that the pipeline is going to solve their water problems. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As everyone is aware, over the last two decades the Southwest has experienced severe climate change. This has led to the worst sustained drought in our lifetime. You can’t pick up a paper or watch the news without seeing reports of how Lake Powell and Lake Mead on the Colorado river are drying up. Elephant Butte Lake on the Rio Grande in Southern New Mexico is not much more than a mud hole.

And yet proponents of the Ute Pipeline are operating as if Ute Lake is exempt from these terrible drought conditions that will likely last decades. Their motto seems to be “If we build it, it will rain.”

Supporters of the pipeline have lost focus on what the goal is. It is not to build a pipeline, but to solve Clovis and Portales water problems. The only way they can do that is by abandoning this fantasy of Ute Lake as a source of unlimited water and find ways to use the pipeline money to buy more water rights from local farmers and ranchers.

One need only look at the Texas Panhandle to see this solution in practice. The Canadian River Municipal Water Authority (CRMWA) supplies water for Amarillo, Lubbock and surrounding communities. For decades CRMWA relied heavily on pumping water from Lake Meredith, which is on the Canadian River below Ute Lake.

Unfortunately Lake Meredith dried up. Anticipating this problem, CRMWA spent $287 million between 2005 and 2011 to buy ground water rights in the Texas Panhandle. CRMWA estimates that these purchases will provide its customers, numbering over 500,000, water until 2140.

The chairman of the Ute Pipeline project stated in the summer that he estimates it will cost $800 million to complete the Ute pipeline from this point forward assuming no cost overruns. CRMWA spent $287 million to provide ground water for the next 117 years and the Ute pipeline group is going to spend over $800 million for a pipeline serving 67,000 people in Curry and Roosevelt Counties.

A pipeline to Ute Lake that will be a mud hole within a couple of years. How is that solving water needs in the future?

I am part of a group that is going to begin educating the public and our state and federal lawmakers in the months to come on the insanity of this project. I urge all citizens of eastern New Mexico to educate themselves on the project and make their voices heard. You can do that by going to our website -- http://www.utelakepipeline.com -- for information on the project.

Finally to the elected officials in Curry and Roosevelt counties and the board members of the pipeline project I will tell you what I tell my grandchildren: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!”

Warren Frost is an attorney representing Quay County and the village of Logan and a longtime opponent of the Ute Pipeline project. Contact him:

[email protected]