The NM Interstate Stream Commission and a panel of evaluators are currently assessing project proposals under the Arizona Water Settlements Act
The ISC has just made public the list of projects that passed and failed Tier 1 of the evaluation process. In general, if a project fails Tier 1 it is eliminated from consideration in the Tier 2 evaluation, although ISC staff have recommended exceptions to this, such as three proposals for mainstem and offstream dams on the Gila and San Francisco Rivers. Proposals that successfully pass Tier 2, will be evaluated in greater detail during 2012 – 2013. Ultimately a project or projects will be selected from this smaller list of Tier 2 projects for funding under the AWSA. The ISC commissioners are scheduled to make a final decision on Tier 1 projects at a meeting on Tuesday September 27 in Albuquerque. This decision is critical as it will define what projects will be considered for AWSA funding to meet our future water needs in southwestern New Mexico.
The ISC held a meeting on Monday September 19 and said that it could not make the project proposals public until the ISC commissioners had taken final action. At the same time, the ISC is requesting public input on the evaluation panel’s recommendations at its September 27 meeting, but yet the public does not know the details of the projects that were submitted for review. GCC has made another Inspection of Public Records Act request to obtain these proposals. In the meantime, GCC is posting all of the project proposals submitted for preliminary Tier 1 review that it received from the ISC as a result of its previous IPRA request. This will give people a sense of what was submitted although project proponents could have changed their proposal before final submission. It should also be noted that GCC does not have all of the final projects submitted, therefore it is critical that the public see the final project submissions prior to the September 27th ISC meeting.
GCC would like to see the ISC follow through on its promise of transparency in this process and therefore encourages the agency to make public the Tier 1 project submissions immediately.