If I had only known

Do you remember that time when you meant to go see someone but something came up, only to get a call that something had happened to them? If I had only known. That time you decided to dabble in stocks, play some poker, took that ‘sure bet’ and lost your butt? If you had only known. That time you bought a beautiful car and 3 weeks later the transmission flew into pieces? If only you had known. That time you thought you found the most wonderful person on the planet only to discover what a slow motion disaster that was? If you had only known.

We can’t predict the future with total accuracy BUT in many cases we can get what would be called a ‘weighted decision’ of good odds. High probability.

Some of our City leaders that have been here for a decade or more have possessed information that foretold the future of Portales regarding our water resources. They were given the chance to be proactive. They chose this action, or that action, or non-action and find themselves in the uncomfortable position of ‘had we only known’.

You did know, with high probability, but the decision was made to ride out the storm and wait for Ute Lake Pipeline to save Portales. I have heard many times ‘no one on council is a water expert’. Then why don’t you listen ‘to’ the experts? The ones we have paid millions of tax payer dollars to tell us ‘here is your water future probability’.

The point is it has been projected with high probability that Portales will run out of water prior to the pipeline being finished. Suggested by a multitude of independent ‘experts’ (Charles Wilson, Geoffrey Rawlings, etc.). These folks were paid large amounts of money (your money) for their water intelligence to study our situation. It established the phrase and concept of ‘bridging the gap’ between where we are now and Ute Pipeline delivery. For example it was suggested for our City to reduce water consumption from 900 million to 700 million gallons per year to bridge that gap. We have failed 4 years in a row by 200 million gallons per year. So over a full year of our projected water is gone.

There is a substantial probability (Whipple Report 1994) that the Ute Pipeline Project will not deliver the amount of water originally projected. This Project is estimated to be completed in 2030 and require 2 years to be tested therefore producing benefit as early as 2032. There are also a multitude of factors (money, weather, physics) that could delay this project and/or reduce it’s capacity promised.

As a community, as we speak, our actions are literally choosing IF we run ourselves out of water and how many years we want to be without water.

The ultimate point is this is not about green grass, washing your car, resolution documents. You can cite ‘quality of life’ and I ask what is our quality of life with no water? You can cite ‘people moving’ or ‘property value’ and I will further ask how much will your property be worth or how many people will move from a City that has insufficient water?

I honestly don’t think (opinion) this can be totally repaired. There is a very good possibility we will never be able to return to our version of ‘normal’. Kind of like what Covid did to us. Understand I 100% hope I am wrong but we may have to change the way we think in order to ‘water survive’. I do think we can intervene and turn this situation around and have an excellent quality of life for many years to come BUT not on this trend we are following.

I have been told ‘no one knows Mike’, you might be wrong Mike, that’s a pessimistic view Mike. I accept that but I’m also 100% fine with it. If I’m right then our governance better wake up and start trying to understand the dynamics that are happening to our water resources and act accordingly instead of 5 years from now saying, one more time, ‘If we had only known’.

If I’m wrong you and I will both have more water.