Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CLOVIS - A new prospective solution for those struggling with potable water access in the southern part of Curry County drew more than four dozen residents Thursday evening to a U.S. Department of Agriculture workshop in the county's commission chambers.
Commissioner Robert Thornton said he reached out to Rose Perez of Roswell's USDA office after "researching programs that might be available to help people" in getting connected with a new extension to an EPCOR distribution line, he told The News.
The recently installed line runs "south on Curry Road K to Curry Road 6 and east on Curry Road 6 towards the Portales Highway (US 70)," said a press release.
"Residents with well problems will now have access to this distribution line as a source of potable water to tie into their homes," it continued.
USDA flyers at the meeting described the department's "single family housing repair loans & grants," a program that "provides loans to very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve, or modernize their homes;" in this case that would mean adding a connection to the extended distribution line for nearby residences in need of a steady water supply.
The maximum loan is $20,000 and can be repaid over 20 years at a 1 percent fixed loan interest rate, while the maximum grant is $7,500; the two can be combined "for up to $27,500 in assistance," said the literature. Qualifications include a "family income below 50 percent of the area median income."
"I thought it went pretty well. The main thing is trying to make sure if people need assistance to get tied on that line we give them every available resource to do it," Thornton said. "We had some people come up and ask for applications after the meeting."
Thornton estimated "100 plus homes that could possibly benefit" from the program. A resident on County Road 5 whose well ran dry about eight years ago was among those interested in learning more.
"We have neighbors not too far from us also dealing with the same thing," Crystal Garcia told The News on Friday. "We're going to go and check to see exactly what the estimate is for them to run that line down there, and afterwards we will apply for the loan. After that we'll go ahead and meanwhile talk to our neighbors and see if also they're interested, to see if we can maybe apply together for one line."
Garcia said she typically has to spend a full day every week making five round trips into Clovis to fill a 2,500 gallon tank on the property where she's lived since 2005. It's costly because she has to pay for the water, the diesel fuel for the vehicle that transports a 500 gallon tank, and the expense of dedicating time almost every weekend for the trip. Still, it's more feasible than moving with her family, which some in her position "have been fortunate enough" to be able to do.
"Of course (I would move), if I had the money," she said. "Unfortunately, we just have to stay here because we don't have those means."
Garcia was hopeful that some loan assistance could eventually mean the end of those weekly trips. Previous efforts to get funding through a co-op had fizzled out, she said.
"It's been a lot of chasing tails, so hopefully this will actually get a result," she said. "We'll see where it goes."
EPCOR's Mark Huerta said the process of applying for funding and installing those line connections is "not something that's going to happen overnight, when you're dealing with the funding, particularly with the government."
"There's a lot more to it than just going and putting pipe into the ground," he said in the meeting.
Kerra Bwana said she moved to Portales from Dallas in 2016 and spoke at the meeting on behalf of her friend Garcia's water situation. She said it astounded her to find people in the United States without "the luxury of what we think is typical."
"We're not in a third-world country," she said. "Here you have a low-income family; how do we get them water?"
Tony Magness, another attendee, responded: "That's why we're here, trying to figure it out."
Thornton added: "I'd like to say that there's a simple solution to all this, but there's not one. ... I don't like it any more than you do."
"Today, right now ... this is the closest we have to a solution, " he continued. "(The extended line) is close enough to people that we can get tied on to it."
Perez, Commissioner Angelina Baca and Roger Runyon of Dennis Engineering also took questions at the meeting, while Clovis City Commissioners Ladona Clayton and Chris Bryant were in the audience.
Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority Administrator Orlando Ortega also spoke briefly in the meeting. He emphasized that while the issue currently affects families in the southern part of the county, it could well be shared by many others if the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer outpaces progress of the Ute Water Project, which would pump water to Clovis-Portales from Logan.
"It hits you first and it's gonna hit us next if we're not careful," he said.