Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
CLOVIS — Following the failure of previous negotiations, the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority is asserting eminent domain rights to secure passage through the land of a local property owner.
The ENMWUA filed a lawsuit last week after its efforts to purchase a temporary construction easement from landowner Phillip Chavez and his co-owner father were unsuccessful.
Attorney David Richards, representing the board, said Chavez and father would have 30 days to reply, but the parties can “resolve it at any time if there’s an agreement.”
Chavez said he will let the legal process continue on schedule and doesn’t expect to say much on the matter for another two months.
“At this time, it’s still ongoing, and I can’t forecast too much of what’s going to happen,” he said. “One side is looking one way and the other side is looking the other way. It’s basically a kind of tug-of-war.”
The property in question is on the west side of Clovis, south of Mendenhal Avenue, along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The board seeks an easement there approximately 883 feet long and 85 feet deep, according to ENMWUA Executive Director Justin Howalt.
As of March 23, the board has secured almost 24 of roughly five dozen easements needed for construction of the pipeline that would connect Clovis, Portales, Cannon Air Force Base and surrounding areas with the Ute Reservoir in Quay County.
The project is large and storied, said Howalt, with the ultimate goal of establishing Ute Reservoir as the primary water source to the community. Construction on the Ute Dam finished in 1963 when officials took pre-emptive action to create a sustainable alternative to the Ogallala (or High Plains) Aquifer, according to the ENMWUA website.
The Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System, locally known as the Ute Water Project, was federally authorized in 2009. The water utility authority was established the following year, replacing the former Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority, which operated under a joint powers agreement. The change gave the authority powers of eminent domain.
Richards explained that properties needed for the water project are appraised twice, and the full amounts of those appraisals are offered to property owners, as well as information on the project and opportunities for discussion.
“In those instances when the property owner was not satisfied and would not grant the easement for the amount of money that was offered, ultimately the board authorized filing suit to condemn the land,” said Richards.
Condemnation of the land is a legal term for asserting eminent domain rights and does not reflect on the quality of the land.
“In any eminent domain action, there has to be a public purpose, and the public purpose is the construction of a water pipeline for ultimate distribution of water from the Ute Reservoir,” said Richards.
Howalt has said at various public meetings the preferred option is to negotiate with private landowners versus piggybacking off the right-of-ways owned by municipalities, because the project requires a 33-inch steel pipeline that can’t be easily moved once installed.
The lawsuit against Chavez is the only such case authorized by the board, he added. The vast majority of other negotiations were accepted outright or are still in progress.
Howalt said Chavez declined an offer of more than $8,000 for the easement on his land.
Chavez said he considered the initial contact from the board to be “informal” and somewhat “presumptuous.”
“I felt that the figure (offered by the board) would naturally be a lowball figure to begin with,” he said. “We’re still entertaining the idea of what to do. I don’t want to say too much until the very end.”