Arch Hurley board allocates another 1 inch of water

It took two tries, but the Arch Hurley Conservancy District board of directors eventually voted last Tuesday to allocate another 1 inch of water per acre.

Heavy rain in the Canadian River watershed the previous weekend caused Conchas Lake — the source of the Arch Hurley irrigation system — to rise almost 2 feet before the meeting.

That prompted 10 area farmers to attend the meeting to request more water for crops.

The board during its July meeting had allocated an additional 1 inch of water per acre, with the option of revisiting the issue during its August meeting. The board initially allocated 2 inches during its April meeting.

District manager Franklin McCasland said he was inclined keep water in the main canal from the lake because temperatures were forecast to rise to nearly 100 degrees in the coming days. He also said the system’s canals also contained a lot of stormwater.

Board member Larry Perkins said he received calls from farmers asking for a new allocation so they could plant winter wheat and finish their corn and milo crops. With that, he moved to allocate another 1 inch of water.

Perkins’ motion died from the lack of a second.

Board President Robert Lopez said he was disinclined to allocate more water. He said he wanted to conserve water in the lake so it would be at a good level for the start of the growing season in 2025.

“An allocation this late in the year doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

A suggested motion to not allocate water had no takers.

McCasland said if the board allocated as much as 2 additional inches and made no more in September, he said levels in the lake “should be OK.”

Perkins again moved to allocate 1 inch of water per acre. That received a second, and the board voted 4-1 to approve. Board member Debra Mitchell cast the only dissenting vote.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor map of Aug. 15, drought conditions had eased in northeast New Mexico, though much of the region remained in abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions. Southern New Mexico was seeing the worst drought conditions.

In other action, the board approved the audit report from Dan Austin CPA of Ruidoso for the 2023 fiscal year.

Austin gave the district an unmodified opinion in his report, the best attainable. Arch Hurley had $2.71 million in assets, $1.6 million in cash available and $121,000 in liabilities.

The district had one repeated finding regarding three annuities totaling $550,000 in face value that were purchased in 2021 but not authorized by the state.

McCasland said it would be more expensive to withdraw money from the annuities than to simply let them mature in 2025 and 2026. He said they would be converted to cash or rolled over to another investment at that time.

Lopez praised McCasland and office manager Theresa Lafferty for “doing a good job” with district finances.

“Too bad you’re not delivering more water,” Austin said.