Golf course water deal teed up
Santa Fe Country Club to pay city $600K, will get 650,000 gallons of effluent daily for 3 more years
The Santa Fe Country Club and Golf Association will pay the city of Santa Fe $600,000 over the next six years as part of a settlement agreement reached in a lawsuit over the club’s free use of city water for almost 65 years.
In return, the city will provide the club with up to 650,000 gallons of effluent — treated liquid sewage — a day for the next three years and allow access to drinkable water if that amount of effluent is not available.
Under the terms of an agreement that dates back to 1959, the city agreed to provide the country club with 700,000 gallons of free treated effluent per day to water its golf course in exchange for the course being open to anyone who paid reasonable green fees.
Santa Fe sued to get out of the contract in 2022, at which time officials said the city had provided the club with over 5 billion gallons of free water.
The settlement permanently releases the parties from the original agreements and all pending litigation without either side admitting wrongdoing.
After the terms of the settlement expire in 2027, any new agreements for effluent use at the club’s course will have to be made in accordance with the city’s current effluent regulations.
“I think the country club found this was a settlement they could live with,” Senior Assistant City Attorney Marcos Martinez said.
The city’s goal was to resolve the suit outside of court, City Attorney Erin McSherry added.
The club currently owes the city $600,000 for water that is safe to drink, or potable, she said, and the settlement is a way to pay it back.
The city’s aging wastewater treatment plant has suffered breakdowns in recent years that resulted in higher levels of E. coli and other contaminants than state and federal standards allow. As a result, the Santa Fe Country Club and some city parks and recreation facilities have had to switch from treated water to potable water at times for irrigation.
The City Council unanimously approved the settlement with the country club at its meeting Wednesday. The deal, also approved by the club’s board of directors, is in the process of being signed by both parties, McSherry said.
A lawyer for the country club did not respond to requests for comment.
General Manager David Nowell was out of the office and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Martinez took the lead on the lawsuit for the city, which also brought in private attorney Seth Cohen, who was “very instrumental in the litigation,” McSherry said.
The lawsuit, which challenged an agreement older than many golfers, gave credence to the adage that in
“Water is an expensive resource, and water is a valuable resource.”
Santa Fe City Attorney Erin McSherry
the West, little is more precious than water.
That understanding is what spurred the city to take legal action. McSherry said it was important for both parties “to have respect for the value of this water.”
She noted effluent is a much more valuable commodity for the city now than in 1959, more than a decade before the creation of the Clean Water Act.
“Water is an expensive resource, and water is a valuable resource,” she said.
The terms of the settlement state the country club will pay the city $120,000 a year between Jan. 1 2024, and Jan. 1, 2027, in increments of $10,000 a month, for a total of $360,000. Between now and Jan. 1, 2030, the club will pay an additional $240,000 in increments of no less than $35,000 a year. The golf course will continue to be open to anyone from the public in exchange for green fees through Jan. 1, 2027.
The 650,000 gallons of effluent per day the club is entitled to during that period cannot be transferred from one day to another unless the supply of effluent available from the city is less than the daily allotment, in which case the club “shall be entitled to make up the daily shortfall on any day when a sufficient additional amount is available.”
If the city cannot provide effluent, it must make potable water available instead, as long as the club uses “all reasonable efforts to minimize use of potable water for irrigation” and pays for the potable water at the base rate of $6.06 per 1,000 gallons.
One day’s total allotment at that rate would cost about $4,000.
Because of ongoing problems with tainted effluent from the wastewater plant, the City Council in October approved an agreement allowing the Santa Fe Country Club and the Municipal Recreation Sports Complex access to 700,000 gallons and 1.4 million gallons of potable water a day, respectively, for irrigation at the standard base rate for potable water.
Treated effluent accessible to the country club comes from a 2 million-gallon tank at the wastewater plant.
To provide the club “with access as soon as possible to a chemical treatment process that is intended to eliminate or substantially reduce stoppages of effluent delivery,” the settlement states the city will:
Establish a connection between the club’s effluent delivery pipeline and the 2 million-gallon tank no later than March 15.
Relocate the club’s current pump facility to an agreed-upon location “in proximity to the 2MG tank” by a target of July 1.
Putting in a direct pipe to the tank should solve the problem of E. coli levels and would ensure a more consistent supply for the club, Martinez said.
Public Utilities Director John Dupuis said the city has allocated $240,000 for the upgrades but hopes to do it for less. He described the work as a way for the city to help the country club help itself.
“We want to make sure they don’t use potable water anymore,” he said.
Not specifically mentioned in the settlement is any stipulation for what would happen if the city builds a new wastewater treatment plant, a proposed project Public Utilities Department officials are exploring.
“Any new treatment plant or even a major rehabilitation of the existing one would be outside the time frame of the next three years,” Martinez said.
If there is a transition, the country club’s agreement with the city would be handled the same as those the city has with other effluent customers, including the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, The Downs at Santa Fe and HIPICO Santa Fe, which is reviewing a new effluent agreement with the city.
The amount of daily effluent the country club can use on its golf course is decreasing by 50,000 gallons. McSherry said she hopes the new agreement will encourage the club to implement additional conservation measures as well.