Bloomfield Irrigation Ditch Repaired

Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 12:00 AM

The shutdown affected farmers, ranchers, the Harvest Gold Subdivision drinking water system and the City of Bloomfield drinking water reservoir, requiring water system use restrictions and supplementation from the City of Aztec as well as the Enterprise Products cooling reservoir.

From the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management:

Aztec, NM - After two weeks of exhaustive efforts on the part of local contractors and ditch customers,
the Bloomfield Irrigation District (BID) announced today that repairs to the damage that caused the ditch
to be shut down from Turley to Bloomfield, have been successful. The shutdown affected farmers,
ranchers, the Harvest Gold Subdivision drinking water system and the City of Bloomfield drinking water
reservoir, requiring water system use restrictions and supplementation from the City of Aztec as well as
the Enterprise Products cooling reservoir.

BID Board Chair Andrew Dean praised the team work that went into the repair, “This was a community
effort, from Aztec Well Service and other local contractors to the ditch customers.”
Water began flowing, to test the repair early Friday morning and will be ramped up to full capacity by
Sunday. BID customers located above the repair, who have been receiving water during the repair, have
been asked to close their head-gates to help water keep water levels up on the lower portions of the
ditch until it is fully charged.

San Juan County Office of Emergency Management coordinated recovery efforts between Local and
State agencies; facilitating daily conference calls and assisting the New Mexico Department of Homeland
Security and Emergency Management (NMDHSEM) recover officer with collection of documentation
from affected agencies.

Bonnie Hopkins with the NMSU Extension Office coordinated water deliveries to affected livestock
producers with the assistance of the Bloomfield Fire Department, the San Juan County Volunteer Fire
Department, and local contractors.

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