U.S. Water News Online
SANTA FE -- A family-owned company will demonstrate the merits of its ditch liners. A nonprofit organization will make water-saving devices affordable for hundreds of homeowners, and Cloudcroft will finish a special treatment system for reclaiming wastewater.
They are among 25 recipients of $10 million from a state fund that encourages fresh approaches to fighting the drought.
It's estimated that the projects -- designed to produce, recycle or conserve water, and to help communities facing water crises -- will save 32 billion gallons a year, Gov. Bill Richardson said.
"This is new, innovative thinking from New Mexico citizens -- not bureaucrats," Richardson said as he announced the recipients.
Finance and Administration Secretary James Jimenez said the projects were selected from about 225 proposals.
The Water Innovation Fund was created after lawmakers set aside $10 million of capital improvement money for it at Richardson's request in the 2004 legislative session. The governor said he will ask for more funding next year.
"We are looking for projects that can be replicated across the state of New Mexico, not just for one-time fixes that address a particular community's issues," Jimenez said.
New Mexico's traditional, unlined acequias can lose upward of 90 percent of their water, according to Ken Suazo, who said there are 900 such ditches.
Suazo's Vallecitos-based company, FastDitch, makes high-density, polyethylene liners. It got $487,000 to line and monitor a 7,900-foot ditch at Acoma to validate its claims that the percentage of water loss can be reduced to single digits.
Homewise, a Santa Fe housing organization, will use its $300,000 to provide low-interest loans to homeowners to buy a range of water-saving devices that include front-loading washing machines, water-saving dishwashers, and low-flow toilets, shower heads and faucet heads.
Homewise executive director Michael Loftin said the program also will offer re-circulating hot water pumps, which can save nearly 10,000 gallons a year by eliminating the need for faucets to run until hot water reaches sinks or showers.
The fund also provided $500,000 for another Santa Fe project. The city will retrofit 10 deep water wells with systems that allow the recapture and reuse of "purge" water, which is discharged to the surface each time well pumps are started.
The fund gave $636,000 to Cloudcroft for its toilet-to-tap project, which is projected to reclaim about 100,000 gallons a day of wastewater by treating it to drinking water quality.
"As you know, we've had to haul water this year because our wells have not been producing as they have in the past," said village administrator and Otero County Commissioner Michael Nivison.
Another project, proposed by a Florida firm that has developed similar systems for ships, will receive $545,000 to demonstrate the effectiveness of treating wastewater from a dairy farm in southern New Mexico.
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