Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Curry votes to change 'position' in ENMWUA

CLOVIS - Noting concerns that its pipeline effort would never directly serve all outlying residents of Curry County, commissioners on Tuesday narrowly approved a motion to change the county's "position" in the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority.

The county will remain a member of ENMWUA and continue paying dues for now, but it will meanwhile "market our interest" for its attendant forthcoming water rights from the in-progress Ute Pipeline.

There was confusion among commissioners and county staff as to what that means, exactly.

Commissioner Bobby Sandoval said he was "not ready to vote on whether we should get out or not," and Commissioner Seth Martin said that's not what he intended in his motion.

Martin had considered as much, he told The News, but after speaking with county attorneys he discovered it "is a long, hard process" to actually withdraw from ENMWUA.

"Basically, how the 'marketing' is, we're going to see who wants to take our position in the authority and assume our interest," Martin said. "We're not looking to discredit the water authority. We merely can no longer see it fit to use rural taxpayer dollars on a project that will not benefit them."

The Ute Pipeline project forecasts a total of 16,450 acre feet of water annually to ENMWUA's member communities upon its completion, which is still many years away. Of that total, Curry County's share is 240 acre feet per year, or 1.46 percent. That's only slightly more than the water portion percentages for the communities of Melrose and Grady, both of which stated interest in recent weeks in withdrawing from ENMWUA.

Grady's mayor said last week that the community had enough water on its own and could better spend its ENMWUA member dues elsewhere, and the Melrose mayor said leaving was in the village's "best interest."

Martin said he had both of those developments in mind this week when he brought the topic of Curry County's membership before the commission on Tuesday morning at its regular meeting. There are a few water lines that run outside of Clovis' city limits into Curry County, Martin said, but there is no infrastructure in place to convey the Ute Reservoir's water to all of the county's rural residents and there are currently no such plans to establish any.

Meanwhile the county has already paid over $177,000 in member dues to ENMWUA since late 2011 and has an invoice for 2019 dues of almost $30,000. That's not to mention the county's obligation of over $43,000 for existing loans as of April.

"It has been done in other states, but this is all going to be new territory for Curry County, to see how this works," Martin said. "We're not exactly sure of where it's going from here, but this is the start of the process."

Commissioner and ENMWUA Secretary Robert Thornton joined Sandoval in voting against the motion. Thornton emphasized that "we're all in this together," noting approximately 9,000 people live in the county's unincorporated areas out of a population of 50,000, and that some county commissioners represent districts almost entirely contained within Clovis' city limits.

Staying with ENMWUA means the county maintains a "seat at the table," Thornton said.

Chairman Chet Spear asked why Curry County ever became a member of ENMWUA "other than to support the (member) communities" that it serves. The "water is valuable," he said, but there is "no means" of delivering it to the county's rural residents. Better that it be sold to another interested party, preferably within the existing ENMWUA membership.

"We want to stay a member of the water utility authority to show people that we still support what they're doing," Spear said. "We are not changing our attitude, we are changing our position on paying for something."

Commissioner Ben McDaniel said he "tend(s) to agree" with Spear and Martin, and voted with them for a 3-2 approval of Martin's motion to market the interest.