County seeking water solutions

Buffy Berdoza started hauling water every day to her home by the Southwest Cheese Plant about three years ago when her well dried up.

But she doesn't want to move and, right now, she said she can't.

“I've been there 13 years already. I've raised my kids there,” Berdoza said. “I just love my place, I love our ranch. I grew my kids there, and it's hard for me now to get a payment for another home.”

Berdoza picks up 10 five-gallon buckets of water from a friend of hers on her way home from work every day. She pays him around $40 a month, she said.

“We don't just get it free from him,” she said. “We've gotta pay him a little bit.”

Carrying that much water daily has its tolls, and it's taking a physical one on her. Berdoza said she is facing possible surgery on her shoulders and says she lives with “constant pain every day.”

Berdoza's family is one of nearly 30 southern Curry County families without water that County Commissioner Chet Spear is working to find a solution for.

Spear said he asked County Attorney Steve Doerr to look into what the county could legally do to help them.

Doerr, Spear said, has come up with some options. The first one Doerr suggested was for the residents to form a water co-op, which would help them approach the county in asking for assistance to have water hauled to them.

Another option for residents, Spear said, would be to hire an independent entrepreneur to create a business to haul water to them.

“I've seen a couple of them have 250-gallon tanks. They haul water and put a tank next to their house,” Spear explained. “If somebody could develop a business or go into business to haul these people water, get water from the city, a tanker or something and they could haul water to these people. Of course, there'd be a charge.”

Spear said “way on down the road,” EPCOR could bring a water line into the area and allow residents to tie onto it. EPCOR is the water provider for the city of Clovis.

“But they still have to tie into the line at their own expense,” Spear said. “They can't afford that. I'm really concerned, not just for the people south of Clovis but there are people out by the (Cannon Air Force Base) without water. Eventually, if we keep going the way we are, we'll have a bigger problem, and that's why I'm looking for solutions now.”

Eastern Plains Council of Government Executive Director Sandy Chancey said EPCOG has also been researching ideas and ways to help the residents get water, but anytime money gets involved, she hits a brick wall.

“We've been working on a solution but haven't found one yet,” she said. “We've explored grants, but an anti-donation law prevents us from finding a source to provide funding.”

The anti-donation law, she said, does not allow government money to benefit any one individual or business; not even a small group of people like the residents needing water.

“Public funds have to be used for public good, not individual good, so that is the problem,” Chancey said.

Chancey said EPCOG has looked at Community Development Block Grants, capital outlay money and environmental department funds to find something, anything, to help the residents.

“Everything we've looked at ran into the anti-donation issue,” she said. “We've been working on this for three years; it's not anything new and it's very unfortunate that we're having difficulty finding a solution to the problem.”

Another issue, Chancey said, is the fact that neither the city nor county own water rights — EPCOR Water privately owns them.

“We can't get a grant that would help EPCOR Water extend to them, either, but we will keep looking for a solution to the problem,” Chancey said.

That doesn't mean the residents south of Clovis are giving up hope. Berdoza said she's having a meeting at her house at 6 p.m. Wednesday for residents and any citizen that wants to help find a way to get them water.

“I just wish somebody could help us a little bit, to see what we can do about this,” Berdoza said. “We don't want to move; it's too hard for me to move right now.”