Richardson amends Year of Water agenda to include agriculture and Doña Ana County

Gov. Bill Richardson today announced changes to his Year of Water agenda to improve its focus on agriculture and add projects in Doña Ana County, which had been previously left out.

At a news conference in Las Cruces, Richardson announced a new capital outlay request of $2 million to help fund a high-tech metering system to track agricultural ground water use in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, in addition to a $500,000 executive grant he has already approved to fund the pilot project of a system designed to clean up and reuse dairy wastewater.

Richardson said the $2 million request came from someone he called an expert on water issues – State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who was one of a bipartisan group of lawmakers complaining that the governor’s proposals didn’t do enough for water conservation because they focused on residential use when 75 percent of the state’s water use is agricultural.

“(Cervantes) deserves credit. It’s his initiative,” Richardson told me after the news conference, adding that he does consider it an amendment to his Year of Water agenda.

He said he met with Cervantes on Wednesday and agreed to the new proposal.

Historically, in years of drought when farmers resorted to using groundwater to water crops, the water was not tracked. About a year ago, the state engineer announced that he wanted to start tracking that water use, and he wanted farmers to pay for costly meters to track it. Farmers, obviously, weren’t happy with that.

The system Cervantes and the governor propose would pay for the installation of solar-powered meters that send water-use information to a satellite. Water use can then be tracked on the Internet by the state engineer’s office and farmers.

That will allow the state, for the first time, to track such groundwater use and begin to manage it. That’s the first step toward conservation, Richardson and Cervantes said.

“You’re then relying on satellite and solar technology that leads to high-tech water management,” said Cervantes, who spoke by telephone from Santa Fe.

Cleaning up dairies

The $500,000 grant will fund a pilot program at Gonzales Dairy in Mesquite that will test a system developed by New Mexico State University researchers to clean up and recycle dairy wastewater.

Dairies collect such wastewater in large lagoons, then let it evaporate and use the leftover material as fertilizer. The new system would capture the water before it evaporates, so it can be recycled and reused, and before it seeps into the ground and pollutes groundwater.

Dairies, particularly those in the Mesquite area, are notorious for increasing the nitrates in groundwater. Under pressure from area residents fed up with groundwater pollution, the state environmental department has been trying to deal with the problems with Mesquite’s dairies in recent years.

Ramona Parra, an environmental chemist at NMSU’s Physical Sciences Laboratory, said the system uses “revolutionary” technology to get around a common problem with trying to filter dairy wastewater: The solids in the waste clog filters.

The new system, which was developed by NMSU chemical engineer Robert Marquez, won’t have that problem, Parra said.

“It’s going to help the dairies a lot. It’s going to help with economic development. It will keep them in the state,” said PSL Deputy Director Enedina Vazquez.

The money for the project doesn’t have to be approved by the Legislature, Richardson said, because it comes from a grant fund over which he has authority. Richardson said he has already signed an order giving the money to NMSU.

Richardson’s Year of the Water plan also proposes $25 million for the Water Trust Fund, $10 million for statewide leak detection and repair, $10 million for water innovation projects, $15.3 million for a pipeline that will connect systems on the Navajo Nation, $12 million for Indian water-rights lawsuit settlements, $7.5 million to restore river ecosystems, $5 million to design a pipeline from the Ute Reservoir, $5 million for the Strategic Water Reserve, $2.2 million to study the Salt Basin, $1.5 million for new staff, and $1 million for agricultural easements, according to the news service.

Other announcements

Also at today’s news conference, Richardson highlighted capital outlay projects he had already proposed for this year’s budget – $4 million for a sports complex in Sunland Park, $1 million to improve the water system in Sunland Park and $6 million for projects in area colonias. Richardson said the money was proposed by Sen. Cynthia Nava and Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, both Las Cruces Democrats.

Sunland Park Mayor Jesus “Ruben” Segura praised the governor, saying the projects were proof that he, unlike past governors, keeps promises he makes to Southern New Mexico.

“When the governor went down there he noticed the need, he made the promise and now he’s committing the funding,” Segura said.

The news conference revealed how times have changed. The mayor, who was once involved in a protest in which Sunland Park residents burned Richardson for Governor T-shirts in front of a television crew, today urged New Mexicans to support Richardson’s bid for president.

“This individual is a great, formidable American,” Segura said. “If he can make this great state what it is, I think he can make this great nation even better.”