San Juan Water Commission receives report on storm damage – The Tri-City Record
A feasibility study to raise the Lake Farmington Dam was also presented
Members of the San Juan Water Commission discuss purchasing land for a new building on North Butler Avenue in Farmington. David Edward Albright/Tri-City Record
The San Juan Water Commission held an in-person meeting Wednesday at the San Juan Water Commission office building, 7450 E. Main St., in Farmington.
The commission received a detailed presentation, with many photos, of the damage caused by wind and rain in the June 21 storm. Another presentation covered the Farmington Lake Dam Raising Feasibility Study and the updated remediation design.
In a one-hour board meeting at the beginning of the meeting, reservations and leases for water use between the San Juan Water Commission and CSJ Midstream LLC on the one hand and the SJWC and Logos Resources II LLC on the other hand, as well as the acquisition of land for the SJWC, were discussed.
Jimmy Hodges, SJWC water resources specialist, said Tri-City Record that the closed session was held at the beginning because a participant was unable to attend at the scheduled time. The SJWC meets the first Wednesday of every month at 9 a.m. at 7450 E. Main St.
Mike Mestas, director of the San Juan County Emergency Management Agency, described the storm as a 200-year event that led to a state of emergency in the county.
Mike Mestas, director of the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management, gave a detailed presentation to the San Juan Water Commission. David Edward Albright/Tri-City Record
Property damage was estimated at $1.3 million. FEMA had 18 personnel on site, knocking on 1,025 doors in the West Hammond and U.S. Highway 64 (Bloomfield Highway) corridors.
“They measured 2 inches of rain in Bloomfield … and concentrated in the Bloomfield corridor, the West Hammond area and the Crouch Mesa area,” Mestas said, adding that damage extended from Shiprock to Blanco and the Colorado state border.
“We also got hit by 80 mph winds, but the National Weather Service wouldn’t classify it as a Category 2 tornado … said it was a microburst,” Mestas said.
The Animas River’s water level rose rapidly from 900 to 3,160 cubic feet per second, and winds knocked down large pine trees and 29 power poles. Power outages lasted up to 72 hours.
“Farmington city employees went from one call to the next, trying to protect people … from being electrocuted by the (downed) power lines, trying to keep cars out of the arroyos and car washes,” Mestas said.
He showed photos of the overflowing river on Glade Road in Farmington and the river that crosses Bloomfield Highway and flows into McGee Park. That river suffered significant storm damage. Excavators were set up to prevent people from driving through the fast-flowing water.
Mestas said McGee Park had been used as an emergency shelter in the past but was affected by the storm and could not be used.
“The great thing about San Juan County is that our citizens are resilient,” Mestas said, and that friends and relatives have taken in many people, including pets.
The hail damage on the roofs was covered with tarpaulins and many residents stayed in their homes and braved the storm.
Chairman Steve Lanier said he saw the impacts up close.
“I witnessed it and it really looked like the walking dead. People just parked their cars, got up and went to a safe place. It was just the wildest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
A woman who lost her chicken farm and chicks to hail damage was in touch with FEMA’s small business loan office, Mestas said.
The Hammond Conservancy District, which serves residents in the corridor, received assistance from FEMA.
The last day for those affected by the storm to apply for assistance from FEMA was Aug. 19, Mestas said.
Go to disasterassistance.gov and download the FEMA mobile app at fema.gov/about/news-multimedia/mobile-products. For more information, visit fema.gov/disaster/4795.
The Farmington Lake Dam Study
Scott Medina, assistant project manager at AECOM, presented the Farmington Lake Dam Raising Feasibility Study and the updated rehabilitation design.
“As we move this project forward, we will continue to coordinate with the Water Commission and all other municipal resources,” Medina said.
The aim of the project is to increase water storage capacity in a cost-effective manner while building regional partnerships to minimize costs.
The data collection, assessment and survey phase is underway. They will catalog and record species that may be affected by the dam’s elevation, Medina said.
“We will develop a geological survey plan and start building the core and taking soil samples there. Then we will carry out the site investigation and set up the control,” he said.
Additional drilling and a geotechnical plan must be approved by the state. Topographic, surface and subsurface and utility surveys will be conducted.
“One of our biggest challenges is finding a drainage structure for the dam and being able to direct the water to the river,” Medina said.
Because there are many homes nearby between the dam and the Animas River, finding a clear, safe corridor will be a challenge, he said.
“So as we move forward into the geotechnical decisions, we will focus on risk assessment. The purpose of that is to determine the failure modes of the dam and use that as the primary method to raise and improve the dam,” he said.
You will conduct an environmental impact assessment using the desktop to determine the impacts of a particular water level.
“The higher we go, the greater the impact as the water surface … expands northward,” Medina said.
This will help them know which agencies they need to coordinate with, including the New Mexico Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corps of Engineers and the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, he said.
“We’ll look for the optimal point where we can most cost-effectively increase water storage … how much it costs to raise the level by 10 feet or by 15 feet,” Medina said.
Initial investigations have shown that the dam is functioning as designed, but that seepage is occurring through the spillway and the saddle dam, he said.
