An ongoing expansion of the Chimayó domestic water system should more than double the amount of customers served by the system.
The first phase of the water system was completed in November 2007 with about $4.5 million in state and federal funds. It brought water to Rincón de los Trujillos and La Cuchilla residents who had relied on National Guard-supplied tanks for potable water for almost a decade because of a water emergency that was declared in 2000. The first phase also introduced a pumping station and chlorinization facility, water distribution lines and a 50,000-gallon storage tank.
The first phase was beset with several delays that stretched the work to 18 months and resulted in threats of monetary penalties by the contractor and organization overseeing the water system.
“It took ‘em too long,” Greater Chimayó Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association Vice President Phil Kilgour said in reference to that phase’s general contractor, PCL Construction, of Albuquerque.
Kilgour is more encouraged by the latest contractor, ACC Construction, of Santa Fe, who has been doing the $1.5 million expansion of the system.
“They are progressing fine,” Kilgour said of ACC. “These guys are really moving.”
The current phase, which Martinez said she expects to be complete this month, includes three line extensions on Rio Arriba County Roads 88, 100 and 94. Plans also call for laying 12-inch pipe along Rio Arriba County Road 98, or Juan Medina Road, to better “balance” the system by forming a loop and preventing air bubbles from affecting service. It is expected to be complete this month.
Kilgour said about 25 new hookups will result from the extensions, and 10 new customers will hook up from the Juan Medina line. Martinez said $500,000 from the federal Bureau of Reclamation will fund the extensions, two of which are complete. The state Water Trust Board also gave the Association $500,000 for the Juan Medina line.
The Santa Fe County Commission approved another $500,000 in April, and Martinez said that sum will be used to completely overhaul the older lines around the Plaza del Cerro area that date to a different water system. Kilgour said the lines were leaking and providing consumers with poor-quality water, and the system there will be completely rebuilt during the next phase. Martinez said about 50 homes around the Plaza were legally connected to the old system, and those hookups will all be transferred to the Association. She said she also expects an unknown number of people near the Plaza who are illegally connected to the old system to approach the Association about becoming members after their water gets shut off. The Association plans to install meters at each house.
The first two parts of this latest phase should be completed by the end of this month and work should begin on the Plaza part next month.
Martinez and Kilgour said the current system is serving about 50 people, which is about half of the number of residences who could have hooked up during the first phase. Meters have been installed on 104 properties, but Kilgour said a variety of factors have prevented some of those from hooking up to the system, from a failure to develop vacant lots to easement issues that have prevented the laying of water lines.
The Association has more plans to expand, as well. Once Rio Arriba County’s La Arbolera Community Center is completed, the Association plans to relocate its documents and supplies from the Board members’ homes to an office there. Plans call for the Center, which is located along State Road 76, to be “substantially complete” by the end of this year.
According to Association documents, another application has been submitted to the Water Trust Board for $1.4 million. It is considered a continuation of the regional plan developed by Molzen-Corbin and Associates, of Albuquerque, in 2006. Those funds would be used to extend existing lines about a mile from State Road 76 and Rio Arriba County Road 103 to the site of an Association well at Rio Arriba County Road 95. A storage tank and pressurization station would also be included in that phase, which would provide water to La Arbolera and Chimayó Elementary.
Kilgour said some people have been reluctant to pay the necessary membership fee of $15 a month for a meter and the hookup fee of $300 with a water-rights transfer or $500 without. He said users get up to 5,000 gallons for $25 a month. Customers who are having any problems should contact Virgil Vigil at 927-3322.