Dear Leaders of Mutual Domestic Water Associations in District 41,
Senator Leo Jaramillo and I will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, June 11th at 2:00 p.m. at the Rural Events Center in Abiquiu. This meeting is open to the public and members of local MDWA are encouraged to attend. Marquita Russell, CEO of the New Mexico Finance Authority will be giving an overview of how the application process for the Water Trust Board funds have been changed to help small MDWA compete for grant funds and planning grants to regionalize local water systems. John Rhoderick, Director of the Water Protection Division at the New Mexico Department of the Environment will be there to talk about water programs and how to reduce MDWA interest rates to 0% or .01% on current loans.
This will not be an easy job, but water experts from around the state will be there to help. They include: Bill Connor, Executive Director of the New Mexico Rural Water Association; Ramon Lucero, Rural Community Assistance Corporation ; Melanie Delgado, New Mexico Clean Drinking Water Bureau and Monica Abeita from the North Central Council of Governments. Grant applications are due in August so this has to be a full court press.
Two important bills were passed last session setting the stage for water infrastructure in the North. The Water Security Act put a water plan in motion for reconciling the goals of the 50 year water plan. The Water Resiliency Act was passed to regionalize small Mutual Domestic Water Associations (MDWA) In addition, the New Mexico Finance Authority has set up new guidelines to help small MDWA get grants or low interest loans to regionalize.A group of Northern New Mexico legislators set up funding for the North Central Council of Governments to help small rural governments with grantwriting and technical assistance.
Most residents of rural, unincorporated communities of Northern New Mexico are served by MDWA. Most of these water systems were built following World War II. Returning GIs came back from the war eager to build water systems in rural communities. Those systems exist to this day, but most are systems serving under 100 households, and are run by a dedicated, volunteer boards of directors. It is safe to say that they are underpaid, understaffed, and struggling to repair and replace 70 year old infrastructure with inadequate funds.
I have said over and over, that I continue to put $50,000 Capital Outlay bandaids on $5 million projects. Now is the time for local MDWA to organize and plan for the regionalization of water systems. What does that mean? It means that in District 41, we must organize and create professionally- run drinking water and wastewater systems. With the passage of SB1 and President Biden’s Infrastructure Act, the time has never been better to put together water systems that will set the stage for the next 30 years.
RSVP me at susan.herrera@nmlegis.gov if you plan on attending and I hope to see you there.
Representative Susan Herrera
District 41