Buckman Direct Diversion Board — Thu, Oct 1, 2026 · 5.a Request for Approval of the September 3, 2026, Buckman Direct Diversion Board Meeting Minutes.
1 MINUTES OF THE CITY OF SANTA FE & SANTA FE COUNTY BUCKMAN DIRECT DIVERSION BOARD MEETING September 3, 2026 1. Call to Order: This meeting of the City of Santa Fe & Santa Fe County Buckman Direct Diversion Board meeting was called to order by Councilor Jamie Cassutt, BDD Board Chair at approximately 4:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 200 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico. This meeting was conducted as a hybrid with participation in person and on line. 2. Roll Call: Roll was called and a quorum was present as shown: BDD Board Members Present: Member(s) Excused: Councilor Jamie Cassutt, Chair None Commissioner Justin Greene, Chair Councilor Patricia Feghali Commissioner Hank Hughes R. Schmidt-Petersen, Citizen Member T. Egelhoff, The Club at Las Campanas, [non-voting member – appearing by Zoom] BDD Board Alternate(s) Present: Peter Ives, Citizen Member – Alternate Others Present: Bradley Prada Facilities Manager Nancy Long, BDD Board Consulting Attorney Kyle Harwood, BDD Board Consulting Attorney Bernardine Padilla, BDD Public Relations Coordinator Matt Sandoval, BDD Operations Superintendent Chris Encinias, Acting Superintendent of Maintenance Alexis Garcia, BDD Administrative Manager David Malczewski, BDD Administrative Assistant Jesse Roach, City of Santa Fe, Water Director Larry “Boots” Pierce, GZA Wayne Lorenz, Wright Water Engineers Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 2 [Chair Cassutt read the agenda captions throughout the meeting.] 3. Approval of Agenda Chair Cassutt requested that item #7, Executive Session, occur following item #10, Adjournment. BDD Board Counsel Nancy Long confirmed that adjourning the meeting and going into Executive Session is allowed under the Open Meetings Act. She adding that at the next meeting, she will provide a statement, for the record, regarding the Executive Session. Commissioner Greene moved to approve as amended. Commissioner Hughes seconded and the motion passed by unanimous [5-0] voice vote. 4. Approval of Minutes a. Approval of the August 5, 2026 Buckman Direct Diversion Board Meeting Minutes Councilor Feghali moved to approve the minutes as presented. Commissioner Greene seconded. The motion passed by unanimous [5-0] voice vote. 5. Matters from the Public – None were presented. 6. Presentations and Informational Items a. Monthly Update on BDD Operations MATT SANDOVAL (BDD Operations Superintendent): Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the Board. I’ll be presented the BDD operations report for the month of August 2026. BDD diversions and deliveries have averaged a million gallons per day as follows: raw water diversions, 6.16 million gallons per day; raw water delivery to Las Campanas at Booster Station 2A, .75 million gallons per day; drinking water deliveries to Booster Stations 4A and 5A, 6 million gallons per day. BDD contributed 41 percent of the drinking water to the City and County for August 2026. And I will stand for questions. CHAIR CASSUTT: Thank you so much. Any questions from the Board? Commissioner Greene. COMMISSIONER GREENE: Thanks, Matt. Do you attribute these higher volumes, because it didn't come down from significantly from Canyon Road? I mean, we've taken a lot more water across the board. The Buckman wells were rested. That's the main thing we take away from this? MR. SANDOVAL: I’ll defer to Mr. Roach. JESSE ROACH (City Water Director): Members of the board, Commissioner Greene, I don't have these numbers directly in front of me, but I will say that as you know, we try to use surface water preferentially and reserve the wells for when we need them. And we have been essentially using up almost all the water at the Santa Fe River and leaning on BDD to keep producing as long as the turbidity doesn't get in the way. And it's been an incredible effort by the team for us to go through one of the driest summers on the Rio Grande, probably the Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 3 driest summer in terms of the, the flows that we've seen from June, July, August, and still produce at the level that BDD has produced to allow us to continue to rest the wells. Very recently, we've seen some higher turbidity, and we've had to go to the wells because we don't have much in storage at Canyon Road. But I would say, an amazing job by the BDD team this summer. Thank you. COMMISSIONER GREENE: And so it looks – I can’t quite do the math of what general complete portfolio between City and County use is beyond BDD, but just since we're looking at the whole portfolio; are we using a lot more water because everybody's got to whatever water their basil and their flowers a little bit more? MR. ROACH: We have looked a little bit at demand, and the demand overall in terms of the amount that's going through meters this year is up compared to the last couple of years. It's still down compared to the year where we were having trouble and needing to put potable water on golf courses, but it is up compared to the last couple of years. And so it's some combination of growth and weather, and we're trying to tease out the pieces to understand how much of this is new demand and how much of this is weather-related demand because it's been so dry. COMMISSIONER GREENE: So I think it's kind of related, and I'm going to bring it up here just because somebody brought it up to me as a statistical anomaly, and you may be able to answer it, somebody here will. So it doesn't have to be answered right now, but somebody who knows the answer. We are always credited with doing a sharp demand drop back in the ‘90s or whenever that was where we asked everybody to reduce their use. And somebody brought up to me that in their statistics that it was because we divided City and County users at the time. So it wasn't nearly as dramatic, and we shouldn't pat ourselves on the back quite as much. But, I want to make sure that I get the information straight on that. MR. ROACH: Madam Chair, Commissioner Greene, there was a reduction in total population served at times as we split that apart. But we do calculate a GPCD metric, which should be independent of that because it's the total amount of water produced divided by the population served. And we have seen steady declines in the GPCD as well. There were some big achievements, and they had more to do with other true conservation efforts and then overall production by the City, reported by the City, was assisted, shall we say, to some degree by splitting off some of the customers. But I think whoever's making that statement should look at the GPCD trend because that sort of removes that factor. COMMISSIONER GREENE: Great. Thank you for pointing that. CHAIR CASSUTT: Thanks so much. Member Schmidt-Petersen. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Thank you. Actually probably for Jesse or Matt, but I think – the first instance I think more Jesse is, I believe Indian Market is usually like the highest demand day for the City of Santa Fe or somewhere in there, and I wondered if there were any issues given just how dry it's been and how high that was. MR. ROACH: Madam Chair, Commissioner Rolf Schmidt-Petersen. When we look at the peak days, interestingly, we tend to see them on Monday, Wednesday, Friday because of irrigation timers tend to be set for often Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And so I'm not familiar with the Indian Market day or weekend sticking out to us as something that is a high demand day. You might be right, and I would need to check back. I don't have that data at my fingertips. Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 4 MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Thank you. And, I guess one question and remark is do you know what the San Juan-Chama contract allocation is for this year? Like what came through the tunnels? MR. ROACH: Twenty-seven percent I’m being told. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: So, worse than last year, but not as bad as 2002. MR. ROACH: Worse than last year so far. Yeah. We didn't receive any shortages on our allocation until 2014. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Two thousand and two was the lowest diversion. There was water in storage. Thank you. And I just remark also from my thirty-five years of actual work experience that what has been experienced on the river this year was as low as we could conceptualize it ever being. Maybe not the snowmelt runoff, but since then, with no monsoon, and to have the operations occur in the way that they have, and to basically be able to go forward with really almost no disruption whatsoever is remarkable and a tribute to BDD staff and Santa Fe City and County. So thank you. MR. ROACH: Let me just add to that. There's one other piece that deserves mentioning in this forum of what the staff have been able to achieve at BDD. Because it's been so low, we have not been able to divert a drop of native water for months. And what that means is typically the native water in the river provides a buffer where whatever we release from Abiquiu on a given day needs to be diverted by BDD the next day when it arrives there from an accounting purpose. When we have the sort of native water in the river also, we can be a little sloppy because we make sure we get the San Juan-Chama, and then whatever extra we get is native. To not be able to divert any native means that this team is hitting to almost a drop the amount of water that's in the river, and, and they've done it to a remarkable degree for now three months. And so not only have they been able to keep diverting, they've been diverting the exact amount that they're able to divert based on their calls to the reservoir. So really impressive job by the team. CHAIR CASSUTT: Thanks so much for adding that. That's detailed information that is way beyond/above my pay grade and up to yours. So, thank you for sharing that. Any other questions or comments this moment in time? No. Councilor Ives, I’m so sorry. MR. IVES: No worries, no worries. Thank you. It's really a follow-up question to the question from Commissioner Greene. And Jesse, what you've just been reporting, and that's on the BDD listing on that first page in the water supply to the City and County from all sources. Is it possible to get a breakdown between the City San Juan-Chama, County San Juan- Chama, and County raw water? MR. ROACH: For August? I think we can say it's, to my knowledge, there hasn't been County San Juan-Chama water released. MR. IVES: I'm just wondering if we could include that in the report. MR. SANDOVAL: Yes, yes. MR. IVES: And then on the next page it talks about the daily needs regional water demand. So is that all the participants in Buckman: Las Campanas, the City and the County? MR. SANDOVAL: Yes, but it's combined with this one. Not Las Campanas. MR. IVES: I’m just wondering if it’s possible to break that down to City and County just because I know in the past, the City has had trigger points of 12 million gallons in a Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 5 day for certain actions. I don't know whether that's still the case at the Water Company. But, it would just be handy to know what that breakdown is on a going forward basis, if we could. CHAIR CASSUTT: Matt, can you respond into the mic? Because people on the Zoom cannot hear you if you're not on the mic. MR. SANDOVAL: Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we can, we can do that and include that in the report. MR. IVES: Great. MR. ROACH: And just for clarification, under current operations, there's not a 12 MGD threshold for city operations CHAIR CASSUTT: Any other questions, comments? No. All right. b. Report from the BDD Facilities Manager BRADLEY PRADA (BDD Facilities Manager): Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. Today I will be presenting the BDD facility manager monthly update for September 2026. We will be covering progress on major infrastructure initiatives, key insights from recent site visits, and our current staffing First, regarding design-build project, the team comprising of Wright Water Engineering, AECOM, and BDD staff is finalizing the draft contract for 30 percent design phase. We anticipate completing this draft prior to launching negotiations with the firm selected through the RFQ process. On the field side of things, staff toured an active Ranney well construction site with Wright Water Engineering and AECOM to evaluate construction methods and mechanics, and it was eye-opening to say the least. Additionally, BDD staff participated in an interagency tour of the San Juan-Chama Project Diversion and Watershed. This provided excellent coordination opportunities with statewide governing agencies and long-term water conveyance for long-term water conveyance and management. Onto staffing, we continue to collaborate closely with city HR to fill these vacancies. I'm pleased to share that our candidate for accounting manager has accepted, and when I wrote this report, we were waiting for a start date, but I think I got a confirmation today that he's going to start on the 26th. The PUD Operator Ladder position was closed August 30th so we will be conducting interviews here shortly. And for the Automation and Security Administrative position, interviews were completed. However, none were selected, and we're moving on, reposting that position. Lastly, the Journeyman Electrician, we're still waiting for that position to be re-classed. And then that is the conclusion of my report. I'll stand for questions. CHAIR CASSUTT: Thank you so much, Brad. Any questions? Comments? Yes, Councilor Ives. MR. IVES: Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few quick questions. I'm not sure everybody knows, and I myself may not be clear what a Ranney or rainy well is. If you might explain that. And you said that you gained many insights. I'm just curious what those insights were. MR. PRADA: There's lots of mechanics to that, excuse me. Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a lot of mechanics that go into actually constructing these wells. There's like a 14- or 16-foot caisson that goes into the ground, and then you have a bunch of laterals that are drilled out. So the word Ranney sometimes reflects, people think it's like rainy. Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 6 It's not at all. It's just the name of the manufacturer who does the work. But, it's a vertical, excuse me, horizontal wells that are drilled in that caisson, and then they're fed. So, you know, speaking more to that, it would only ever be a supplement to the Big Fix. We would never – we couldn’t get enough flow out of a Ranney well to actually take the place of the diversion. MR. IVES: And where, out of curiosity, is the Ranney well located? MR. PRADA: Aurora, Colorado, the one that we visited. The Pojoaque Regional Water Plant has all Ranney wells. We wanted to see one under construction, and that's why we visited that. MR. IVES: Gotcha. Thank you. COMMISSIONER GREENE: Councilor. MR. IVES: Thank you, Madam Chair. COMMISSIONER GREENE: If you would like to see one, not quite in action, but the Pojoaque Basin Regional Water System has built two. They will be utilizing two more at full capacity. I think each one kind of has the capacity of about 750 – sorry, let me take the statistic out. But they're large tubes in the ground, pipes in under the river. Technically, they become surface water. They're using surface water even though the wells are underground a little bit. MR. IVES: Thank you. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Madam Chair, I have one other question for Brad. CHAIR CASSUTT: Please, go ahead. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: After a San Juan-Chama project tour, I wondered, knowing a little bit about that, I think you went to all of the diversion structures that are in Colorado. And I remember years ago that people talking about the risk of wildfire and debris flows, and I wondered if there's a new status on that or – because I believe money had been put to trying to address those issues, and if you talked about that. MR. PRADA: I see Kyle getting up, so I’ll let him answer that question. KYLE HARWOOD (BDD Board Counsel): With your permission, Mr. Facilities Manager, thank you, Madam Chair and Member Schmidt-Petersen, I organized a large part of that tour last week, and I'd like to suggest I bring you back a memo at the next meeting summarizing it. It's a lot of information, amazing progress. I mean, the really short version is we have a $9.8 million grant to do wildfire mitigation work above the three diversions. But I do have materials from the tour last week. And if it's okay, I'll just prepare something for next month's board meeting so you get a fuller picture. Will that be alright? MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Fine by me. CHAIR CASSUTT: That sounds great. MR. HARWOOD: Okay, thank you. CHAIR CASSUTT: Anything else? No. All right. 8. Matters from the Board CHAIR CASSUTT: Yes, Member Schmidt-Petersen. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Madam Chair, I just was wondering if there's been any action on the letter that the board received from, I believe, the general manager of Eldorado Water, related to recording meetings, I think. I met her just the other day and was Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 7 asked, and I said, Well, I'll bring it up. But those are normally things that'd be taken on by the manager, the chair, and others. CHAIR CASSUTT: A letter? I did not receive that letter. I received a different letter recently. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: The letter that I'm referring to was the general manager of Eldorado Water, and it was simply a request that the Buckman Direct Diversion Board tape our meetings and make them available. And the comment was, City does that and County does that and is there a reason why Buckman Direct Diversion Board doesn’t. And I said, Well, you know, I don't know, but I'll, I'll bring it up. CHAIR CASSUTT: Okay. If we could get that letter that was sent because I don't – it missed me somewhere. MR. PRADA: Madam Chair, we record the meetings, and they're available. CHAIR CASSUTT: They're online? MR. PRADA: Yes. CHAIR CASSUTT: Okay. MR. PRADA: So, whether we see the letter or not, they’re online. CHAIR CASSUTT: And then where can they find them? On Civic Clerk? MR. PRADA: Yes, we’re on the same area that you guys are on. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: I would just add, I received, and I think it was from Berni that I received the letter. It wasn't like it was sent to me. CHAIR CASSUTT: Okay. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: And so I was thinking it was sent to the, to the Board and then distributed. But maybe I’m wrong. CHAIR CASSUTT: We’ll take a look at it. And Civic Clerk can be a little funky on the public’s use. So if they need assistance, send them my way, and I'll see if I can do it. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Okay. CHAIR CASSUTT: And sometimes I can't, and then I send them to Bernie. I'll take a look. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Sounds good. CHAIR CASSUTT: But apparently that problem has been solved – and we can double-check on Civic Clerk's site. MEMBER SCHMIDT-PETERSEN: Great. Thank you. CHAIR CASSUTT: Any other matters from the Board? 9. New Meeting a. Thursday, October 1, 2026 7. Executive Session a. Discussion of the Contents of Competitive Sealed Proposals Solicited Pursuant to the Procurement Code for RFP #FY26-TRFQP-A&E-094, Professional Engineering Service for the Buckman Direct Diversion Facility, During the Contract Negations Process as Allowed by Section 10- 15-1 (H)(6) NMSA 1978 Buckman Direct Diversion Board September 3, 2026 8 CHAIR CASSUTT: Nancy, do we have to make a motion to go into executive session and then adjourn? MS. LONG: Yes, Madam Chair. So the motion would be a motion to adjourn and go into executive session for the full caption that's stated on the agenda. CHAIR CASSUTT: All right. Can I have somebody make said motion? COMMISSIONER GREENE: I will make a motion to adjourn this meeting and go into executive session. CHAIR CASSUTT: And then read the long caption. COMMISSIONER GREENE: To discuss, the mission of the executive session is discussion of the contents of the competitive sealed proposal solicited pursuant to the procurement code or RFP number FY26-TRFQP-A&E-094 professional engineering services for the Buckland Direct Diversion Facility during the contract negotiation process as allowed by section 10-15-1 (H)(6) NMSA 1978. COUNCILOR FEGHALI: Second. CHAIR CASSUTT: Motion and a second. Roll call, please. The motion to adjourn and go into executive session passed by unanimous [5-0] roll call vote as follows: R. Schmidt Petersen, Citizen Member Yes Commissioner Justin Greene Yes Councilor Patricia Feghali Yes Commissioner Hank Hughes Yes Councilor Jamie Cassutt, Chair Yes 10. Adjourn Chair Cassutt declared this meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m. Approved by: ____________________________ Jamie Cassutt, Board Chair ATTEST TO Geralyn Cardenas, City Clerk