Carlsbad Irrigation District looks for feds to pay $35M to replace Sumner Dam's floodgates

Eddy County vowed support for the Carlsbad Irrigation District’s efforts to change a federal law that places more than half of costs on the district to replace the floodgates at Sumner Dam, which were only expected to last 50 years and are showing signs of aging.

The cost to replace the gates is estimated at $30 million to $35 million. The dam is about 300 miles north of Carlsbad.

Carlsbad Irrigation District officials asked the county for a letter that addresses the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Title Transfer Act of 2000, read a memorandum from Eddy County Manager Roberta Gonzales to the Board of Commissioners.

The CID wants Congress to amend the Title Transfer Act of 2000 with a provision that all current and future costs associated with floodgate replacement and maintenance be done by the BOR, Gonzales stated in her memo.

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She said the BOR owns Sumner Dam and provides irrigation water storage for the CID and flood control for the Pecos River with a series of gates.

“In 1989, CID took over operation and maintenance of the facility,” Gonzales wrote in the memo.

In 2001, the BOR transferred to the CID the title to the irrigation infrastructure at Sumner Dam, the memo said.

“Per the Federal Title Transfer Act of 2000, CID is considered responsible for paying 68% of the total cost of replacing all radial (flood) gates associated with Sumner Dam,” Gonzales said.

The original life span of the gates, which were installed at Sumner Dam in 1936, was 50 years, said Gary Walterscheid, president of the CID Board of Directors, in a letter to county commissioners.

He said the gates are considered unsafe, and the BOR has determined replacement is needed.

Walterscheid contends that flood control services are costly, and farmers cannot bear a majority of the cost for the new flooding devices.

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“For our farmers to pay that amount of money, we would have to take out a 50-year note. It would increase our cost per acre per year to about $36 per acre,” CID Board Director Alisa Ogden said during an April 2 county commission meeting.

CID officials contend the BOR is responsible for flood control, not their group.

CID is a 25,000-acre irrigation district in Carlsbad, south to Malaga, Walterscheid wrote.

Background on Sumner Dam

Located nearly 15 miles northwest of the Village of Fort Sumner, the dam provides flood control for De Baca, Chaves and northern Eddy County, noted an information sheet provided by CID to commissioners.

Here are some facts about the dam:

• Construction of the Sumner Dam started in 1936. Crews also installed the floodgates, as they built the dam.

• Prior to 1939, Sumner Dam was authorized for irrigation only. But in August of 1939, a federal act added flood control to Sumner’s mission, according to the CID.

• Sumner Dam is 164 feet high with a volume of 2.2 million cubic yards, according to the BOR. The structure is 3,675 feet long, averages 30 feet wide at the crest and is 164 feet high at its maximum section, the BOR said.

• In addition to irrigation storage, Sumner Dam provides flood control and recreation benefits, according to the BOR.

• Sumner Dam’s three large floodgates manage the controlled release of floodwater into the Pecos River channel downstream.

In arguing its case for the BOR to pick up the replacement costs, the CID noted that the gates have not been used to manage floodwater releases since the 1950s.

“In 1977, Santa Rosa Dam was constructed 30 miles upstream from Sumner Dam, greatly reducing the risk that Sumner Dam would have to be utilized for a flood event,” read CID’s county commission information.

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Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 or by email at MSmith@currentargus.com or @ArgusMichae on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Sumner Dam's new floodgates could cost $35M, Carlsbad district says