News
Test

Residents Evaluate Fire Damage

Fire Camp Is Its Own Little Village

Red Cross Coordinating Aid for Fire Victims

Say Bye To Bella Vista Eyesore

Newborn Filly Recovering After Attack

Defense: Sobriety Tests Fumbled

Death Penalty Showdown

Deputy May Have Taken Evidence

A Beeline From the Trigo Fire

More
News

HOME	CLASSIFIEDS	OBITUARIES	SPORTS	OPINION

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Moriarty Working to Get More Water

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
    Two of Moriarty's five water wells are out of service.
    "With time the water tables dropped and we ran out of water" in Well 1 and Well 2, said Mayor Adan Encinias in a phone interview.
    Moriarty City Council will hold a special session on Tuesday before its regular council meeting to discuss either relocating or redrilling the two wells.
    The other three city wells have been adequately supplying residents with water, Encinias said.
    As recently as a Sept. 11 council meeting, Public Works Superintendent Mike Tapia briefed councilors about the city's well situation.
    Wells 1 and 2 were drilled in the 1960s but were taken out of service over the years when the city drilled three new wells, Tapia told councilors.
    The city has several choices including bringing those two wells back up to code by either drilling the current well deeper or redrilling another well, said Councilor Ted Hart.
    The city also can move the wells to a different location, said Stephen Curtice, city attorney.
    Councilors had tasked Curtice with researching the legal advantages of drilling replacement wells within 100 feet of the old wells or moving the wells altogether.
    "The legal questions were a little more complicated" than Curtice first supposed when he began his research, he said. "The question becomes where is it best for the city to locate the well," he said.
    In the next couple of months the city will make a decision, Encinias said.
    "First comes first— first drill the wells and see if we get a producing well that gives us all the water we need," Encinias said.
    Well 4 is the largest producer of the three remaining pumps, producing about 600 gallons a minute. Well 3 pumps 200 gallons a minute, and Well 5 pumps from 180 to 200 gallons a minute, Encinias said.
    "We've known about (Wells 1 and 2) for several years. The more that we can have for the future, the better that we are. We have 20-year plans for water, but you never know," Hart said.