By Lynn Janes
On June 27, 2024, the Grant County Water Commission held a regular meeting at the City Annex building.
Geoff Rawling, New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, joined the meeting online to give a presentation. He has been doing aquifer mapping of New Mexico. He provided graphs of what had been done in the eastern part of the state high plains aquifer. They provide scientific data and interpretations pertaining to the states groundwater and help people and entities make informed decisions concerning the groundwater.
They had done a study in southwest New Mexico using 107 wells in 2019-2020. He said Faywood had in the past been a recharge area, but it had fallen some since 2012. They will be here in July to do water sampling of the Mimbres Basin again. The mapping has not been done in the area for a while because of not having the funding.
Priscilla Lucero, director, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, said she would like to see some tracking done concerning people that have contacted her to say their well had gone dry. They will be trying to obtain funding for more of the kind of research Rawlings has been doing.
Lucero went over some of the funding opportunities they have been looking at for the construction of the regional water system. She also went over some of the changes happing at the state level to help facilitate projects for small communities. She provided a document of draft policies for the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) New Mexico Unit funds [which came from the 2003 Arizona Water Settlements Act].
Maya Clifford, ISC, spoke on the New Mexico Unit Funds. They will be wanting to hear from the public about potential projects. They will then put all the information together in the fall. ISC will host a meeting July 23, 2024, for the public input. Clifford said people could contact her earlier and start with questions and comments. The New Mexico Unit Fund will have $110 million available for projects in the four-county area of Grant, Hildalgo, Luna and Catron counties.
Raymond De La Vega, Stantec, gave the commission an update. "All of the subcontractors are under contract except one. The survey is ongoing, and the utilities have been identified." He asked if the commission had a logo they would want to use and they didn't. He told them to keep that in mind for the future and they can include it on the documents.
De La Vega said he would like to set up a kickoff meeting to have the commission meet all the engineers they would be working with. They will have two main ones and two others. The engineers would like to come and see the project they will be working on. He suggested July 11, 2024, at 3:00 pm. It allows them to meet all the people they will be talking to, the proposed line and lift stations.
Alex Brown, town manager, suggested that the commission come together as a group and come up with questions and comments for Clifford.
Next meeting will be held July 11, 2024
Adjourned