Ditching domestic wells, swapping out septics
El Prado water district, Tarleton Ranch crew team up for potential $1.2M water service
As part of a proposal to build an “eco-village” with dozens of businesses and hundreds of new homes north of Taos, the El Prado Water and Sanitation District has agreed to build the distribution lines necessary to get water to the new development.
The Tarleton Ranch Eco-Village is a master plan for 420 acres on the west side of State Road 150 between Gavilan Drive and Camino del Cielo. It would be a self-contained village with nearly 400 new homes, over 90 new commercial lots including multiple hotels, a grocery store and a brewery, and a 160-acre farm that’s laced with open spaces and walking trails.
The developers of the project intend to submit their plan to the Taos County Planning Department within a couple months.
Some neighbors have questioned how the county could approve such a development given the general scarcity of water in this part of New Mexico. But the developers, along with the leaders of the El Prado district, contend that their plan to bring water service to this area of Upper Las Colonias is the smarter way to plan for the future.
“The Upper Las Colonias area is part of Taos Valley that will experience a lot of growth in the future with or without a public water system. To protect the groundwater in the area from further pollution from hundreds of new, poorly drilled domestic wells and septic systems, it is vital that the area be served by a public water system,” the El Prado district wrote in a funding application submitted to the state. (The funding was later denied.)
While servicing Tarleton Ranch is the reason behind the effort to build approximately 2.4 miles of a distribution water line up State Road 150, people who currently rely on domestic wells would be able to hook into the utility.
El Prado estimated it would cost about $1.2 million to build this extension to its system.
Though it would be a public entity building the lines, it wouldn’t use public money.
The Tarleton Ranch developers would be “completely and absolutely responsible for all financing of the project,” according to an agreement signed in February between El Prado and the developers, which includes Glen Michael Tarleton and Mark Yaravitz.
“This is all contingent on funding,” said John Painter, an El Prado district board member and operator of that water system. Indeed, the agreement stipulates the developers must deposit cash into the water district’s bank account before they’d begin construction.
The first phase calls for building the backbone of the water line extension, a 350,000-gallon storage tank and pumping station. The second phase would include a second storage tank and all the lines and facilities needed to distribute water within the development. The eco-village would also have water for fire protection (hydrants) and a sewage system, though that would be operated by the development.
The developers see the Tarleton Ranch proposal as a 40-year plan that, like the utilities and basic infrastructure, would be built in phases. However, the water line extension would “lay the groundwork for serving 100 percent of the population in the area,” the water district wrote in a funding application.
The water line extension also adheres to the principles of the Abeyta Settlement, which call for lessening the demand on the shallow aquifer near Taos Pueblo in favor of deeper wells, located closer to the Río Grande, that would be operated by public entities, such as El Prado or the town of Taos.
The development would use up to 200 acre-feet of water per year if fully built out. Currently, the El Prado system uses between 100 and 130 acre-feet a year, according to Painter. One acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons of water or about the amount used by four average three-person households.
The water district stands to gain financially from the project as it would double the district’s revenue, “which is badly needed,” according to the funding application.
El Prado submitted the application for $1.2 million to the Water Trust Board, a public entity established in 2001 under the New Mexico Finance Authority. It was one of 69 projects presented to the Water Trust Board. However, it was not among the 22 projects that advanced to the next round of the funding process, which included water projects in Gallup, Chama, Clovis and smaller water districts like that in Chamisal in Southern Taos County.
While the El Prado-Tarleton Ranch agreement stipulates the water district would also apply for funding from the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, the developers chose not to do that, Painter said.