Private water pipeline proposed for S.F.
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Businessman wants to bring water 145 miles from Fort Sumner
11/1/2008 - 10/18/08
As the value of drinking water catches up with the cost of delivering it, the private sector is becoming more interested.Long-distance, business-financed pipelines are popping up in the American Southwest and across the world. In Santa Fe, the City Council is waiting for more information about a proposal by Ron Green, a Roswell businessman, to bring water 145 miles from Fort Sumner to the city.
The proposal has caught the attention of Northwest Pipe Company, a manufacturer of large-diameter steel pipe such as the kind that would be required for the project. Paul Blanchard, business development director of the Utah firm, said Northwest Pipe invests in similar projects and wants to talk to Green.
"You are starting to see a lot of headlines lately about how water is becoming the new oil," said Blanchard. "Because of the water crises and shortage in the Southwest, it's becoming not just scarce, but a major commodity. So it's becoming feasible that entrepreneurs are stepping up. We are seeing it in a lot of places."
Many pipelines are in the range of 50 miles or less, he said, noting that the idea from Green's company, Berrendo LLC, is a "significant" undertaking. "Normally, you don't move water that distance," he said.
But other proposed pipelines in the region are even longer.
Three counties and the state of Utah are working on a pipeline that would move water about 158 miles and 2,500 feet in altitude from Lake Powell to fast-growing areas in the southern part of the state. Its price tag is an estimated $500 million.
Colorado entrepreneur Aaron Million envisions a pipeline to carry water 470 miles from the Green River above Wyoming's Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and as far south as Pueblo, Colo.
Million, who is bankrolling the plan with private money so far, said a drop-off of federal cash has been one factor in a resurgence of privately funded water projects and those that have both private and public backing.
He compared the situation today to the 1890s. "This is going back to the original historic premise of water being developed and delivered by the private sector. The agriculture and mining interests were the people that did that originally," he said.
Evolving markets have also made the comeback possible, he said.
"The price of the water has basically caught up with the demand/supply situation," said Million. "And that allows for some of these private-sector projects to occur."
Privately financed projects can be completed more efficiently, he said, by avoiding some of the lengthy processes that can accompany publicly funded plans. Most pipelines move water from a rural location and an agricultural use to a population center with its municipal needs. However, those politics can be unpredictable.
The Santa Fe City Council rejected a pipeline plan three years ago that would have imported water from Estancia to the capital city. This time, the city has been careful not to get too involved on the front end even though some staff say it has the potential to help the government.
The Berrendo plan calls for a 36-inch diameter pipeline that would pump about 7,000 acre-feet of water per year from De Baca County to Santa Fe County, an uphill elevation change of nearly 4,000 feet.
Green aims to construct the pipeline in the highway right-of-way along U.S. 60, then U.S. 285, which would require permission from the state Department of Transportation. Permits from the state engineer also would be needed.
Santa Fe's city hydrologist is considering whether to partner with the investors on several fronts, including leasing some of the water and getting a long-desired separate pipeline from the wastewater treatment plant to the Rio Grande.
City councilors on the Public Utilities Committee told Green they won't take further action, however, until they hear from the governing bodies in De Baca County and Fort Sumner and from the area's irrigation district.
Green said Friday that he was still working with those groups. In a recent presentation about the plans to the Fort Sumner Village Council, Green said the village could lease some of its unused water rights for about 10 years and receive up to $1 million in revenue.
Part of what might make the proposal attractive is that Green wants to sell water rights to end users in the Santa Fe area, including developers who are getting hemmed in by the difficulty of transferring water rights they purchase elsewhere.
"We have several people who have signed letters of interest or letters of intent," he said. "Assuming that we obtain the necessary permits, they are willing to buy the water."
One effect the project will have, he said, is to slow down what has been a rapidly escalating market for water rights in the Middle Rio Grande.
"This will tend to stabilize that because it increases the availability of supply in the corridor," he said.
Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.
