Thursday, May 12, 2016

DRAFT MINUTES

Pecos Valley Water Users Organization Meeting Minutes 9:00 am April 8th, 2016 Eddy County Fairgrounds, Artesia, NM Meeting Facilitator: Woods Houghton In attendance: Woods Houghton Carlsbad SWCD; Roger Buckley City of Roswell; Jackie Powell Lincoln County; Cheryl Griffith Lakewood Rancher; Aron Balok PVACD; Wade Holdeman Fort Sumner Irrigation District; Aspen Achen DeBaca CES; J.R. Baumann Village of Ruidoso; Eric Boyda Village of Ruidoso; Dale Ballard CID; Pete Heraden US Forrest Service; Lex Klein Hope Community Ditch; Morgan Nelson Chaves County Flood; Dick Smith PVACD Visitors: Laila Sturgis Amec Foster Wheeler (NM ISC); Hannah Riseley-White NM ISC; Brent Ellington NMISC 1) Call to order at 9:00 2) Sign in / Introduction 3) Old Business a) Dick Smith moved and Aron Balok second to accept meeting minutes for March 11th 2016. Motion passed. b) Treasury report given by Woods Houghton $10,049.19. c) Woods Houghton voiced his concern that there are a lot of errors in the technical report. d) Cheryl Griffith moved that in the draft under Alternative #2, Managed Well Field Operations the incorrect sentence in parenthesis in the second paragraph, “(even mentioning that exceedingly high groundwater was problematic for crops in some areas.)” be removed and to add, “Cease operations until a strategy to minimize impact is developed”. Dick Smith second. After a lengthy discussion the Motion passed. Aaron Balok and Dale Ballard both voted against the motion. Dale Ballard reserved the right to submit a descending opinion in writing for conclusion. e) Cheryl Griffith brought up the issue that the Enhanced Water Right Administration and Water Right Abandonment Monitoring were to be combined on the draft as per the meeting minutes. 4) New Business a) Hannah wanted to know what priorities are for the group. Keeping the basin in balance, managed well field operations and implications, watershed management, preventing transfers of water out of the basin, better analysis of in basin transfers, identify new sources of water, including brackish and produced water, update old infrastructure for both irrigation, municipal and industrial uses, program to specifically identify regulatory obstacles and make subsequent recommendations were all discussed however there were no motions made and none passed. 5) Open Discussion: a) Aspen Achen reported that the demographic and economic trends for De Baca County are incorrect. The Clinic is reported to be closed when it is actually thriving. It states that a good deal of agriculture land in De Baca County is fallow which is incorrect. It reports that agriculture is expected to drop 80% by 2020 when historically it has stayed steady. It does not report that cattle populations are increasing and only decreased due to the drought. It reports that livestock watering usage is only at 60% which is also incorrect. It states other issues such as residents are anti-growth which could adversely affect funding for the county. Population is reported to decrease when they have had to hire new teachers due to new growth in those age groups. A lot of the information came from interviewing a very few people which does not make it factual. Aspen Achen is going to work with Hannah Riseley-White to get the information corrected. b) Aron Balok motioned and Cheryl Griffith second that we meet at the Ag Science Center May 13th from 9:00am till 2:00pm to work on comments. Motion passed. c) Hannah Riseley-White reported the following; she will have Melissa Dozier get with Woods Houghton to get the word out about public comments. The group is going to read the update to the water plan and be prepared with comments for the meeting on the 13th. Laila Sturgis is going to email a table to capture the comments and the pdf of the comment form. Laila Sturgis is also going to update the draft and fix the narrative section and email to the group by May 9th. May 13th the group will meet to compile the steering committee comments. May 20th the group will meet with ISC to complete. d) Roger Buckley moved and Cheryl Griffith second to meet at 9:00am on May 20th at the Eddy County Fairgrounds. 6) Adjournment 11:25

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