County urges halt of water pipeline

An open-records request to the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority revealed an engineering firm’s study that stated treating Ute Lake’s water for a pipeline to the Clovis region would be much more complex and costly than anticipated.

That prompted the Quay County Commission to vote unanimously Monday to instruct county manager Daniel Zamora to write a letter on its behalf to the authority’s chairman, Clovis Mayor Mike Morris, urging it to cease construction on the nearly 100-mile pipeline in the county.

Village of Logan council member TJ Smith’s presentation to the commission included the findings of a Freedom of Information Act request to the water authority. The Quay County Sun also obtained documents from the records request.

Smith said a memo from Jacobs Engineering of Albuquerque to the water authority stated the quality of the water in Ute Lake in 2022 had “significantly deteriorated” and that conventional water treatment would be insufficient.

The memo from Jacobs showed the lake water’s total dissolved solids rate increased by 44% from 2005 to 2022 and is more than double the amount allowed.

“This can be an issue because (total dissolved solids) can impact water taste and quality,” the memo stated, noting the levels exceed the World Health Organization limit for drinkable water.

The memo also stated Ute Lake water showed a significant increase in contaminants that would affect treatment processes.

Smith said the documents show the Ute Pipeline would need a water treatment plant that would cost between $400 million and $600 million — money that the authority doesn’t have.

Smith said it’s also uncertain the revised water treatment process would work.

Jacobs estimated the cost of the treatment and plant would bring the price of water to $4.78 per 1,000 gallons in a best-case scenario.

EPCOR, the main water utility in Clovis, charges $1.07 per 1,000 gallons.

“Costs to ratepayers could be catastrophic,” the presentation stated.

Smith also said the water authority has no agreement with EPCOR for it to buy the Ute Pipeline water.

“The project could be left with no buyers for the water, wasting over $1 billion,” the presentation stated.

The water treatment would necessitate the creation of four brine injection wells that might pollute aquifers, Smith said. The wells would dispose 1.5 million gallons of brine water per day.

Despite years of opposition from residents of Logan and Quay County, the authority has continued construction on the pipeline to supply more water to Clovis, Portales and other nearby communities because of the deterioration of local aquifers.

In follow-up questions from commissioners, Smith said he questions how much water would be available for the pipeline due to the accumulation of silt in Ute Lake.

The water authority has notified Logan it intends to bid out construction of a raw water pipeline this fall there and begin construction in spring 2025. Smith said the construction would damage county roads and county landowners in its path.

Smith compared the pipeline to the Bridge to Nowhere — an infamous nearly $400 million bridge in Alaska that would have served an island of only 50 residents. The bridge project ultimately was canceled.

Warren Frost, the county’s attorney and a frequent Ute Pipeline critic, weighed in.

“The idea this is a renewable source of water is a fallacy,” he said. “They’re going to be stuck with this big infrastructure that’s not going to work.”

Commission Chairman Robert Lopez, describing Ute Lake as an “asset to Quay County,” said “it makes sense to me” to have Zamora draft a letter to the water authority.

The other commissioners agreed, and Commissioner Jerri Rush made the motion to have Zamora send the letter on the commission’s behalf.

Commissioner Brian Fortner said he attended the water authority’s sparsely attended public hearing on the project in Logan. He said the pipeline would create no jobs in Logan and that questions about the project often elicited the same response: “You need to talk to the engineers.”

Zamora’s letter, a copy of which was sent to the Quay County Sun after Monday’s meeting, cited data from the Jacobs Engineering study and concerns from Smith’s presentation.

“In our view, the Analysis places into question the continued viability of the Pipeline Project,” the letter stated.

“We do not think it is appropriate for you to continue your construction activities in Quay County until all the issues raised by the Water Treatment Plant Analysis have been resolved,” it concluded.

“As a result, Quay County demands that ENMWUA immediately cease all pipeline construction activities in Quay County until such time as you have a completed and workable treatment plant design and have secured the funding to build it.”

In other business:

— The commission approved a resolution support the Village of Logan’s request for state Water Trust Board funds to replace a water pipeline under the Canadian River.

The pipeline serves the Village of San Jon, Ute Lake Ranch and the Brookfield Properties.

“It doesn’t have the capacity to supply any more,” Smith said.

Smith said the estimated cost last year of replacing the pipeline was $2.3 million.

— On Sheriff Dennis Garcia’s request, the commission approved a resolution supporting New Mexico Counties’ legislative priorities in 2025.

Those included a detention reimbursement fund, courthouse funding, detention recruitment and retention, a firefighter and EMS recruitment fund, funding for emergency medical services and radios.

It also advocates for equitable treatment of residential and non-residential property transfers, additional resources for border-related humanitarian and crime efforts and amendments to the Inspection of Public Records Act to exempt the disclosure of information that might compromise or obstruct critical government services.

— Commissioners approved a governmental affairs services contract with Kim Legant for $1,000 a month. Zamora said she would help the county fund construction of a new Dr. Daniel C. Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari. Legant is a principal for Hull Consulting, which is the county’s lobbying firm.

— Commissioners approved a resolution setting a policy regarding a new body scanner at the Quay County Detention Center. The scanner will be used to detect contraband on inmates as they’re booked into the jail.

— Commissioners approved a resolution adopting a volunteer firefighter stipend program of $5 for each call and $10 for attending training sessions. Each fire district’s chief, plus its deputy chief of secretary, would be paid $100 a month. The stipends would be paid with a state grant that the commissioners also approved.

— Commissioners approved grant requests for backup generators, water systems or apparatus for varying fire districts in the county.

— Jason Lamb and Erin Smith of the Quay County Extension Office gave the office’s quarterly report from May through July, most centering on 4-H activities.