City acts to ensure future water supply

Rio Rancho is taking action to ensure water supplies for future growth.

City councilors this week gave the green light to apply for a loan from the New Mexico Finance Authority to snap up 400-acre-feet of water rights being offered by a source that city officials declined to name.

“We do not disclose the source until the deal is finalized,” Assistant City Manager Laura Fitzpatrick stated in an email.

Acting City Manager Jim Babin told councilors at their meeting on Wednesday that the city has a “conditional contract” for the water rights at a total cost of $4.8 million.

“This is a great price,” Councilor Chuck Wilkins said.

The loan will be repaid over a period of up to 20 years from the $1 surcharge recently added to the $5 monthly water rights acquisition fee on customer bills, according to a council briefing memo.

Rio Rancho is required to buy 728 acre feet of water rights every five years under a permit issued in 2003 by the Office of the State Engineer.

An acre-foot is approximately 326,000 gallons.

Councilors also approved a $1.2 million contract, including tax, with low bidder Franklin’s Earthmoving to install 9,200 feet of water line to carry treated effluent water from a point north of the Montoyas Arroyo to a site near Eagle Ridge Middle School where the city has a facility to reinject water into the aquifer. The city tested the reinjection process using potable water, in a pilot project last year.

Funding for the contract is coming from a state Severance Tax grant, a Water Trust Board grant/loan and utility bond sources, Public Works Director Scott Sensanbaugher told councilors.

The goal of the project is to enable the city to use the effluent water for other purposes such as irrigating city parks, the Sportsplex and the Chamisa Hills Golf Course or to reinject it into the aquifer.

The city could be eligible to receive credit from the state for water returned to the aquifer because it would offset the need to pump water, Sensanbaugher said.

In other business, councilors approved applying for state Department of Transportation grant funding for road projects that include identifying ramps and sidewalks that need to be modified to meet federal standards, re-striping roads and streets and installing flashing lights to help protect pedestrians.

The flashing lights will be installed near Fire Station 5 on Santa Fe Hills Boulevard, Vista Grande Elementary in Enchanted Hills, on Chayote Road and near Rio Rancho High School.

The total grant application is for $195,000, of that, the city has to provide $48,750 in matching funds, Sensanbaugher said.
— This article appeared on page 16 of the Albuquerque Journal