It’s not just finding and pumping water that’s vexing Gallup city officials, or the fact that the city is already providing water at a loss, having failed to raise water rates to cover the cost.
An equally serious quest is getting water from reservoirs in or above the ground to homes and businesses. That means miles and miles of pipes, some of which are 100 years old and some may contain or be joined together with lead, right up to the 1980s. Ferreting out all the culprits will be an arduous – and expensive – task.
To that end, the Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments helped the city with an application to the New Mexico Finance Authority and Drinking Water Bureau at the New Mexico Environment Department for $1 million for the first step, doing an inventory of where lead pipes or “yokes” that join pipes may be. Half of the money would have to be paid back.
The project involves combing through records from when lines were installed or replaced and information gathered whenever a crew has to dig up a line for repairs.
Although part of the inventory is done during repairs, lead is not the culprit in line breaks that force emergency shutdowns.
“So far those two haven’t been linked,” Clark Tallis, the city’s water and wastewater director, said.
Based on updated guidance from the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s copper and lead rule, the initial focus will be around schools and daycare centers. Another clue, Tallis said, is to look at properties developed before 1986; after that the likelihood that lead components were used decreases. The EPA made its first copper and lead line rule in 1991.
“We’re formulating a plan right now. One is looking through our inventory,” Tallis said. “Some of us have known for a while that [EPA was] revising the lead and copper rule.”
Workers are reviewing software that could potentially make the job easier, including one that claims its AI can learn from information the city enters during the process.
The inventory should be finished next October, Tallis said; then his department can start to get an idea of how much the replacement will cost.
At the city council’s Sept. 26 meeting, in approving the application, Councilor Sarah Piano, Dist. 3, noted that the price tag has been estimated at $30 million. But Tallis is quick to point out there is really no way to know for sure until the inventory is done.
“We will continue to update our inventory year after year,” he said. “Eventually we will come to a point where a large portion of our system will be known and we will have confidence in the numbers that are published.”
Toward the overall project, the city council has recently approved applications for or acceptance of grant funds.
Those measures include accepting a $7.5 million appropriation from the DFA House Bill 2, through support from Sen. George Munoz for water supply infrastructure in Gallup, including repairing and replacing lead pipes. The city has until June 30 to use the money or it will revert to the state’s general fund.
“I was starting to worry that we weren’t getting this money, so thanks to Sen. Munoz. This is huge. All these grants we are getting for lead pipes is amazing,” Piano said.
The NMED also awarded the city a grant of $500,000 to use toward the planning, designing, constructing, and replacement of cast iron water and wastewater lines in Gallup, which the Council accepted at the same meeting.
By Holly J. Wagner
Sun Correspondent
