FROM THE PAA-KO SEWER ASSOCIATION BOARD:
We know that most of you are not familiar with the PaaKo Communities Sewer Association other than your yearly bill and septic tank pumping every three years.  As an overview the Association is a New Mexico State Local Public Body, and you are all owners.  As such we are bound by State laws just like a government entity.  We must abide by the state’s restrictive purchasing laws and open meetings rules.  No more than 2 board members may meet without public declaration 72 hours in advance.  

A little history. The initial infrastructure for the sewer system was constructed over thirty (30)  years ago, and your connection was planned when the original plans for the recorded subdivisions were drawn.  Sewer collection pipes and pumps were built under the entire street complex of PaaKo.  These allow us to take the output (effluent only) of your septic tank down to the Wastewater treatment plant on PaaKo Drive where it is purified so that it can be used for surface irrigation or pumped into the Arroyo.  The current Wastewater Treatment System was built over 15 years ago with State-Of-The-Art Membrane Filter technology.  This plant cost over $3+ Million dollars at the time (including engineering, planning & physical plant construction).  Over the entire time samples of the effluent (output) water are taken monthly and submitted to the EPA and State agencies.  Our current Operator, Prodigy, currently operates and performs routine maintenance on the entire system.

In November we took advantage of the New Mexico State’s offer to accept applications for loans and Grants for Wastewater treatment facilities.  As a result, the State agreed that our 30+-year-old system needed evaluation as to updates that were required.  As a result, they helped us by reviewing all of our existing loans and reducing the interest on them to 1%.  They also gave us a $50,000 Grant to hire an outside consultant to review the entire system and recommend updates that are required to continue operation into the future.  

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