Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Ute Pipeline not a long-term solution
I have analyzed the effects that the Ute Lake pipeline would have had on the water available in Ute Lake using the actual historical daily United States Geological Survey data from the year 2007 to 2023.
I am a Texas certified public accountant with many, many years of data analysis experience.
The ENMWUA proposes to draw 16,415-acre feet through the pipeline each year. Using the 16,415-acre feet a year is equivalent to 44.97-acre feet per day. I simply calculated what each day’s lake reading would have been had the pipeline began pumping April 1, 2007, based on the actual lake levels reported.
This method accounts for the increases from rainfall and runoff and reduces the daily level by the daily pipeline withdrawal. I assumed that at the 25,000-acre feet level in Ute Lake, that the pipeline could not produce -- or deadpool.
The results of taking the 5,870 actual daily Ute Lake levels data beginning April 1, 2007, less the water that would have left the lake each day through the pipeline results in Ute Lake deadpool as of January 2013.
Only 5.76 years and the lake would have been so low that the pipeline could not produce if started in 2007. The 16 years of daily data shows that water would have been available only 62.27% of the time analyzed. Worse is that the data shows the lake would have been at deadpool water levels since July of 2017 and would be at deadpool levels as of the writing of this letter.
Five years of no water from the lake, so far.
Another simpler approach to determine the sustainability of the Ute Lake pipeline project is to simply use the acre feet in Ute Lake as of Oct. 8, 2017, of 222,700-acre feet, when the lake was full and flowing over the spillway, through the reading on April 27, 2023, of 122,100-acre feet -- a drop of 100,600-acre feet without the pipeline.
That time frame is 2,027 days or 5.55 years times 16,415-acre feet per year to the pipeline is another 91,103-acre feet of water that would have flown through the pipeline in that time period. So, the reading today of 122,100-acre feet would be less 91,103-acre feet leaving 30,997-acre feet.
That level is at or very near deadpool in only 5 ½ years.
I understand the necessity of supplying water to the member communities of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. I just cannot see the pipeline as a viable option for a long-term solution based on this data.
This data looks at the last 16 years of actual readings of the acre feet of water available and results in deadpool at Ute Lake whether you started withdrawals 16 years ago or five years ago.
Tracy Thompson
Amarillo and Logan