Q&A: Water authority officials respond to pipeline questions

Editor’s note: This is the first in an ongoing series of questions/answers related to the Ute Water Pipeline, a project intended to provide a sustainable municipal and industrial water supply for several eastern New Mexico communities and Cannon Air Force Base. The water will come from Ute lake reservoir in Quay County. Editor David Stevens is submitting the questions to Mike Morris and Orlando Ortega, chairman and director, respectively, of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. Readers may suggest questions by emailing: [email protected]

Give us a brief history of the Ute Water Pipeline.

The Canadian River Compact was signed by the member states of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma and ratified by their respective Legislatures in 1950.

The compact was approved by Congress and signed into law by the president in 1952.

In 1959 the New Mexico Legislature passed an Act authorizing the state engineer to construct a dam on the Canadian River near Logan. Soon after, work on developing and constructing Ute Reservoir began and the dam was completed in 1963 by the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (NMISC).

The dam and reservoir are owned by the NMISC for the purpose of impounding water for municipal water use.

Planning for a regional water pipeline began in the early 1960s with some initial documentation describing planning studies that included several eastern New Mexico communities and counties. In 1964 a feasibility study was completed based on a diversion and pipeline from Ute Reservoir to communities in eastern New Mexico as a supplemental source of water.

In 1987, the communities of three counties, Roosevelt, Curry, and Quay composed of 12 members communities of Portales, Elida, Roosevelt County, Clovis, Texico, Melrose, Grady, Curry County, Tucumcari, Logan, San Jon, and Quay County began working together toward developing and constructing a regional water pipeline and soon formed a Joint Powers of Agreement that allowed for a mechanism in which they could contract a reservation and purchase of Ute Reservoir water from the NMISC for the purpose of building a regional water pipeline to their communities.

The group called themselves the Ute Reservoir Water Commission (URWC). Under article II of the JPA, titled Purposes, the language states:

The purposes of this Agreement are to:

A. Protect and utilize future and existing water rights and water resources of the parties which are to be allocated herein.

B. Provide mechanisms, through the adoption of future joint powers agreements, for the parties to plan, develop, acquire, and finance a water supply and distribution system or systems to furnish, supply, and provide water for the use of the parties from sources in, upon, along, and tributary to the Canadian River and the Ute Reservoir Project and groundwater with the State of New Mexico, including the financing of water storage, conveyance, and water treatment projects.

The communities began working together to plan for a regional water pipeline that came to be called “Ute Pipeline Project” Its official name today is the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System. The group called themselves the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority.

A few years later Tucumcari, Logan, San Jon, and Quay County withdrew from the pipeline project but chose to keep their water allocation reservation of 7,550-acre feet. Soon after, Roosevelt County withdrew from the project and transferred its allocation of 100-acre feet to Portales.

The remaining members of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority continued to press forward with the planning of the pipeline project. The efforts to receive financial support from the federal government and state of New Mexico were a priority.

After several more years of work in planning and seeking support from the federal government, the project became federally authorized in 2009. This authorization meant the project would be financially supported by the federal government for up to 75 percent of the cost and would be overseen by the United State Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). The very next year, the New Mexico Legislature passed the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Act giving the group official local government water utility authority status and structure.

The group’s official name became the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority (ENMWUA) and membership included Clovis, Texico, Melrose, Grady, Curry County, Portales, and Elida. The work continued in developing the planning and design of the ENMRWS.

In 2016, enough funds were collected to begin construction of the Intake Facility at Ute Reservoir. In 2018, the first transmission segment called Finished Water 2 (FW2) began to be constructed, a 7.5 mile stretch of transmission pipeline that connected Clovis and Cannon Air Force Base.

Since 2018, the ENMWUA has received positive financial support from the federal government through the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and state government through the Water Trust Board (WTB) program, Legislature, and governor, and from the member communities through annual member contributions.

In early 2020, Curry County, Melrose, and Grady requested to withdraw from the ENMWUA citing that they preferred to go a different direction with their needs. On March 6, 2020, the three entities’ withdrawal became official with the governor signing an amendment to the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Act removing them as members.

On Nov. 15, 2021, the president of the United States signed into law the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The infrastructure bill earmarked $1 billion toward completing the federally authorized Rural Water projects under the United States Bureau of Reclamation.

The ENMWUA is among the recipients to receive funding to complete the construction of the ENMRWS. Funding will be distributed over a five-year period beginning in FY2022.

With the federal IIJA funding injection, the state of New Mexico increased its contributions, and the local membership followed with membership contributions and borrowings through the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRLF) program.

Soon after the FW2 pipeline segment was completed, ENMWUA began construction of Finished Water 3 (FW3), the 17.2-mile transmission pipeline connecting from FW2 to Portales.

Finished Water 1 (FW1), a 15.5-mile segment connecting from FW2 and going north to the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) location has followed and is currently under construction.

The next segment to be constructed is Raw Water 3 (RW3) a 21.7-mile pipeline segment that begins at the WTP location and goes north ending at the edge of the Caprock.

RW3 contract has been awarded and is currently under Pre-mobilization with construction to begin in early spring of 2025.

The ENMWUA plans to publish Requests for Proposals (RFP) for the construction of segments Raw Water 1 (RW1) and Texico Lateral by December 2024. All remaining segments of the pipeline and facilities including pump stations, storage tanks, and water treatment plant are under design and are planned to go to construction within the next two years. The ENMRWS is scheduled to be completed in 2031.

Q: The most recent estimate for project completion is 2031. How realistic is that date? What is your biggest concern that might prevent completion in the next seven years?

A: The 2031 completion date is very realistic. We gauge our progress every day and currently are on schedule with our timeline and have been for the past three years.

A concern that we have is the availability of materials. The supply chain is improving, but we still have challenges there.

Q: With the exception of a water treatment plant, the pipeline has mostly been funded, correct? What has been the cost so far? What’s not been funded, other than the treatment plant, and how much is still needed?

A: ENMWUA has signed a completion grant agreement with the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) for the completion of the project. Funds are added annually as our project progresses. Likewise, we have the state of New Mexico’s partnership and commitment to the completion of the project. The state adds funds annually as our project progresses.

The ENMWUA’s FY2025 capital construction budget is $346 million. To date, the ENMWUA has received $565 million in funding.

Every part of the ENMRWS project is being worked on in one form or fashion, including the water treatment plant (WTP) design.

While we have updated estimates, actual contract bids/proposals give us the true numbers. We have been fortunate to have received bids/proposals below our estimates on almost all project phases. Two of the three completed phases have been under budget allowing ENMWUA to move the savings forward to the next phases.

Q: Talk about that water treatment facility. Pipeline critics are saying this is going to cost far more than originally anticipated. Explain why.

A: The water treatment of choice is membrane/Reverse Osmosis (RO) derived from months long investigation and evaluating several treatment options by participants from each of our member communities including city managers, public works directors, elected community officials, Cannon Air Force Base, EPCOR (Clovis city water provider), water experts, and the ENMWUA.

The cost is more than a conventional treatment, but if we were to go with a conventional treatment, this would add costs to the member communities in having to add equipment, a chloramine system, and additional operations/maintenance (O&M) costs to accept a conventional water treatment that will blend with existing groundwater.

These modifications add an additional up front and recurring financial burden to our member communities. The conventional treatment would deliver water that is above the Environmental Protection Agency’s secondary maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total dissolved solids (TDS).

Conventional water treatment is not able to remove TDS. Whereas a membrane/RO treatment eliminates the need for modifying member water systems to blend with groundwater, no additional O&M costs beyond what they already have and RO is able to remove TDS.

Additionally, if the EPA increases guidelines for drinking water in the near future for existing and emerging contaminants, additional processes (membrane/RO or granular activated carbon) would have to be added later to a conventional water treatment at a 100% cost to the ENMWUA.

Q: What is your best guess now for a price on the treatment facility? What is the process for determining that cost and when might that happen?

A: $396 million. (This number is based on a Class 4 cost estimate that has a wide variability. -40%/+70%)

The ENMWUA and Jacobs engineering team work at updating costs regularly. The ENMWUA’s approach to developing and constructing a most affordable and efficient Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is to use the best engineering methods and cost approaches to design and construction.

To assist with the best results, we will include the construction of a pilot WTP on a small scale and operate in a real-life situation for a few months. This will allow our water treatment experts to determine how to best treat Ute surface water in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.

This pilot has the potential of saving the ENMWUA cost for the construction and operation and maintenance of the WTP.

Q: Are you confident that the shared funding formula implemented to date – 75% federal, 15% state, and 10% local – will also cover the cost of the treatment plant?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you have any concerns that Tuesday’s election might impact completion of the pipeline in any way? Has Donald Trump or Kamala Harris given any indication of support or hesitation? Have Republicans and Democrats historically been equally supportive of the project, or has one party been more supportive than the other?

A: The authorization of the ENMRWS (Ute Pipeline) project as well as the other federally authorized rural water projects had bipartisan support.

These projects are in states represented by both Republicans and Democrats. Water security isn’t a partisan issue. And as a result, ENMWUA has worked well with both parties.

Whether you look from the right side or the left side of the aisle, it’s clear that the Ute Pipeline is critically necessary to address water scarcity in the ENMWUA communities.