By Lynn Janes

On August 21, 2025, the Grant County Water Commission held a regular meeting at the city annex building.

New business

Raymond De la Vega, Stantec, had an update on the project. They have been in the middle of working on the 60 percent design and have all the subcontractors under contract. Some things would be depending on what comes from the conversations between Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara village administrator, and BLM (Bureau of Land Management). It will be important because it will establish the tank locations.

The survey will be ready to kick off on with the 60 percent design they had added the Rosedale connection and Bayard bypass. On the part having to do with New Mexico highway 152 they had met with the U.S. Forest Service, and they will allow a standard application for the easement right away on the federal land. It will be straightforward.

He came back to needing to firm up the coordination for the central booster tank for Santa Clara. He expressed a little concern of kicking off NEPA (national environmental policy act) compliance for the entire 20-mile pipeline project.

Arnold Lopez, Santa Clara mayor, said Hudman had spoken to BLM, and they will do an agreement with Santa Clara ,and the project could move forward. De la Vega said that would be great news and glad Hudman had made that connection.

De la Vega went over some other concerns they have been working on. Near one of the booster tanks, they have some survey markers that put the ownership of the property in question. The assessor's maps and surveys do not match so they have been working with DOT (department of transportation) to nail that down.

Blas Rodriguez, Hurley maintenance supervisor, had a concern he wanted to bring to De la Vega. They have been widening the road in the Hurley area and wanted to know where they had decided to run the line and asked if a casing should be put in before they finish the new road. De la Vega said they had planned on tunneling under the road. They have had to do some resurveying and make changes, and they discussed some of the new challenges and what could be done in that area.

Priscilla Lucero, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments director, had some funding updates. She brought up the question about the $1.5 million awarded to the town of Hurley and what the status was. She had called several agencies. This funding has been funneling through the New Mexico Environmental Department. The state has changed its formatting and processing software for their grant agreements, and it has held things up. It will require a review with the budget division and meeting EO compliance, so it has held the funding up, but she has been keeping in contact and keeping up-to-date on the process.

Lucero thanked Darlene McBride, Hurley clerk, for working hard to expend the dollars from the economic recovery funds so they would not be lost. Some had been lost but most had been used.

The New Mexico unit funds will be addressed in the Water Trust Board meeting in the following week. From there it will proceed to the Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) for approval. An application for the TAP (transportation alternative program) funds was submitted and they will ask for funds to do 40-year water plans for all the local governments with the exception of Silver City because they are already working on theirs. All will have their own, but it will be folded into one regional. plan Lucero had also included funding for additional engineering costs and legal fees.

Alex Brown, Silver City town manager, met with Ed Stevens, mayor of Hurley, and the $1.5 million will be used to finish the fifth well at the airport and start using it. The remaining balance will be used to start the building. Richard Maynes, Stntec, and Brown went over the timeline of the funding and when construction could start using Colonias funding. De la Vega and Lucero went over the timeline for the Santa Clara well field part of the project.

De la Vega said they had not had a lot of luck bringing the water operators together for the subcommittee but had come up with a new way to address the need.

Indira Aguirre, Rural Community Assistance Corporation, went over what had taken place at the administrative joint powers agreement (JPA) subcommittee. At this time the committee has not met.

Dennis Romero, New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED), had a presentation on the rural infrastructure program. He had joined online and had a power point presentation on the program that he thought the communities could take advantage of. It will be a fairly easy and effective program to obtain funding for water, wastewater and solid waste projects. It could fund a wide variety of projects. Romero went over some of what they had done and possible others. He also went over the history of the program that started in 1973 and its changes through the years. The program allows a 20-year repayment time at 1 percent interest.

Andrew Hautzinger, NMED, attended to present on sustainability through regionalization and provided a power point presentation. The state had done the Regional Water System Resiliency Act in 2023 through SB1. Currently New Mexico has 650 community water systems and out of those 85 percent have less than 500 connections. He went over all the benefits of regionalization. This allows two or more entities to merge and organize. The body created will be a political subdivision of the state.

Hautzinger provided an overview of the act and how a regional water system would be formed and the history. He also went over the funding available. It had recently only been $10 million, but an additional $15 million had been added. At this time $8 million has been committed throughout the state. The application process will be open year round and does not have deadlines. He continued with the process and guarantee of acceptance and how they will work with a community to make it work. The program exists to help the rural communities with their infrastructure. It will have a grant component, and he explained how that would work. Hautzinger also went over the loan process and timeline which would be quick. Each applicant will be eligible for $2 million a year. He had several other programs he went into and an explanation of how that would help the regional project and what each one could be used for.

NMED could also help with sustainability from a social perspective and environment. They could help make the projects economically and financially successful along with sustainable.

Hautzinger had a number of programs available for the commission to consider.

Brown said he would be retiring at the end of the year. His last day will be December 19, 2025, and he wouldl be going on a vacation for a month-and-a-half. He said as far as the water commission, "I want to be as involved as you guys will let me, so I will volunteer or do whatever you want."

Next meeting will be held September 11, 2024.

Adjourned