Subscribed and sworn to before me this 15 day of December 1971. My commission expires: January 27, 1975. APRIL 10, 1972. GENTLEMEN: As the present mayor of Lake Arthur I do hereby reaffirm the above statement for my part and for the town board. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10 day of April, 1972. F. M. HART. MAIBEL O. DAVIS, Notary Public. My commission expires: January 27, 1975. STATEMENT OF ROSCO FLETCHER, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, My name is Rosco Fletcher and I live in Dexter, New Mexico. I am Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners of Chaves County, New Mexico. I am also a farmer by occupation. The County Commission has authorized me to make this statement to this Senate subcommittee. The Pecos River runs from North to South through a large part of the eastern plains of New Mexico. It passes through Chaves County, and on leaving Chaves County the river enters Eddy County to the South. The existing Avalon and McMillan Reservoirs which provide terminal storage for the Carlsbad Irrigation District and the proposed Brantley Dam are situated in Eddy County. The Carisbad Irrigation District maintains another storage reservoir on the Pecos River. It is known as Alamogordo Reservoir, and it lies in De Baca County which adjoins Chaves County on the North. In other words the Carlsbad Irrigation District maintains irrigation storage facilities in the two counties which adjoin Chaves County on the North and on the South. The population of Chaves County is not large by some standards, but it is one of the more populated counties in New Mexico. The economy is agriculturally oriented. Because our rainfall averages 10 to 11 inches a year, there is no dry land farming; our farming is based exclusively on irrigation. Most of the irrigation waters are obtained from underground water formations. However, our farmers who have the right to irrigate with waters from the Pecos River, with one or two exceptions, do not have any underground water rights, and consequently they depend upon the availability of water in the river when they need to irrigate their lands. The river pumpers are deeply concerned over the proposed Brantley Dam, and their concern is our concern. They feel that the Bureau of Reclamation and the Carlsbad Irrigation District, owning reservoir storage facilities upstream and downstream from them, will be in a position, if Brantley is constructed, to control and manage the flow and delivery of water in the Pecos River to the detriment of the pumpers in Chaves County. Unless our river pumpers can have firm, binding assurance that the Bureau of Reclamation and the Carlsbad Irrigation District will not control the flow of the Pecos River to their detriment, we must oppose the Brantley Dam project as it is presently constituted. The Board of County Commissioners of Chaves County does not object to Brantley Dam as a flood protection facility or as a facility providing fishing and recreational opportunities. Having personally seen the effects of floods on certain tributaries of the Pecos River and the Pecos River itself, the Board of County Commissioners of Chaves County endorses all economically feasible programs designed to protect life and property against the destructive power of floods. The Board does object, however, to approval of this project unless there is consideration of the rights and problems of the river pumpers. We have been advised that no such reported consideration has been given by the Bureau of Reclamation and that the Carlsbad Irrigation District has refused to reach an agreement with the pumpers. If this is so, we oppose the Brantley Dam project as being potentially detrimental to the interests of an important segment of our country's population and economy. STATEMENT OF ROSWELL, N. MEX., CHAMBER OF DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCE, SUBMITTED BY ERNIE WITUCKI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT The Roswell Chamber of Development and Commerce is charged with the community development of the City of Roswell and the surrounding area in Chaves County, New Mexico. Roswell is one of the four largest cities in New Mexico and is the largest city in southeastern New Mexico. It is the county seat of one of the more populated and larger counties in New Mexico. The area surrounding Roswell is devoted to agriculture which is a basic economy upon which the people rely for their welfare. Any act which threatens the economic welfare of agriculture also threatens the welfare of our entire community. The proposed Brantley Dam project will have a detrimental effect upon the welfare of a number of our farmers and their families who rely upon the uncertain availability of water in the Pecos River for their livelihood, unless adequate safeguards are provided in connection with the operation by the Carlsbad Irrigation District of its multireservoir storage complex which encircles the Pecos River pumpers upstream and downstream. The Carlsbad Irrigation District has refused, according to our information, to agree to adequate protection of the Pecos River pumpers if Brantley Dam is constructed. Unless Congress can provide for such protection as a condition to approval of the Brantley project, we must respectfully oppose the project as not being in our interest or in the interest of our community. STATEMENT OF THE PECOS VALLEY ARTESIAN CONSERVANCY DISTRICT, KENNETH EAKENS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY The Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District was organized pursuant to the authority contained in Chapter 97 of the 1931 Session Laws of the State of New Mexico. The purpose of the Act was to provide for the organization of Artesian Conservancy Districts to conserve, where necessary, the waters in any artesian basin. The waters of the Roswell-Artesian Basin, which the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District was organized to conserve, are presently over-appropriated. The annual appropriations from the Basin are greatly in excess of the annual recharge thereto and any additional withdrawals from the Basin will be detrimental to the entire Basin and the lands lying within its boundaries. The lands irrigated by the Pecos River pumpers from the Pecos River all lie within the declared boundaries of the Roswell-Artesian Basin, and within the established boundaries of the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District. The Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District does not object to the construction of the Brantley Dam per se, but does object to its construction if the proposed use thereof will affect and diminish the waters of the Pecos River available to the Pecos River pumpers for the irrigation of their lands. In the event the construction and operation of Brantley Dam will diminish the waters available to the Pecos River pumpers, they will be compelled to apply for permits to drill wells in the Roswell-Artesian Basin to supplement their water supply. These supplemental wells will increase the present withdrawals from the Basin, and be detrimental thereto in addition to placing an unnecessary economic burden on the pumpers in the drilling and equipping of these wells. I hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true and correct extract from the Minutes of the regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District held on January 18, 1972. KENNETH U. EAKENS, STATEMENT OF ARTHUR FRANKLIN BROWN, WATER CONSULTANT, PECOS RIVER PUMPERS' ASSOCIATION, HAGERMAN, N. MEX. My name is Arthur Franklin Brown. In appearing before this House Subcommittee hearing on the Brantley Reservoir Project on the Pecos River in New Mexico, I do so as a water consultant for the Pecos Rivers Pumpers' Association of Hagerman, New Mexico. I am a territorial New Mexican having come to New Mexico in 1910. After receiving my degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New Mexico, I spent 17 years in Federal Civil Service of which 11 years were with the Bureau of Reclamation, the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Agricultural Engineering. I spent 10 years with the State Engineer of New Mexico, and for the past 18 years I have been in private practice in the field of water rights, water supplies and various aspects of water engineering and eject planning. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this Subcommittee in behalf of what we commonly refer to as the River Pumpers. The River Pumpers are an organization of 24 farmers who irrigate land along the Pecos River near Dexter, Hagerman and Lake Arthur, New Mexico. The water rights of the River Pumpers were decreed in 1933 in the Federal Court for the District of New Mexico in Cause No. 712 Equity, United States of America versus Hope Community Ditch et al., commonly referred to as the Hope Decree. They irrigate approximately 4,000 acres of land with public water and 1,000 acres with private water, using the Pecos River as a carrier. The pumper farms are not more than 90% owner operated. Their operations are highly efficient. Since 1953 their pumping has been under supervision of a State Engineer appointed watermaster. Their diversions are metered and they are allowed the use of three acre feet per acre per annum delivered on the land. The State Engineer allows a carriage loss of 10% so their total right is 3.3 acre feet per acre per annum diverted from the river. Their actual diversions during the period of time they have been under the watermaster have averaged 2.8 acre feet per acre per annum. Due to highly efficient management, land preparation and good agricultural practices they have been able to produce excellent crops except for such times as water has not been available when needed or if the limited amount of water that was available contained an extremely high salt content. Some of the programs they have completed to make efficient use of water are: (a) Use large heads of water, (b) level their fields, and (c) engineer the width of borders and length of runs to fit their heads of water and their soils so that the water is delivered to the place of use-the root zones. They have lined their ditches to decrease carriage losses. They balance their crops between the kind of crops that require a large amount of water and those that can produce with lesser amounts of water. They frequently withhold watering from the second cutting of alfalfa and produce a crop of seed, minimizing the use of water during the growing season. The pumpers are badly hurt when they cannot get river water for early planting. It's not only a matter of a crop being late or short. If cotton and some other crops cannot be planted and brought to a stand in the spring, the entire crop could be lost for that year. Cotton planted late will produce less and will be inferior in quality, thus resulting in a reduction in price. I might say that the timeliness of flows of usable water in the river is the principal purpose of my appearance before this Subcommittee. Prior to the construction of Alamogordo Reservoir upstream from them in 1937 the Pumpers enjoyed the natural flows of the Pecos River. With the construction and operation of Alamogordo Reservoir the Pecos River flows have been modified to suit the wishes of the Carlsbad Irrigation District. In some years the releases are timely for the pumpers and in other years they are not. They have no voice in the storage and releases. No application for the construction of Alamogordo Dam was filed with the State Engineer as required by law. In general, the first release of the year from Alamogordo Reservoir is in March, which is satisfactory; however, in 1967 the first release commenced on April 29 which is entirely too late. In 1970 the first release was made commencing May 21, and in 1971 the first release commenced on April 9-all too late. If there were no terminal storage for the Carlsbad Project downstream from the Pumpers there would be no problem of the timeliness of releases. Releases of water from Alamogordo Reservoir which would serve the Carlsbad Irrigation District would also automatically be timely for the Pumpers. However the terminal storage in McMillan and Avalon Reservoirs downstream from the Pumpers permits releases from Alamogordo Reservoir at times not useful to the pumpers, or you might say, water can be withheld and kept in storage during periods of time when the pumpers need water. The greater amount of terminal storage proposed in the Brantley report would provide a greater opportunity to modify the flow of the Pecos River to the detriment of the river pumpers. This situation is called to the attention of Congress because it is not set forth in the Brantley Reservoir Project report. The report states the approval of Texas was sought and obtained. Nothing is said about seeking approval of New Mexico water users in the Pecos Middle Basin. The Brantley Reservoir proposal is for an irrigation storage allocation which is greater than the amount of storage now available, posing a threat of further injury to the water supply of the Pecos River Pumpers. The report also proposes winter releases from Brantley (about 11,000 acre feet) which might be replaced by winter releases from Alamogordo. This is almost a year's supply for 4,000 acres of pumper lands. Also, the report proposes a 7,000 acre foot recreation pool in Alamogordo-a new water loss upstream from the pumpers. The Alamogordo Reservoir already loses 14,000 acre feet per year-a full year's supply for the pumpers. In reading the Corps of Engineers' report on the Los Esteros Project entitled Pecos River and Tributaries, Texas and New Mexico, published House document No. 339 of the 84th Congress, Second Session, I notice that this problem is recognized by the Corps. The report states on page 51, "Since water is in short supply and in view of the serious adverse effect that certain existing reservoirs have had, any proposals to manipulate stream flow for flood control or for other purposes are subject to the critical appraisal of all Pecos River interests." The River Pumpers situation is a case in point. One of the statements in the Brantley Project report is that the plan presented would provide for the best use of the available waters of the Middle Pecos River Basin. This statement is challenged. With large water losses in three reservoirs and in the McMillan delta followed by a terminal diversion to the Carlsbad Project of about 3.6 feet per irrigated acre, plus supplemental ground water which is not measured, as compared with diversions of 2.8 acre feet per acre for the Pumpers, it would seem that the best use of available water would first be to improve the timeliness of the flows available to the Pumpers and firm up their supply without increasing the draft upon the river. With something over $9,000,000 of Federal money poured into the Carlsbad Project and nothing into the River Pumpers development, it is my hope that this committee and the Congress and the people of the United States would not want to make a further investment in the inefficient Carlsbad Project until and unless some provision is made for the needs and protection of the Pumpers. I'm sure that when Congress authorizes investigations for such stream systems as the Pecos River, it will want all rights considered and, if possible, some solution worked out to meet their needs if economically feasible. Certainly in the endeavor to improve some projects the Congress would never want to disregard the rights of other projects, nor overlook their needs, nor injure them. One solution would be to remand the report to the Bureau of Reclamation with instructions to study the problems of the River Pumpers, verify their needs and find a way to firm their water supply. Or perhaps the Bureau might like a Pecos River Pumpers Project similar to the Carlsbad and Fort Sumner Projects, employing if needed, some of the surplus water rights which the United States presently owns and holds in reserve for the Carlsbad Project. These decreed rights are far in excess of what the Government needs for its Carlsbad Project. Another possible remedy would be to condition the authorization of the Brantley Project upon a means being provided to protect the Pumpers' water supply. Perhaps the Project could be authorized with the provision that no money be appropriated until a means is incorporated into it to protect the Pumper's water supply. Another solution would be for Congress to require proper operational criteria. I do not make any specific recommendation as to which remedy be utilized, only that timely flows be available to the Pumpers. Analyses by James H. Sikes of Valley Agri-Services, Inc., Roswell, of water samples taken from the Pecos River on March 10, 1972 show total salts in parts per million of 6527 at the Dexter Bridge, 6714 at the Hagerman Bridge, 7386 at Buffalo Valley and 9183 at the Lake Arthur Bridge. A comment on Mr. Sikes' report is: "None of these samples can be considered suitable for irrigation purposes". Western Soil Laboratory analysis of water samples taken on March 15, 1965 show total dissolved solids of 6,096 parts per million at the Old Dexter Bridge, 6.124 at the old Hagerman Bridge, 6.295 at the new Hagerman Bridge, 6.128 at Gilbert Gomez pump, 6,912 at the A. W. Langenegger pump and 8,240 at the Lake Arthur Bridge. Roughly 1% of the solids are chlorides. The deterioration in the quality of water of the Pecos River through the reach where the Pumpers are is also a detriment to the water supply for the Carlsbad Irrigation District. It is a problem which the District shares with the Pumpers: however, the Pumpers are hurt worse by their salty water because it constitutes their total supply at times, whereas Carlsbad's terminal supply is a mixture of poor quality water and water from other sources, placed in storage and commingled. The Pumpers and the Carlsbad Irrigation District share the effect of the lesser discharge emerging from the Roswell underground water basin because of all the wells that are used for irrigation of some 126,000 acres. The immediate need is for some good quality water to be mixed with this low quality water, at times, so that the Pumpers won't have to go out of business. Mr. W. E. Utterback, President of the Pumpers Association, has been in the farming business in this area since 1903. He has now retired but his life work has gone into the improvement of farms and farm practices in this area, and now two of his sons are continuing the activity in his stead. These people and all other Pecos River pumpers have been badly hurt by untimely Alamogordo releases in the past. I don't think anyone wants to see these hard working Americans forced over the brink. Essentially it's a matter of having water that's timely, and there is no way by which anyone upstream or downstream would be adversely affected by the pumpers having timely water. The farmers under the Carlsbad Irrigation District are applying more than the 3 acre feet allowed by the State Engineer. and timely flows for the Pumpers will not prevent them from doing so in the future. In addition to the Pumpers survival there is the matter of economics for the area in which they operate. We very much need some peace in the Middle Pecos River Basin. I feel assured that the United States has engineers, technicians, lawyers, administrators and statesmen who can work out what is a "mountain" for the Pumpers but a "molehill" for the Bureau of Reclamation and Carlsbad Irrigation District; if necessary, using the good offices of the State Engineer of New Mexico-certainly with the full support and cooperation of the Pecos River Pumpers Association and other local interests. Mr. LANGENEGGER. Thank you very much. Mr. JOHNSON. Our next witness is Mr. Steve West, a private citizen. Is Mr. West here with us this morning? Well, we will make room for his statement at this time, and he can submit it for the record if he had to leave for any reason. We will make the place for his statement to appear in the record following the letters that were submitted by the Pumpers Association. Now, at this time, I would like to recognize the Congressman from New Mexico to place a couple of more statements in the record that will appear after his statement in the record. Mr. RUNNELS. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I would like to present to the Committee my prepared statement for the record. I also would like to present to the Committee, with your consent, the statement of Senator Anderson and the statement of Senator Montoya, both supporting this hearing this morning. And I will give them to the Secretary. We do appreciate, Mr. Chairman, your coming to Carlsbad and looking into our problem, and we will appreciate the Subcommittee's approval of our bill. And I want to thank our colleague. Mr. Lujan, for coming to Carlsbad, and I know that we both work for the benefit of the State regardless of our District lines or where they are drawn. Mr. JOHNSON. You have heard the request of the gentleman from New Mexico, Mr. Runnels. Is there objection? Hearing none, the statements will be placed in the record, including those from the two Senators. (The statements referred to follow :) STATEMENT OF HON. HAROLD RUNNELS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for providing me with the opportunity to testify today in support of HR 5042, legislation which would authorize the Secretary of Interior to construct, operate and maintain the Brantley project in New Mexico. |