Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Plaintiffs ask construction cease until project is fully funded.
Quay County, the village of Logan and more than a dozen landowners on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of the Ute Water Pipeline project.
The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority is building the 130-mile pipeline to bring water from Ute lake near Logan to Clovis, Portales, Texico and Elida.
The lawsuit alleges the authority has only “a small portion” of the money it needs to complete the project and asks the 10th Judicial District Court to stop construction until it’s fully funded.
ENMWUA officials have said they’ve received about $565 million in funding while estimating the project will cost near $1 billion to complete. Most of the unfunded costs are tied to a planned water treatment facility estimated to cost about $400 million, Authority officials have said.
The lawsuit claims the Authority lacks about $600 million to complete the project.
The funding formula calls for 75% to come from the federal government, with the state (15%) and local governments (10%) making up the rest. Authority officials have said repeatedly they have continued bi-partisan support from Congress and the state to continue funding until the pipeline is finished, probably in 2031.
Many in Quay County have long opposed the pipeline, “a project that in low water years will make the lake unusable for the tens of thousands of visitors, create an environmental disaster, and destroy the economy of the nearby Village of Logan,” the lawsuit claims.
Mike Morris, Clovis mayor and chairman of the Water Authority, called the lawsuit “an ugly message coming from our fellow New Mexicans.”
“I can only conclude that Logan and Quay want to deprive us of drinking water. (They) continue to pretend as though the Ute Pipeline is up for debate. But it is not.”
Morris said the state decades ago established Ute Reservoir for the purpose of supplying water to residents of Curry, Roosevelt and Quay counties.
The pipeline has been the subject of multiple lawsuits through the years, none of them successful from the Logan/Quay County perspective.
Last week’s court filing is the first since 2022 testing showed the quality of Ute water had deteriorated substantially since 2005.
The lawsuit contends, “The test showed substantial increases in total dissolved solids, alkalinity, chloride and the existence of the PFAs chemical.”
Both sides agree the water treatment plant will cost more than originally expected due to the deteriorating water quality.
But Morris said the lawsuit is just a continuation of Quay and Logan efforts to halt the project they’ve been trying to upend for more than 20 years.
“They have continued that opposition more recently spending over $60,000 of public money in the past year with an Albuquerque PR firm to develop and carry out a negativity campaign against ENMWUA,” Morris said.
“Their campaign has included, among other elements, ads in the paper, a Facebook page, and presentations at ENMWUA member governing bodies -- all full of half and twisted truths and all ignoring history and facts. The lawsuit filed the other day is simply more of that campaign.”
The lawsuit contends the money needed to build the water treatment plant and complete the project “is not available at this time and may never be secured to finish the project.”
A joint news release from Quay County and the village of Logan reads in part:
“In addition, 17 landowners along the pipeline route who are fighting the project joined the suit to stop the taking of their property through eminent domain when the project is not funded and may stall indefinitely. The landowners make the case that the forced purchase of their property through eminent domain ‘is not necessary nor a last resort until such time as ENMWUA has completed the design and secured the funding to complete the pipeline project.”’
“…The lawsuit also points out that ENMWUA has made a request to start construction across Quay County and the Village of Logan roads and other right of ways, which will cause increased disruption and damage to the village and could stall mid-way in the process due to lack of funds. Village of Logan streets and important right of ways could be in limbo for years if the funds aren’t secured for the project.”
Quay County, Logan and the landowners are represented by attorney Warren Frost, a resident and business owner in Logan.
