Anti-diversion bill heads to House Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 24, 2021
With the majority Democratic members of two key state legislative committees recommending in hearings over consecutive Saturdays that a House bill to sideline the Gila River diversion group “do pass,” the future of the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project has never looked so imperiled.
As the bill, titled “Water Trust Board Projects and N.M. Unit Fund,” heads to the House floor for a vote as soon as this week, N.M. CAP Entity Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez made an appearance at a work session for Grant County commissioners on Tuesday morning. Like all of the presenters at the work session, Gutierrez made his presentation by video. He began his talk with a disclaimer that everything he was about to say might soon be rendered moot by the passage of House Bill 200.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority will install 10,000 more of these automated water meters with $2 million from the New Mexico Water Trust Board. (Journal File)
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has received $2 million from the New Mexico Water Trust Board to update water meters.
The agreement, finalized at Wednesday’s board meeting, includes an $800,000 loan and $1.2 million grant.
About 10,000 Advanced Metering Infrastructure water meters will be installed with the money.
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Automated meters provide real-time water use data for customers and the water authority, said Chief Financial Officer Stan Allred.
They save money by reducing the workload of employees checking traditional meters, and can provide more accurate water bill amounts.
Legislation would replace Gila diversion group Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 3, 2021
A bill introduced last week in the New Mexico Legislature threatens to sideline the New Mexico Entity of the Central Arizona Project’s role in determining how the remaining money in the N.M. Unit Fund totaling more than $80 million is spent in four southwestern New Mexico counties under the terms of the 2004 federal Arizona Water Settlements Act.
The group’s consulting role is enshrined in state and federal statutes, but House Bill 200, titled “Water Trust Board & N.M. Unit Fund,” seeks to rewrite New Mexico water law and hand the Entity’s responsibilities for vetting water projects over to the New Mexico Water Trust Board.