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Thursday, December 30, 2004

Water Plan Draws Ire In Valley

By Dave Kavanaugh and John T. Huddy
Journal Staff Writers
    Estancia Valley residents are preparing to protest a plan to pump billions of gallons of brackish water from the area to supply Santa Fe's water needs.
    Santa Fe Mayor Larry Delgado announced a proposal last week for Santa Fe to import about 5.6 million gallons a day of Estancia Basin water through a 65-mile water pipeline. The salty, brackish water pulled from wells on farmland south of Moriarty would be treated using reverse osmosis.
    The massive project has a price tag estimated at $127 million.
    Jim Corbin, executive director of the Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee, said Santa Fe city leaders have "stirred up a hornet's nest" with farmers and ranchers in the area "who will be directly affected by this."
    He said various groups, including his, are planning to protest Santa Fe's Estancia Basin water plans.
    Corbin said a public meeting will be held next week for people to ask questions and to explain the details of Santa Fe's proposal.
    "A lot of people want to talk," he said. "We are just going to try to be sure that everybody understands what is going on."
    The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 6 at the Torrance County Courthouse in Estancia.
    Corbin said many in the area are adamantly opposed to any water transfer out of the basin.
    "I don't think people here (in Santa Fe) have a good idea about how upset and sensitive people are down there," regarding water issues, Corbin said.
    Santa Fe would pay $27 million to Moriarty-based Sierra Waterworks, a group of ranchers who own two farms, in exchange for 51 percent ownership in 8,702 acres of farm land and its 7,200 acre-feet of water rights.
    Sierra Waterworks would retain 49 percent ownership of the water rights and land, but the company would sell water from its share to the city each year, based on a fair market price.
    Farmers and ranchers in the Estancia Basin have long expressed concern that mining the area for water to serve Santa Fe or Albuquerque would deplete the water table.
    Corbin warned that pumping so much water from the valley could eventually dry up already parched land, driving out the 20,000 to 25,000 people living here now.
    "The water table has been dropping out there in the basin where they are talking about," Corbin said. "It's kind of hard to believe that you are going to take several thousand acre feet and not have an impact on senior water rights and potable water rights in the area."
    Corbin also said Santa Fe leaders had not yet spoken with the Estancia Basin Water Planning Committee or Torrance County officials about the plans.
    "They've been talking to everybody in the world but us," Corbin said.
    Torrance County Manager Bob Ayre confirmed Tuesday that county officials had not been contacted by Santa Fe, Sierra Waterworks or anyone else in regard to the proposal.
   
More science called for
    Ayre said it's too early for the county to take a position, and he'd like to see more information on the plan.
    "I'd like to see some bona fide science involved with this process," Ayre said. "I don't think there are enough pilot wells in the valley to tell if the aquifer is fluctuating up or down. We hear a lot of anecdotal stories, but one of the things we'd all like to see is monitoring wells."
    John Jones, CEO of Entranosa Water and Wastewater Association, noted that if the water rights Sierra Waterworks proposes to sell are currently supporting an existing water use, and that use is converted from the Estancia Valley to Santa Fe, that shouldn't affect the water supply in the basin.
    But if the rights they are converting have been unused, due to brackishness or other reasons, the conversion to use by Santa Fe would have a significant, negative impact on water availability in the basin, Jones said.
    He added that he believes treating brackish water will eventually be the answer to the state's water supply problems.
    "Brackish water is the solution in my mind to New Mexico's water woes," Jones said.
    In 2002, former state engineer Tom Turney rejected a Santa Fe businessman's plans to pump brackish water from the basin to Santa Fe.
    "When you try to pump water out of one basin and into another, it's going to be controversial," Turney said Friday, noting that Estancia Basin residents drafted a 40-year water plan that explicitly opposes draw-downs from the basin.
    On the other hand, Turney said, "nothing in state law prohibits this type of transfer."
    Santa Fe city water engineer Rick Carpenter said the current deal is "a very complicated business transaction." Infrastructure for the project, including the pipeline and treatment facility, is estimated to cost $100 million.
    "We'll have to take a good, long look at the implications for Santa Fe," Carpenter said. "And those are not just engineering and geological implications but socioeconomic implications as well."
   
Water is treatable
    City water director Galen Buller said the water in the current proposal is relatively high in total dissolved solids but is treatable using reverse osmosis and, unlike ocean water, for example, it would not require the more expensive process of desalinization. "It's doable," he said.
    The city would pay $6 million over three years for an option on the land and water.
    State records show that a Sierra Waterworks Co. of Moriarty was incorporated in June 2003 to construct or maintain reservoirs, canals and pipelines, with John Cyle Sharp as president.
    Attempts to reach Sharp were unsuccessful.
    Santa Fe city committees are expected to take up the issue in January. No application for the proposed project has been made to the State Engineer's Office.