Another way to look at a local water authority

In a column in May, I suggested water issues, both potable and waste, are without boundary between city and county and therefore a regional water authority governing both jurisdictions was appropriate and necessary.

The column prompted a question at a Santa Fe County Commission candidate forum, and two candidates, Camilla Bustamante and Justin Greene, both expressed unequivocal support for such an authority.

Both subsequently won their primary election and face no opponents in November, meaning they’ll likely be seated in January.

The column also prompted a response from local water attorney Kyle Harwood, someone I have known and respected for 20 years, who essentially said I proposed a solution for a problem that did not exist.

Harwood is one of the best water and land use lawyers in the state. He has taught hundreds of other lawyers and real estate agents the intricacies of our state’s water laws. As a former assistant attorney for the city, he’s a particularly keen on Santa Fe city and county water policies.

Harwood reminded me we’re enjoying unprecedented cooperation at staff levels with Utilities Division Director John Dupuis at the county and Water Division Director Jesse Roach at the city. Indeed, both were recent participants in the Next Generation Water Summit, where they confirmed the commonality of the interests of the two governing bodies.

Elected officials are also burying historic hatchets and talking cooperation. Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth chairs the city’s Water Conservation Committee with support from staff liaison Christine Chavez, the city’s water conservation manager. Both communicate well with county employees.

The county’s Water Policy Advisory Committee, overseen by Dupuis, has no official elected representative but Commissioners Anna Hamilton and Anna Hansen are regular

attendees. One suspects Bustamante and Greene, both known policy wonks, also will dive into water issues.

Because Commissioner Hank Hughes’ district is likely to see the most intensive growth in coming years, he will undoubtedly weigh in on the need to extend potable water service to the Sustainable Growth Area around the community college.

Equally complicated, if not more, is determining where e±uent from that area’s growth will go. Should it stay in the topographical basin for treatment and reuse within the bowl or be pumped over the rim to join city e±uent at the wastewater treatment plant on the lower Santa Fe River?

Harwood has confidence wise counsel from he and others on government payrolls will be heeded by elected officials and obviate another layer of controversial and cumbersome bureaucracy. Given the expertise of Dupuis, Chavez and Roach, let’s hope he is right.

Let’s also hope they and other water experts in the community, paid or otherwise, continue to sing from the same hymnal. Longtime observers of intergovernmental cooperation may not be so sanguine. There have been times when communication was not just absent but nasty and vitriolic.

Would a city-county regional water authority ensure against a repeat of past poor performances? Maybe, but there’s no guarantee. Remember the citycounty Extraterritorial Zoning Authority? Few do. For a time, it was laudable, then lamentable and finally abandoned.

In the meantime, let’s count our blessings for the right people being in the right jobs doing the right things in preserving our most precious natural resource for both growth and existing customers. But let’s also figure a way to establish perpetuity agreements that live beyond the current crop of cooperative collaborators.

Different zoning rules are one thing, different water policies are intolerable.