GRANTS, N.M. – The second City of Grants Water Conservation and Drought Plan Workshop identified five goals at the Oct. 13 meeting.
The eight-member group, which includes four municipal employees, a city council member, one community member and two Smith Engineering Company staff, agreed that the priority is decrease water loss. Actions to reduce water “waste” include completing a water balance and watering schedule for city parks “based on grass uptake,” continue the leak detection program, review customer billing audits to detect leaks, and encourage the city council to adopt a recommended residential watering schedule resolution.
Other recommendations focused on replacing and improving infrastructure by developing a complete hydraulic model, evaluating the Grants Fire Department hydrant pressure logs, update the city Asset Management Plan and apply the document to decision making, utilize existing Capital Improvement Plan grants along with workshops for key personnel and city council members to prioritize CIPs.
The group agreed that public education is an important aspect for reducing the demand for municipal water services. Suggested methods include social media posts, educational inserts in municipal billing statements, Code Red Alerts, which are a telecommunication system that notifies participants of emergency situations, utilizing electronic message boards, information boards and screens in municipal buildings, creating a general water information page on the city website, and educational outreach to community youth during the annual agricultural day event at the Grants Rodeo Ground and at Earth Day celebrations.
Actions by the city to improve operational efficiency include employee training, transitioning to a city operations staff, reviewing employee wage rates, possibly hiring existing contract staff in addition to monitoring workorders more closely.
The final goal listed actions to promote water source security. Initial steps include updating the 40-year plan along with collecting and reviewing well drawdown records.
(Drawdown is the drop in level of water in a well when water is being pumped. Drawdown measurements record the difference, in feet or meters, between the static level and the pumping level, according to www.cadroughtprep.net)
The city is considering installing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition software as part of its conservation initiative. (SCADA is used by industrial organizations and companies in the public and private sectors to control and maintain efficiency, distribute data for decision-making, and communicate system issues to help mitigate downtime, according to www.electrical4u.com/scadasystem)
And city officials will continue communicating with other users of area water resources including the Village of Milan and tribal entities to promote collaborative efforts about entities’ water rights and to protect natural resources.
“The Water Conservation Plan is designed to ensure, protect, and improve the Community’s water supply and infrastructure,” according the committee’s mission statement.
Visit cityofgrants.net or call 505-287-7927 for more information.