By Lynn Janes
On December 18, 2025, the commission had a regular meeting at the Silver City city annex building.
New business
Jesse Shapiro, ISC (Interstate Stream Commission), had been to Silver City and met with some people involved in the commission. Currently they will be preparing the policy for the next funding round for New Mexico Unit Fund. It will be put out for public comment by the end of January or February. They will also do some listening sessions in Silver City around the same time.
The next step will be to put together a funding agreement with IS, and it will require a detailed scope of work. Shapiro will be sending out a template later for that as well as other requirements that will be necessary.
Alex Brown, town manager, introduced Mark Valenzuela, Bosque Advisors. He had been contracted to be the financial advisor on the update of the JPA (joint powers agreement) on the finance side. They had partnered with Melendrez and Melendrez Law Firm in Albuquerque. They will do the legal side. They had submitted a proposal to the Water Trust Board for the technical assistance program and won through a competitive bid process. He spoke to having a relationship with many involved in the regional project naming Silver City and Grant County. Valenzuela said he was familiar with the project and some of the paths. The finance authority has engaged them to help support the project.
Valenzuela said it would be up to the regional water project to figure out how it will be structured and the relationship of the parties. He knew they wanted to move away from the JPA into a more permanent kind of legislative statutory creation. "That will be what we help support you in what to do." He wanted the commission's input about what they want to see. He talked about some other entities in New Mexico that would be similar, so they had models to work from.
Brown said from his perspective it needed to be its own entity. Currently they have been piecemealing everything with each doing parts. Ultimately the goal should be a stand-alone entity that can issue debt, apply for grants, etc. and not put the burden on any one community. He thought it should be addressed with the JPA subcommittee in January.
Pricilla Lucero, New Mexico Southwest Council of Governments director, spoke to Valenzuela on some history of the project. One thing that had been critical to move forward had been to ensure that everyone maintained their own system and water rights, and she thought that requirement remained the same. She asked how they would do that.
Lucero had another piece she thought he should know. This will be used as a model under what they call the New Mexico Build. Once they are ready to finalize the scope of work, it will be past the 2026 legislative session, and they will need to work on the 2027. She asked him if she were correct. Valenzuela said they could introduce a bill if needed but it probably would not be successful, but it could be a good strategy to have it put out, so it will be known before the next session.
Brown said it would be important that they all share equally in the fixed costs like debt and insurance. He included the four water associations under Silver City. Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara village administrator, said they would be merging with Hanover. Currently the phase to bring Hanover in will be the biggest challenge. Lucero went over a meeting about that part of the project for Valenzuela and they have funding strategies for the next two years for this part of the project.
Brown, Lucero and Valenzuela agreed the JPA should be a meeting in January to put together some of this information and see how they will need to proceed with the legislature and be ready for Grant County Days with information.
Raymond De La Vega, Stantec, had an update for the commission. They had been working on the details of the booster station and an analysis of the bulk chlorine decay rate. He would be coordinating with the water operators to see when and where they could pull samples. Stantec has been coming closer to the second phase of the Hanover transmission line. The question has come up on who exactly will operate that station. The reason has been if they will be using liquid or gas chlorine. He understood Santa Clara uses gas. Gas has some safety issues that need to be accounted for. This will feed into everything that they plan. Another thing that needed to be addressed would be a backup chlorination system. A discussion of the different types of chlorination methods went on for a while and why they used those types. Each one posed different problems that needed to be considered. The discussion also came to which would be the best and most cost effective. This created a lot of questions and different choices. One of the water operators had attended and could give some detailed information on the different systems.
De La Vega said lastly, they had started on the slag well and will have more to report later.
Laura Phelps, Community Development Manager, Freeport McMoRan (FMI) asked about the phases of the project. De la Vega said currently it will be four phases but could be broken up more. It will be a conversation they need to have. Phase one will be Hurley, then phase two will be Santa Clara to Hanover which will be broken up. After that it would be Hurley to Santa Clara and then Santa Clara to Rosedale. They continued with a long discussion about the connection with Rosedale and Arenas Valley and how that might work.
Phelps said they would need a cost estimate for each phase for the legislative conversations. Stantec will provide them with a ballpark on the phases.
De La Vega said they have been putting together a new list of questions for the water operators and will include a lot of what they had talked about at this meeting with chlorination. He will have an update at the next meeting.
Lucero commented they had a lot of work with the subcommittees to be ready to move forward with the construction phase. They will have to be ready to take those debts and start collecting revenues to pay the debts and show fiscal responsibility.
Colonias will have $80 million available in the fund for 2026, and Lucero said they needed to think about it. The Water Trust board will also have more funds available. She continued to list and speak to other funding sources that would be available to the project. She asked Shapiro if they could combine any of those or if they would have to be for stand-alone projects. The conversation went on to speak about how to address these issues and who they could meet with at the legislature.
Public input
Kristina Ortiz said she will no longer be the liaison for USDA Rural Partners Network but will be taking on a new role as a loan technician specialist. She will be taking care of all the preliminary paperwork for transfers, assumptions and requests to incur additional debt. She will be the primary contact. They will need to be involved in the Hanover-Santa Clara merger and will be heavily involved with the regional water because of the smaller communities.
Next meeting will be held January 22, 2026
Adjourned
