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Thursday, May 15, 2008

After Trigo Fire, Concern Is Now Flooding

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
      In the aftermath of the Trigo Fire, officials are concerned that other natural disasters may bring further damage to the Manzano Mountains.
       With any more rain than the three-quarters inch that was predicted for the area, “there could be some real safety issues to consider,” said Louis King, from the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Mountainair.
       At the Torrance County Commission meeting Wednesday, officials from conservation service addressed concerns of flooding and further destruction of property in the area even as rain fell.
       They began the presentation by handing out a color map of the Trigo Fire Watershed that was generated by an hydraulic engineer.
       “The worst case would be the creation of a temporary dam situation, where the flow would accumulate and then burst into a surge downstream, where it could do a lot of damage,” said Atiq Syed, hydraulic engineer, in information attached to the map.
       Hollis Fuchs, NRCS area conservationist, said there are two bridges or box culverts near Manzano that could potentially clog with debris or be unable to handle an intense thunderstorm and could flood N.M. 55.
       “If we were to get a fairly intense thunderstorm of 1½ inches, in my opinion that possibility exists. … They don't have the capacity to handle that amount of water,” Fuchs said.
       Along with Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Dierdre Tarr and East Torrance Soil and Water Conservation District chief Cheri Lujan, NRCS officials requested that commissioners approve an application they have already made for federal funds through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
       King predicted the county may incur “major expenses” in dealing with the aftermath from the fire.
       Remediation work in the area could total up to $3 million, according to Fuchs.
       In the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, NRCS could cover up to 75 percent of that cost, Fuchs said, with a 25 percent match in either cash or in-kind services from a local source, such as the county or conservation districts.
       Fuchs, who has more than 30 years of experience with the NRCS, compared the Trigo Fire to other disasters.
       “It isn't in the league of a massive tornado or hurricane or anything like that. But if you consider the Cerro Grande, the fire involving Los Alamos and its aftermath, this is the next worst one to that,” Fuchs said.
       In 2000, the Cerro Grande Fire burned 350 homes and nearly 43,000 acres in Los Alamos.
       “The potential of damage to the little village of Manzano that I can see is that there is definitely significant potential of property damage and threat to people's lives. It just depends on how much rain we get and how quickly,” Fuchs said.
       Meanwhile, Sheriff Clarence Gibson told commissioners that because of fire damage his department lost power to a repeater tower on Capilla Peak. Deputies' hand-held and mobile radios were affected by the loss of power. A temporary generator has been moved up to the peak to supply power to the tower.
      

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