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Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority gives timeline, targets 2031 for Ute Reservoir pipeline
Summary
Mark Howe of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority told the Curry County Commission the Ute Reservoir intake, major pipeline segments and treatment-plant designs are advancing; key bids are due in late May and the authority targets turning on full surface-water service by 2031.
Mark Howe, speaking for the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority, gave commissioners a detailed progress report on the multi-decade project to convey surface water from Ute Reservoir to communities across the High Plains region.
"This infrastructure provides a real solution," Howe said, outlining completed pipeline segments, the intake structure and the near-term procurement timeline. He said the next bid package covers a 42‑inch, 14‑mile raw-water pipeline with bids expected back in late May, and that other pipeline stages are funded and scheduled for later this year.
The update described completed and in-progress pipeline construction, pilot operations at the intake, design work for a water treatment plant and the need for pump stations and storage tanks to move water over the Caprock. Howe said a significant portion of the finished-water pipeline is complete, and that the Texaco lateral — work tied to APCOR and the city of Clovis — could be active by late this year or early next year.
Commissioners pressed Howe on right-of-way and easement coordination with the town of Texaco. Howe said the authority has an encroachment clause in its easements to allow coordination with member communities and that progress is being made on easements and acquisition steps necessary for construction.
Howe also addressed concentrate disposal strategies for the treatment plant and said injection wells have been identified as a viable option while other scenarios (ponding, alternative disposal) remain under study. He left commissioners a fact sheet and illustrations about deep-well injection and the project's environmental safeguards.
The authority traces the current phase of work to planning begun in the 2010s; Howe said the water authority expects to pivot from pipeline completion to intensive water-treatment plant construction over the next four to five years, with an operational target to supply surface water from the system by 2031. He warned that the project requires ongoing coordination with local, state and federal stakeholders and significant right‑of‑way work before the treatment plant can be completed.
What happens next: the commission received the presentation; commissioners said they appreciated the update and asked staff to stay engaged with member communities about easements, project impacts and local water needs.
