By Lynn Janes

On September 26, 2024, the commission held a regular meeting at the city annex building.

Raymond De La Vega, Stantec project manager, had two maps to show the commission. Recently the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources had done the studies and Lidar scans on the ground water and aquafers. They had been delivered to Stantec. The basis on the design report has been 50 percent completed and have just been waiting on the EPS model.

Stantec engineers have continued to run simulations on chlorine residuals to keep potable water. The engineers have found they have more iron than hoped originally. This will be important because iron uses up the chlorine. When this model has been completed, they can move forward.

Next for them to do had been a survey and it was completed. The crews have come and obtained all the information needed. They expect project element number one to be completed by the next week. Next, they will be looking at the alignment and try to stay with the original plans but might have to make some changes.

Two of the potential changes could be the movement of the tank location to serve Arenas Valley and Rosedale water associations. Looking at a location further north of highway 180, will benefit by being higher and make the complexity of pumping system easier. The second change could be the consideration of connecting Bayard to the north tank. It would give Bayard a backup in case a booster went out.

Alex Brown, Silver City town manager, said he meets regularly with Stantec concerning this project but does not make any decisions. He asked Bayard to get with Stantec to address any problems and give their input.

De La Vega said at this point he felt it important to have the water operators in all these areas involved. In part to start the discussion on the chlorine levels. Arnold Lopez, Santa Clara mayor, suggested a separate meeting for the water operators and De La Vega said he thought that would be a good idea. They could meet on a regular basis. Brown said they could create a subcommittee with the operators that meet regularly. Lopez said these guys do this every day and could be very helpful to the engineers. They have planned to have them meet a few days before these meetings.

Brown said that they had met with ISC (Interstate Stream Commission), and they have approved the use of funding for preliminary and final design requests this November. ISC will not approve any construction funding until June 2025. The final design will not be done until end of 2025.

Brown said they have small projects that can be started with current funding. Stantec will have those identified. Colonias has $87 million available. Many entities do not have their audits and will not be eligible for funding. The water associations need to ask for bigger projects because of the funding available. They could work on the Hurley and Santa Clara wells with the current funding. The first phase of the construction needs to be Hanover. It has the most need of water security.

Next would be to work on Hurley to Bayard and then Santa Clara to Rosedale and Arenas Valley.

Next meeting will be held October 24, 2024

Adjourned