Attorney: Pipeline would violate Endangered Species Act

The attorney representing the Village of Logan has asked the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to order a halt to construction of a proposed water pipeline to Ute Lake because it would violate the Endangered Species Act.

Logan attorney Warren Frost on behalf of the village wrote a letter Aug. 16 to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, with copies sent to officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. He alleges the Bureau of Reclamation is in violation of the Endangered Species Act by supporting and funding the pipeline project.

The 130-mile pipeline would pump up to 16,415 acre-feet of water annually from Ute Lake near Logan to communities in Curry and Roosevelt counties that have experienced depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. The Bureau of Reclamation has given the authority about $116 million for the project, which is estimated to cost as much as $1 billion. The authority wants to finish the pipeline by 2029.

Frost cited two endangered species he said would be threatened by the project.

One would be the peppered chub, a minnow whose habitat is below Ute Dam west of Logan into Lake Meredith in Texas.

“The seepage form Ute Dam into the Peppered Chub habitat is critical to avoiding the extinction of the Peppered Chub,” Frost wrote. “Although the spillway elevation of Ute Reservoir is 3,787 feet above sea level, ENMWUA currently has the ability to pump Ute Reservoir down to 3,741 feet above sea level.

“With the quantity of silt that has flowed into the lake during the last several decades is taken into account, the proposed pumping of Ute Reservoir to the 3,741 level would substantially and detrimentally reduce the seepage from Ute Dam that is vital for the protection of the Peppered Chub critical habitat. The reduction of the seepage to this extent would likely cause the extinction of this critical species.”

Frost also stated the lesser prairie chicken would be threatened by pipeline construction. He said its 85-foot-wide permanent easement for northern Curry County and southern Quay County would have “a deleterious impact” on the bird’s habitat.

The Fish and Wildlife Service less than a year ago identified the lesser prairie chicken as endangered in eastern New Mexico.

He said an alternative to the pipeline would be “more than adequate” groundwater that exists in Curry and Roosevelt counties.

“Those ground water resources are currently being exhausted by extensive use for agricultural purposes,” Frost wrote. “Instead of curtailing those agricultural uses at a fraction of the cost of this pipeline and thereby solving domestic water needs of Roosevelt and Curry Counties, ENMWUA has determined that the project should proceed only because the federal government is paying for the vast majority of the costs.”

Frost asked Haaland to order the end of all activity and funding of the pipeline and direct the Bureau of Reclamation to begin a consultation process regarding the peppered chub and lesser prairie chicken as required by the Endangered Species Act.

He said if the federal agencies don’t act within 60 days, the village would file a request for an injunction.

In a phone interview Friday, Frost said he hadn’t yet received a response from any of the entities about his letter.

“We’re trying to keep the taxpayers of Roosevelt and Curry counties from making a terrible mistake,” he said. “It’s going to cost them a billion dollars, and we’re trying to save ourselves and the minnow at the same time.”

During a recent letter to the editor in the Quay County Sun, Frost said the City of Clovis in 2019 identified 10,290 acres northwest of the city that would provide 30,870 acre-feet of water per year — “more than enough to address their water needs” — that could have been acquired for about $25 million. He said Clovis, Portales and Texico use less than 12,000 acre-feet of water per year.

Orlando Ortega, administrator of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority in Clovis, declined to directly comment in an email to the Quay County Sun about Frost’s letter.

“The Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority refers any questions or request for comment on this matter to the United States Bureau of Reclamation, the lead federal agency,” Ortega wrote.

The pipeline has been cussed and discussed by many Quay County residents for years. Many Logan residents oppose it because they fear it would adversely affect Ute Lake. Numerous rural residents whose land where the pipeline would traverse have objected to the process of the authority gaining easements and how their land might be restored after the pipeline is finished.

Frost sent the letter just days before the authority was scheduled to hold a groundbreaking ceremony near Clovis for the first phase of the pipeline project, including a visit by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich.