Councilors hear great water news

• Accomplishments in the village's water situation were a team effort

The news from village water rights and water conservation specialist Eric Boyda about the future supply for Ruidoso sounded promising enough to bring smiles to the faces of village councilors.

Grindstone Reservoir is refilling, water rights are balancing, water leakage has been reduced and the village may be able to live within the water rights it owns and not have to renew water rights leases in the future.

Ruidoso is in the Hondo Basin, one of two basins in the state that has a water year not aligned to the calendar year. In Ruidoso, use of water rights accounting runs from Nov, 1 to Oct. 31, Boyda told councilors Tuesday, “So we already started the 2018 water year.” The water rights accounting period runs for five years.

“For this last year, the total Rio Ruidoso diversion was 484 acre feet,” he said. “Our whole goal is to try to eliminate the (water rights) leases once they start expiring and demonstrate that we can live within the permanent basin rights that we own.

 “Our permanent water rights portfolio per annum is 447 acre feet and the current annual lease allocation is 306 acre feet. I’ve been diverting pretty aggressively into Grindstone, so you can make the assumption the reason we have that 484 is because we had some lease water taken into Grindstone. We’re on track in the next five years to start contemplating eliminating some of our leases.”

One acre foot equates to 325.851 gallons of water.

The reservoir nearly was drained several years ago for the installation of a liner aimed at reducing or eliminating seepage from the dam. The village has been refilling the lake when conditions and rights allowed. Boyda estimated another two years may be needed before the reservoir hits “full.”

Under surface water diversions from Eagle Creek, the water production division has taken almost as much water as it could, Boyda said.

“We had to rely quite a bit on our North Fork wellfields, but we still have ample amounts of extra water rights on Eagle Creek, even though we have increased diversions (on the creek), the highest they’ve been in six years,” he said.

He pointed out a trend on a bar graph showing that diversions have increase in 2017 over the last five years, “but we have moved water around more intelligently and we used our Eagle Creek water rights more, and more of that diversion has gone into increasing our storage in Grindstone Reservoir.”

The Alto Treatment Plant #3 allowed the village to increase diversions on Eagle Creek and decrease total diversions on the Rio Ruidoso side this year, he said.

“I was shocked this year how little we had to pump our three wells,” Boyda said of the Cherokee on U.S. 70 by the Cherokee Mobile Home Park, the Hollywood well behind Walgreens and the well at the high school. The total was 147 acre feet compared to 557 af last year and 1,008 acre feet in 2013, he said.

Because of the Cherokee interconnection project completed with proceeds from general obligation bonds approved by voters, water was used from the Alto Crest service area and Grindstone service area to provide water that previously was pumped exclusively from the Cherokee well.

“We haven’t run it since April 12,” Boyda said, resulting in a significant savings. The Hollywood well also was rested for a substantial savings in energy costs, because it is next to the river and pumps water up hill.

The village saved 75 million gallons from managing its distribution system, reducing leaks and making other improvements, Boyda said.

“How much?” Councilor Lynn Crawford asked. “This is phenomenal stuff you’re putting out here and I want everyone to hear it. I don’t know if a lot of people realize how phenomenal it is.”

“I think we have evolved from crisis management to planning, storage and the proper balance of the wells,” Mayor Tom Battin said, adding that Boyda had done “an outstanding job of understanding our water.”

“I really think it is our whole water team,” Boyda replied. “Randy (Koehn) did a great job getting the surface water treatment plants up and running and water production is running smother than in the past, Adam (Sanchez) has done improvements to the water system with the GO bonds. I think the three of us work well with (Public Works Director J. R. Baumann) and are getting quite a bit done.”

Councilor Tim Coughlin said voters approving the bonds allowed the village to replace aging and leaking water lines.

“It’s amazing in a few years we’ve been working on this, the progress we’ve been able to make, not just one person, everyone coming together and working,” he said.

Councilor Gary Jackson said he thought state water officials had a clearer understanding in large part because of Boyda walking them through the system.

Substantial progress was accomplished on refilling Grindstone, Boyda said.

When the liner was installed, it sat at 66 feet below the spillway and at 4 percent of capacity.

“This morning, we’re just a little over 16 feet below the spillway,” he said. “In 2.5 years, we’ve gained 49 feet.” The level is at 60 percent of 1,558 acre feet capacity now, a net gain of 445 acre feet.

Barring anything crazy happening,” the reservoir should be maxed out in two years at a manageable level, not all the way to the spillway, he said.

Councilor Rafael Salas said the village needs to throw a party when the 16-feet below spillway level is met, because for years, the Dam Safety Bureau kept the level under that because of leakage.

“I was going to say the mayor should break a bottle of champagne, but it should be water,” he said. “The liner has proven its worth.”

Battin told Salas, “Given what we’ve spent on water, champagne might be the cheapest thing.”