Bosque Farms receives $10 million for clarifier

BOSQUE FARMS — A Valencia County municipality has been playing the waiting game for $10 million, but once the waiting is over a long-awaited project will be on track for completion.

The village of Bosque Farms recently announced on its Facebook page it has been awarded $10 million for wastewater infrastructure.

The funding is part of the federal Thomas R. Carper Water Sources Development Act of 2024, which former president Joe Biden signed into law on Jan. 4.

The eight figure award came as a surprise, said Village Clerk/administrator Michael Limon.

“We were originally told the funding had been pulled to be used for recovery after the fires in Ruidoso, which we understood, so we thought we needed to come up with other funding sources,” Limon said. “The (wastewater treatment) plant is in dire need of upgrades. We were completely surprised by this funding.”

The clerk/administrator said he wasn’t sure who to thank at the federal level for the award, but said he’d been told U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury had some involvement in the award.

“We’re lucky to be a part of this,” he said.

For nearly two decades, village councilors, mayors and staff have been pleading their case at the state and federal level, requesting funding for a second clarifier at the municipal wastewater treatment plant.

The village currently has $4.9 million — a $4,760,000 loan and $140,000 in grant funds — from the New Mexico Clean Water State Revolving Fund for the project. The deadline to use that money was recently extended until January 2027 and the interest rate on the loan was set at .01 percent.

The need for a second clarifier for the village is twofold — one is to help handle the increasing volume of wastewater in the area from both the village and town of Peralta, which contracts with Bosque Farms for wastewater services, and the second is to allow for the existing clarifier to be taken offline for much needed rehab and repair.

“The main plan for this funding is for sure a new clarifier so we can take down the current system to do full repairs and get it back up to full health. That will also make sure we are prepared in the future for staff to be able to manage and maintain the volume for both Bosque Farms and Peralta, without a contractor or someone from (the state’s rural water division),” Limon said.

Design work for a second clarifier has been completed by engineering firm Molzen Corbin, Limon said, and those plans are being reviewed by the village’s contracted wastewater treatment plant operator of record, Prodigy Builders, and Molzen to make sure the plans are still adequate and estimate a total build cost.

“We need to make sure it will sustain the village’s needs by the time we get the funding and go out to bid, and in light of upcoming tariffs, we know costs will go up,” he said. “Molzen Corbin has estimated the cost will be close to $20 million.”

While the village has been alerted to the award, details such as an exact disbursement date and any restrictions on spending haven’t been released yet.

“This is federal funding but it will be managed by the state. This is a whole new process for me. I’ve not dealt with funding of this volume or managed this way,” the clerk/administrator said. “We are waiting to hear back from the state about what comes next. We are hoping they left the bill as open as possible so we can really get into the work with our engineers and Prodigy and how we want to upgrade the plant. I understand it’s for wastewater treatment, so that should get us where we need to go.”

Efforts to gather funding for the project are ongoing, Limon said, with a request to New Mexico Sen. Josh Sanchez for an additional $9 million.

“Some big credit goes to Councilors (Ronita) Wood and (Tim) Baughman, and Mayor (Chris) Gillespie for putting me in contact with Sen. Sanchez,” he said. “They and administrations going back for years have been advocating for these funds. We had a desperate need even prior to the (January 2024) spill. This all definitely comes from the efforts of previous administrations. I’m happy to carry this over the finish line but they have repeatedly lobbied for this need for years.”