Saturday, September 22, 2007

BF to consider drilling well to help with arsenic levels

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms In an effort to decrease the amount of arsenic in the drinking water in Bosque Farms, the governing body unanimously approved drilling an additional well in the village.

Several years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lowered the maximum level for arsenic in drinking water from the current 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.

The amount of arsenic found in the water system in Bosque Farms averages 12 parts per billion (ppb) in one well and 14 ppb in the other. Although the village has received an extension, Bosque Farms and other municipalities in the county and throughout New Mexico are now faced with having to construct new water treatment facilities that could financially hurt the community.

Bosque Farms Mayor Wayne Ake estimated that it would cost the village to establish a new arsenic treatment system $6 million to complete and more than $300,000 to manage each year.

Although arsenic occurs naturally in water systems, it is still labeled a chronic contaminate. Arsenic is not an immediate risk to the public and is not at a life-threatening level in Valencia County municipal systems, officials said.

During the regular council meeting on Thursday, Ake told the council that the village was contacted by the Bureau of Reclamation, and by an aide from Sen. Pete Domenici's office, and told that $10 million had been appropriated for drilling water wells in several New Mexico communities including Bosque Farms, Los Lunas, Belen and Valencia County.

"This money can only be used for one thing, drilling water wells," Ake explained. "I have sat up here talking about the arsenic problems we are facing and the cost to correct it, and my thought is if we took the money and drilled a well, or if we got enough for two wells, we could drill at each of the two existing well sites."

Ake said that by drilling near the two existing wells, there is a chance that the village could find an aquifer with water containing arsenic below the 10 ppb standard. He said the village could then blend that water with that from the current wells and perhaps could lower the amount of arsenic in the drinking water.

"I know there's no guarantee that if you drill 500 feet that we'll be below the 10 parts per billion, because there's a lot that determines this," Ake said. "They didn't mention anything about matching funds — they'll pay for drilling, a screen, but past that, they won't pay for one single pipe to get it to the existing well."

Ake suggested that the village could sample the water during the drilling process until they get to the spot where the arsenic levels meet the federal standard.

Mayor Pro-Tem Robert Knowlton, who attended the meeting by phone, said that he thinks this is a wonderful opportunity for the village and believes that there is a very high likelihood that drilling another well would find water below the 10 ppb.

"My suggestion is that we apply with the Bureau or Reclamation and tell them that we're interested and we want to go forward, but before we commit to do anything, we need to get a professional engineering report done that will evaluate the plan."

Knowlton said the Army Corps of Engineers would pay up to 75 percent toward the engineering report, and the rest of the funds could be taken from this year's $200,000 legislative appropriation allocated to the village for water or sewer projects.

Ake said that drilling next to the existing wells would save Bosque Farms a large amount of money in the costs of pipelines as opposed to drilling somewhere else in the village. He estimated it would cost $1 million per mile of pipeline.

In other business, the council: