Saturday, July 04, 2009

Pajarito Mesa To Get Reliable Water

By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
          The days of getting water by the "whatever you need to do" method will soon be over for about 180 families on the Pajarito Mesa, officials said.
        The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority plans to break ground on a new booster station, pipeline and filling station to serve the area next month, spokesman David Morris said.
        The authority awarded a contract to TLC this week to build the new amenities, Morris said. The company will be paid about $450,000 for the work, which is scheduled to be finished — and the system operational — by January.
        Morris said the project is a "major effort to get water out there."
        "There have been some delays along the way, but this will provide water more reliably and at a lower cost per person than the original plan," he said, adding that officials had considered sending tankers to a fill station on the mesa twice a day. "And right now, people are getting their water by filling up containers at a church or at other people's homes or at gas stations. It's kind of catch it as you can."
        The boundaries of the area being served, Morris said, are the Dennis Chavez extension on the north, the county lines to the south and west, and the top of the mesa on the east.
        Carlos Proffitt, a Pajarito Mesa resident and activist, said providing water to the area's residents "should go without saying."
        "And I don't know what 'provide' means," Proffitt said. "I don't think they should put in new infrastructure, but I agree with a pumping station where people can go to buy water at fair market value. You don't cut off water to people, nor do you give it away."
        He agreed with Morris that residents are getting water now any way they can.
        Morris said residents will have to come to the filling station to get their water, which will come from a new reservoir nearby, through the booster station and up the pipe.
        Officials last weekend drained 3 million gallons of highly chlorinated water out of the reservoir.
        The exercise was part of an ongoing effort to provide drinking water service to the area, Morris said.
        The reservoir, which is nearing the end of construction, needed to be disinfected, Morris said. To do that, officials had to fill the tank to the top and let it sit for 24 hours.
        "We needed to kill all the bugs," he said. "From there, we drained the water out and are testing it. We will then fill the reservoir back up with drinking water."
        In addition to the area on Pajarito Mesa, the new reservoir will serve some of the "underserved" parts of the South Valley, Morris said.
        "We are already providing water in the South Valley area," he said. "So this will provide some redundancy for that area."
       

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