By Lynn Janes

On August 8, 2024, the commission held a regular meeting at the city annex building.

Raymond De La Vega, Stantec project manager, introduced the engineers that would be working on the project. Richard Maynes works for Stantec locally. Barbara Herrera and Tracy Anderson, senior project engineer from Denver office, attended for the kickoff of the project. He wanted everyone to meet who would be working on the project and have them tour the area where the water lines would be put.

They had put together a presentation. It the past they had discussed the needs of the stakeholders and looked at what would make it the most functional for everyone. Stantec has been looking at the best way to operate the system and avoid having to flush the system due to water aging. Multiple modeling simulations for the project had been done. This will be just to start the conversation.

Can the regional system be a complete standby system? De La Vega said it has been part of the conversation from the beginning. Having a purely standby system is having to be flushed because of water age unless the system would be moving at all times. Currently some of the municipalities have that in some small areas and they need to be flushed because of water aging. This system would be about 15 miles of line. If that had to be flushed, they would have to waste 500,000 gallons of water and replace it and it would take at least two days to start up again to use and would cause a problem if it had to be done for an emergency.

De La Vega went over the raw water system versus the potable water system. They had discussed the raw system and the flexibility of it. After looking at how this will actually work the finished system might be a better choice. The raw water would require individual chlorine storage and multiple points of chlorine would make it more intricate. The finished system would reduce the number of points of chlorination, maybe only two points. It would also reduce costs. It will take some negotiations because of the different municipalities and how they run. May have to settle on a range of chlorination.

The water rights need to be shown that are being used. Hurley must show beneficial use. Having Hurley on the system will be a huge step. The question will be how to use the water to keep it fresh in the system and avoid having to flush it.

A person from the Tyrone Water Association asked about the level of chlorination. He said he had used test strips, and they have not shown any chlorine. He had been able to use tap water in his fish tank. De La Vega said he didn't know the answer, but the EPA has a large range of acceptable chlorination. Different entities could run at different levels but for his case specifically he didn't know.

Anderson went over the raw versus finished system aspects. They key of the system will be a backup system for the stakeholders and being able to maintain independence to operate their system. After the modeling they have started to lean towards a finished water system and an agreed range for chlorination that fits the requirements of the EPA. The water model assumptions did not have the water quality of each area and they don't have that data at this time. Some may require more chlorination than another. Stantec will be running more modeling scenarios when they receive that data.

Anderson went over the new and old wells that would be coming through the system and how. It makes running the system as finished a better choice at this point. They had run three scenarios and based on water age using a base of five days or less.

A person in attendance asked how they arrived at the five days and why. Anderson said it has just been used as a rule of thumb and it has to do with the rate of chlorine degradration that happens over time. Chlorine reacts to iron to create a sludge.

Currently two of the scenarios would optimize the system by using Hurley, Hanover, Arenas Valley and Rosedale at different percentages. Stantec will update the information when they receive the water quality data. Anderson said they would be putting a head tank for Rosedale and Arenas Valley across the road from Adobe Techniques.

Currently Stantec recommends the finished chlorinated water system. It will allow the most transparent integration to the individual stakeholders.

Next steps

Priscilla Lucero, director, Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, said, she and Sheila Hudman, Santa Clara village administrator, were both pleased with the recommendations of Stantec and doing a chlorinated system. They had joined the meeting online. Alex Brown, Silver City town manager malso agreed with the chlorinated system.

Lucero said they had met with the Water Trust Board the day before and they had adopted the new capacity money from the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA). They have not developed the application cycle for it yet. It will allow local governments to come in and have a PER done. Also any entity looking at regionalization will be able to come to this fund and ask for funds to do their project.

Ed Stevens, Hurley mayor, said, "I am pleased with the scenarios, and they will be the most logical. I'm pleased we have come this far."

Laura Phelps, Community Development Manager, Freeport McMoRan wanted to know if the project would be doing any studies on the existing infrastructure with emphasis on Hanover. They told her it would not.

Next meeting will be held September 26, 2024

Adjourned