County seeks to expand Pojoaque basin water options

Rules would let residents who connect to utility use wells for outdoor purposes

Santa Fe County wants to give residents of the Pojoaque basin between Española and Santa Fe more options when deciding whether to hook into or opt out of a multimillion-dollar, government-funded water utility scheduled to come online by 2024.

The County Commission on Tuesday said it wants residents to be allowed to connect to the new water system without having to cap their wells, if they agree to only draw well water for outdoor use.

The federal court overseeing longrunning litigation aimed at establishing the amount of water rights that belong to four Indian pueblos and others in the valley would have to approve such rules. The planned water system, which would import water from the Rio Grande, is part of a settlement of the socalled Aamodt water rights lawsuit.

The settlement calls for well owners in the basin either to cap their wells and pay for service from the new regional water authority or to continue drawing from wells under new annual limits on how much well water they can pump.

Santa Fe County wants to give residents another option: hook into the water utility for indoor use while keeping wells for outdoor use. Under this proposed option, residents would transfer some of their water rights to the county.

Under the settlement, most well owners would have rights to use at least 0.5 acre-feet of water annually, according to a memo written by Michael Kelly, Santa Fe County’s public works director.

If the county has its way, residents in the basin who have rights to 0.5 acre-feet of water a year would have the option of transferring rights to 0.3 acre-feet to the county to cover their household consumption while drawing 0.2 acre-feet annually from a well for outdoor use.

Sandra Ely, Santa Fe County’s Aamodt project manager, told commissioners Tuesday that such an option would allow more customers to opt into the regional water utility.

The county, which will own and operate the new water system after it is built with a combination of federal, state and local government funds, needs more paying customers to help cover operating costs.

All wells in the Pojoaque Basin will be required to have meters so the Office of the State Engineer can track use, according to Kelly’s memo. Standard meters cost about $60, the memo says, while advanced meters cost some $220. The advanced meters would allow for remote readings of well use with handheld devices without having to climb into the well vault, the memo says.

Ely said some residents in the basin still haven’t filed objections or agreed to become part of the settlement. Commissioners agreed that the county should ask that such “nonresponding water rights owners” be allowed to keep their wells yet be considered as a parties to the settlement.

The New Mexican’s owner, Robin Martin, who lives in Nambé, is party to the Aamodt settlement.