I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The State Engineer’s office has authorized New Mexico’s American Water company to combine water rights from 59 of its wells to better meet demand in Clovis.
The move was needed not because of increasing demand, company officials said, but because of sharply declining water supplies in some of its wells. Water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer — the only current water supply for Clovis — are dropping rapidly, at an average rate of 10 percent a year, according to the company.
“Ten years ago, it took 29 wells to supply Clovis,” said American Water General Manager Kathy Wright. “This summer it will take 62 wells to produce about the same amount of water.”
Each well is assigned a set volume of water rights. But some of the company’s wells are producing less water than they are assigned, while others could produce more than they are assigned. The emergency authorization, approved by the State Engineer April 2, allows the company more flexibility in managing production from the different wells.
“Some of our wells have more water rights than ‘wet’ water,” Wright said. “Combining water rights will allow us to manage our water rights and well field more efficiently.”
American Water to raise rates in Edgewood
The company raised Clovis water rates by 13.5 percent in May 2009.
The state Public Regulation Commission (PRC) is expected to vote to approve this Thursday the company’s larger, 42 percent rate increase for its 1,911 Edgewood customers. The increase will raise the average customer’s monthly bill from $11 to $16.50 and will pay for infrastructure maintenance and improvement costs incurred since 2005, according to records filed with the PRC.
PRC Chair David King represents both Clovis and Edgewood as the PRC’s district 2 commissioner. He is a co-owner of Estancia Basin Water Supply, which sells water to American Water and another PRC-regulated company, Edgewood-based Thunder Mountain Water Company. First Judicial District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco cleared King of violating a state law against accepting “anything of value from a regulated entity” in January.
