March 16, 2006

McKinley County Commissioners Chambers

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Paulene McCabe Manuelito Chapter

Michael Daly White Cliffs MDWUA

Loline Hathaway Yah-ta-hey Water & Sanitation District

Rhonda Berg Rehoboth-Red Mesa Foundation

Andres Cheama Pueblo of Zuni

facilitators/staff:

Evan Williams Northwest NM Council of Governments

Larry Winn McKinley County Soil & Water Conservation District

I. OPENING & INTRODUCTIONS. Board facilitator Larry Winn opened the meeting at 10:07 AM.

II. Cibola Water Rights Issue.

Mike Daly sent a letter to the NM Office of State Engineer requesting information regarding proof of ownership in the Joe Diaz claim. He also reported that he talked to Jay Stein, an attorney in Santa Fe, who told Mike that his client also had a claim on those rights. Mike Daly will follow-up on his letter to NM OSE and also about his request to Joe Diaz on a water quality study of the claim.

III. Water Legislative Update.

Implications on NGWSP.

Evan Williams announced that our fear for last meeting was confirmed. The Governor vetoed the funding ($75 million) for Indian Water Rights Settlement in the State. This funding would have been vital to the Taos Pueblo, Aamodt, and Navajo water rights settlement.

Larry Winn gave a brief background again on the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project. He started with the fact that the Navajo Water Settlement had been approved by the Navajo Nation and the State of NM, and if the Federal government approved that settlement; that approval would have entailed the authorization to build the NGWSP. (not the funding but the authorization) Our Federal delegation was all supportive of serving both the Navajo Nation and Gallup communities. There was a slight slow down concerning issues around the NIP project, as part of the NAPI build out. It was being claimed as part of the trust responsibility to fully build this project out. Senator Domenici weighed in and refused to comply due to the wastage of water that was occurring.

The Navajo Nation is hoping that the Federal government will fund their entire portion of the project, and that the City of Gallup would be responsible for some portion of their share. (maybe 80-20% - Federal/Local) Gallup was looking to the State to assist in providing funding for Gallup’s portion. (possible 75-25% of the 20% = $15 million)

The funding and support from the State has been arriving in the form of the Gallup Regional System year after year. In the $75 million that was vetoed by the Governor there was funding in the form of cash for the build-out of NGWSP, specifically. This would have provided an incentive to the Federal Delegation to move ahead with Legislation.

The Board discussed other issues and implications of this veto, and the other options for water supply in the meantime that could be available – G-22 and Reverse-Osmosis.

Implications on Local Projects

Evan Williams gave another brief update on the 2006 Legislative Session, which had just concluded. He announced that McKinley County Water and Wastewater projects did extremely well, including:

· White Cliffs Wastewater: $450,000

· Ya-tah-hey WSD Water: $100,000

· Gamerco WSD Water: $70,000

· Williams Acres WSD WW: $225,000

· Thoreau WSD WW: $50,000

· Regional Water Planning: $30,000

Along with a myriad of Navajo Chapters and Pueblo of Zuni water and wastewater projects.

IV. Regionalization.

Larry Winn introduced the topic, by relaying a story about Commissioner Becenti asking specifically what the Water Board was doing about forming a regional authority. Evan Williams got up to diagram the three different initiatives that were being discussed.

o Regionalization of County Systems – The County received $30,000 to implement the Region 6 Water Plan in the form of small system regionalization. As we have been discussing at the Water Board and started at the Small System Forum.

o NWNM Water Authority – A multi-county and stakeholder water authority that would be formed to oversee the construction and management of the Gallup Regional System and the NGWSP. The County’s process may led and ultimately join into this larger authority, but first we need to get a grip on sustaining small systems and preparing them to hook up with larger regional infrastructure.

o Bi-County Water Board – Cibola County is looking at our model and in the beginning stages of forming a Water Board. Our Commission has discussed the possibility of forming a bi-county water board in the future. This seems to be a backburner issue to the Regionalization project.

Mike Daly discussed that the NTUA has done a good job mapping their infrastructure including water meters and pipes to where they can check for pressure throughout their systems. He noted that the majority of their lines are only 2” and 4” lines, where they probably should have gone 6” to make them available for fire protection.

There was discussion around Jane Morrison being the contact for this NTUA mapping project and we discussed if they had also mapped sources and wells.

Larry Winn saw the NWNM Water Authority morphing out of the NGWSP Technical Team and thought that in the future the idea of broadening the focus from a NGWS pipeline to an east-west line connecting Grants and Gallup as well.

NEXT STEP: Focus and have a facilitated session on regionalization priorities and finalize the scope of work at the next meeting.

V. Other Issues – Thoreau Wastewater Project.

Evan Williams discussed with Sherry Botkin the problem with the wording on Rep Martinez’s request. He discussed a strategy to try and fix the issue.

The Water Board also discussed different local conversation strategies and implementing progressive billing rates. Also tracking monthly billing rates and communicating with residents who have a spike in their rates about fixing leaks.

Respectfully submitted,

Evan Williams, Associate Planner

Northwest NM Council of Governments