McKinley County Water Board
M I N U T E S
October 13, 2004
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Edward Wemytewa Pueblo
of Zuni
Mike Daly White Cliffs MDWUA
Loline Hathaway Yah-ta-Hey WSD
Sherry Botkin Thoreau WSD
Rhonda Berg Rehoboth Red Mesa
Foundation
facilitators/staff:
Larry Winn McKinley Soil &
Water Conservation District
Evan Williams Northwest New
Mexico Council of Governments
Jeff Kiely Northwest New Mexico
Council of Governments
I.
OPENING & INTRODUCTIONS. Board
facilitator Larry Winn opened the meeting at 10:13 AM. Edward Wemytewa announced that Board member
Joan Sandy had just been promoted to the Directorship of the Zuni Division of
Natural Resources. The Board extended
its congratulations through him to Joan.
II.
MINUTES
A.
Rhonda Berg moved, and Mike Daly seconded to approve
the minutes of August 11, 2004.
The motion was approved by acclamation.
B.
Rhonda Berg moved, and Mike Daly seconded to approve
the minutes of September 8, 2004, inclusive of minor edits noted. The motion was approved by acclamation.
III.
OLD BUSINESS
A.
CFWR/G-22 Follow-up.
Jeff Kiely gave a quick overview of last meeting’s discussion with Matt
Metzler, representing Citizens for Water Rights. Mr. Kiely indicated that he and Mike Daly had not yet discussed
the issue with Lance Allgood, but that it would be briefly brought up at the
Gallup Water Board this evening (10/13).
Broad-ranging discussion followed.
Loline Hathaway inquired
regarding the drilling going on north of Gallup; Mr. Kiely explained that the
Twin Lakes well was being drilled by Indian Health Service under State funding,
as part of the Gallup Regional System initiative associated with the
Navajo/Gallup Water Supply Project.
Larry Winn noted that the ramifications of the Gallup Regional System
would increasingly be relevant to the concerns of all interests around the
McKinley Water Board table. Mr. Kiely
added a brief report that the New Mexico Water Trust Board had recently ranked
the Phase IV project of the Gallup Regional System as #1 in the current funding
cycle.
Mike Daly asked whether White
Cliffs should seek funding support from the Water Trust Board. Mr. Kiely responded that the Water Trust
Board’s primary thrust was toward large, “regional” projects, and that once
this McKinley Board puts together a fully regional countywide plan, we might
then be eligible for that funding.
B.
EGRT/Water Infrastructure Priority List. Evan Williams presented his packet of charts
representing the Board’s recommendation on funding of water and wastewater
projects in the County, including utilization of proceeds from the County’s Environmental
Gross Receipts Tax (EGRT) fund.
Rhonda Berg asked that the
projects labeled “Rehoboth” be changed to “East Gallup”; there are preliminary
plans to annex the Rehoboth Red Mesa Foundation lands into the City.
Larry Winn referred to Project
2005-1c, Little Puerco Improvement Project/Downtown, asking what planning
needed to be done. Evan explained that
this involves the portion of the Little Puerco stream in the Downtown Square
area. Planning needs to be done as part
of the overall downtown revitalization project.
Edward Wemytewa noted that
there are two separate projects at Zuni, for which partial funding of $100,000
was received from the State. The
(federal) Rural Utility Service has been the main funding support for the
system, moving into its last phase.
Larry Winn noted the recent “Brainpower Conference” held recently at
UNM-Gallup, at which there was a presentation by Dr. Gerry Knowles on a planned
office/residential park northeast of the Pueblo. Mr. Wemytewa explained that this project had a “long history,
going back three Zuni tribal administrations.
The State had allocated $1 million to finalize plans, but the project
was blocked by a prior tribal administration.
Interestingly, it is now being supervised by current Planning &
Development Director Andrew Othole, who was an elected official during that
prior administration. The issue being
considered now is, do we have the physical and human infrastructure – including
water – needed to develop and sustain it?
Even a golf course was mentioned as part of the development, but Zuni
Tribal Council is concerned about future water supply.
ACTION: Mike Daly moved,
and Sherry Botkin seconded to include the Zuni projects, as modified, in the
recommendations to the Commission. The
motion carried unanimously.
Mike Daly commented that the
White Cliffs reverse osmosis project should be seen as supporting the State
Plan with regard to developing new water sources. The new development proposed for northeast of Crownpoint may plan
to use a similar RO system and recycle its water supply.
Mike Daly revisited the issue
of the proposed Springsted ranch development being planned by Ft. Defiance
Housing Authority north of Churchrock, saying that this Board felt they should
come to the County with their plans.
ACTION: It was agreed that County attorney Doug Decker
would be advised to proactively “invite” to review the Springsted development
plans by Ft. Defiance Housing Authority.
C.
HRI Uranium Mining Proposal—Opposing View by ENDAUM. There being no representatives at this
meeting from Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM), this item
will be deferred to another date.
IV.
OTHER ISSUES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
A.
Local District Technical Needs. Loline Hathaway brought forward the issue that her district,
Yah-ta-Hey Water & Sanitation District is facing overwhelming problems –
it’s hard to see how the district can even be run, when it is so difficult even
to get a quorum of the local Board together.
Now audits are being required of the districts, and there are layers
upon layers of regulations to deal with.
She noted the intense learning curve she has undergone, and she is now a
certified operator. Even if YWSD goes
on Gallup water supply, it still needs to manage its own distribution
system. She has to go door-to-door to
follow up on any environmental issues.
She said that April from the local office of the New Mexico Environment
Department has some perspectives on this dilemma; perhaps this Board could visit
with her on it.
Mike Daly agreed that local
district management can be
overwhelming. One problem is that the
same requirements are there, regardless of size of the system; the Environment
Department doesn’t seem to care about that.
Half of the local systems don’t even have a certified operator. As a District operator, Mike himself spends
weeks trying to comply with NMED regulations; “it’s overkill.” Sherry Botkin agreed, adding that the whole
compliance process is so time-consuming.
Mike maintained that people aren’t dying of water-born diseases these
days, so perhaps the Environment Department should back off a bit.
Loline mentioned the “consumer
confidence report” that goes out to all water system users annually,
complaining that her District members don’t even read it. Mike added that the reporting protocols are
very cumbersome. The Scientific Lab
provides reports to NMED; why can’t this data be downloaded into the CCR,
rather than making this another huge burden on the local districts?
Larry Winn asked what the
Water Board could do to address these concerns. Loline explained that the needs are comprehensive: technical, administrative and financial. Larry wondered, based on his experience with
his own company, whether it might be best for all the Districts to go in
together and hire an overall director to deal with all these requirements. He added that this County Board has talked
since its beginning about the need for uniform data collection and sharing,
etc. Loline felt that the problems still
need to be clearly identified and wondered if could put together a subcommittee
on local districts and associations.
Larry responded that these
local issues are very real, suggesting that the long-term survival of the rural
systems aren’t even guaranteed – maybe all that will be left will be the
municipal systems? For example, when
former Governor Gary Johnson and Health Secretary Duke Rodriguez were asked in
Gallup about how to get “comparability of care” in McKinley County, their
response was that the people should “move to Albuquerque, where the systems can
take care of you.” So, what if the
whole challenge of “equal water service for rural New Mexico” is unsolvable?
Mike Daly commented that size
is an issue: 360 connectinos at Thoreau
is large enough for economy-of-scale service.
But at White Cliffs, the new developments began with a horrible system
and situation; the system is building up, but the economies-of-scale aren’t
there. So maybe 6 systems ought to join
together – with one Board and one certified operator. Such an administration could help with central billing. In the meantime, he added, we need to get
the Feds to “slow down on adding regs; they’re monitoring things they don’t
even know the purpose of.”
Rhonda Berg wondered whether there
might be a County role in seeking funding to help the rural systems. Larry responded that there is a need for the
systematization of information, because there will always be the need to
present good information in Santa Fé.
Our first challenge, then, is to systematize all of these local system
issues across the groups. This Board
should take this on, and then forward it to the County Commission.
Rhonda maintained that there
is still a funding need to be addressed.
Jeff Kiely asked whether the Board might want to re-submit its “regional
system” planning proposal to the State.
Rhonda agreed that it should, adding that we need to help all of the
groups see how their funding needs can be met within the bigger picture. There was general agreement that it was an
issue of local Boards being well informed and educated on the issues, options
and possible solutions. Larry affirmed
this, saying that this was a main reason for this County Board, based in part
on reactions of County Commissioner Ernest Becenti, Jr. following the Gallup
Town Hall on Water in May 2003.
Back to Loline’s presenting
problem getting her Board members involved, Jeff suggested that she could
contact them individually on a range of issues and get their input in this
fashion. Larry added that she could get
the Board to authorize a whole range of actions – even if only at one annual
meetings – so that she would have the authority to proceed without worrying
about convening them all the time. Jeff
suggested that she could come forward to them with an “annual plan of action,”
get that agreed to, and then proceed to implement it.
Edward Wemytewa noted that the
Zuni Tribal Council acts as its own Water Board. It discovered that, in the past, wastewater system plans had been
approved that were overkill; it was subsequently advised that something lesser
would do the job. So now, the Council
is considering forming its own Water Board, similar to this one. The Tribe may have to go out and look at
other systems.
Loline asked whether the
“circuit rider” concept might work for a certified operator serving more than
one district. Mike asked how this would
be paid for, and Loline suggested that, eventually, it would have to be paid
“by the people” who would benefit from the service.
Mike wondered if we could get
water/sewer system operator certificate classes going at UNM-Gallup. Edward thought this would be good; the Zuni
Tribe has often talked about growing its own human resources; “we get them
trained, though, and then they move elsewhere.” Loline noted that the City of Gallup holds certified operators
training the 4th Wednesday of each month at the sewer plant. Staff and Board members could avail
themselves. Mike suggested adding the
services of Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) and New Mexico Water
Users Association (NMWUA). Loline asked
that a meeting be organized for all water systems in the County, to which local
and State officials could be invited.
ACTION: For one of the next
Board meetings, it was agreed that Mike Daly, Evan Williams and Jeff Kiely will
put together a proposed plan for convening a “small systems forum” and bring it
to the Board for review, discussion and adoption.
B.
Uranium Mining Issue.
Mike Daly announced that Dr. Ruth Weimer from New Mexico Tech would be
presenting at our Board meeting on scientific issues related to the HRI in
situ leach mining proposal. He said
that New Mexico Tech does not have a stake in the project, and he expected the
presentation to be quite objective.
Mike went on to say that the
HRI plan calls for building a new water system for the Crownpoint community,
adding that there may be a chance that [the HRI mining] is a safe
technology. Rhonda added that the HRI
presentation provided information that sounded “OK,“ in spite of the fears and
concerns, but she was eager to hear other viewpoints. She thanked Mike for putting this educational process together.
ACTION: It was agreed to re-invite ENDAUM to a future meeting of the Water
Board, and to send them relevant past minutes and handout materials from prior
Board meetings.
V.
ADJOURNMENT: Mike Daly
moved, and Sherry Botkin seconded to adjourn; the Board meeting adjourned at 12:18 PM. Next meeting
will be at the McKinley County conference room at 10 AM on Wednesday, November
10th (9:00 if ENDAUM is presenting).
Respectfully submitted,
Jeff
Kiely, Deputy Director
Northwest
New Mexico Council of Governments