Planning is moving forward on a substantial project in Las Vegas, New Mexico that will see the building of a new central water treatment facility.
Two years ago, what is now classified as the largest and most destructive wildfire in the history of New Mexico – the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire – swept through large swaths of San Miguel, Mora, and Taos counties, scorching more than 341,000 acres.
The fire, which started after a prescribed burn at the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District got out of control, eventually destroyed around 900 structures, nearly a quarter of which were homes.
Such large fires typically create a multitude of natural habitat and built infrastructure issues, which in the case of Las Vegas meant tons of debris floating down the Gallinas River and polluting the city’s reservoirs.
The impact to the Galinas, in fact, prompted the Washington-based group American Rivers last summer to classify it as one of the nation’s “most endangered rivers.” The City, for its part, imposed Stage 5 water restrictions during a time when it was down to a supply of only 17 days of remaining water.
Now Las Vegas has secured around $98 million in federal funds to replace water facilities that were inundated by the floods and debris flow.
The funding, according to a City news release, will not only support the construction of new water infrastructure, but also a “comprehensive reassessment of emergency response protocols, flood management systems, and community resilience measures.”
The new funding, coming through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, comes on top of another $2.6 million from the agency granted in early 2023 to pay for needed engineering reports related to the water facilities project.
An exact timeline of when work will launch on the project has not been released, but it is expected that the planning phase will take at least a year, with a 23-month design phase to follow.
Actual construction may take as long as 3 years.
By Garry Boulard
