Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Water conservation continues to be at the forefront of discussion for the Portales City Council.
At their regular meeting Tuesday, councilors heard a presentation from Mike Davidson, a resident of the community and member of the public works and water advisory committees.
Davidson said the current state of water usage in Portales shows the community uses around 900 million gallons of water each year. That number needs to go down to 700 million for sustainability.
Davidson went on to say that while the Ute pipeline project – pumping water from Ute Reservoir in Logan to the Clovis-Portales area -- is scheduled to finish in 2032, it is “subjective.”
“It might work, it might not,” Davidson told the council. He also said that completion dates have to be taken with a grain of salt.
“It might be completed in 2032, it might not,” he said.
Davidson said the city is hiring hydrologists to tell it how to stretch the water supply. However, he believes there’s about 4 1/2 years based on the current trend of water usage and water being lost in the aquifer, until they must start “cutting into critical production capacity.”
By that, he said he meant even more rationing and conservation efforts be put in place.
Because of this, Davidson encouraged city officials to allow a third-party company to manage the city’s potable and affluent water.
“It has gotten out of our control, beyond our scope,” Davidson said. “We’re not going to be able to grant-beg our way out of this mess.”
Earlier this summer, the city gave EPCOR, a private company, access to information on its water, wastewater and reuse system.
Councilor Rustin Self said he’s in favor of the privatization of water, because he doesn’t think it’s right to be so dependent on the government.
