Meeting addresses Mount Taylor water

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — In a noon hour special meeting, the Grants City Council voted to authorize their lawyers to represent them in a mediation meeting and to invite Cibola County to join in the mediation.

The council met for nearly an hour in closed session to discuss pending litigation involving standing water and bacterial contamination in the Mount Taylor Addition at the east end of Grants. Attorney Gail Gottlieb of the city’s law firm Sutin, Thayer and Brown attended the closed session.

Councilors voted unanimously to accept Mayor Joe Murietta’s proposal to authorize the law firm to represent the city in negotiations with residents of Mount Taylor Addition later in the month. The proposal also authorized the firm to give Cibola County a demand letter to involve the county in the mediation.

Gottlieb said Attorney Pete Domenici Jr. would represent the Mount Taylor residents and their concerns about standing water in parts of the subdivision during the mediation.

Residents have brought complaints about increased standing water and high bacterial counts in the water to the city council and to the county manager over the past several years.

In efforts to determine where the excess water is coming from and to seek solutions for the residents, the city had test wells drilled to track water flow to the distressed area.

Test wells allowed researchers to take samples of water along suspected paths of water flow and compare the chemical signatures with the chemical signatures of standing and ground water in the Mount Taylor Addition problem areas, said OMI Project Manager Anthony Martinez. So far none of the test wells produced water that matched water in the addition, he said.

The wells plus other tests to pinpoint the cause of the problem and help find a solution cost the city $81,000 over the past few years. A recent hydrological study by John Shoemaker and Associates geologists has cost an additional $12,000 to date.

The city will use test and hydrology results in the upcoming mediation and in a hearing on the water treatment plant permit, rescheduled for July.