Sandoval County Develop-ment Director Michael Spring-field updated county commissioners on the status of converting brackish water from the Rio Puerco basin to potable water.

During Thursday’s meeting, he said Universal Asset Management will start the test this week and a final report will be ready by December. The firm was awarded a $600,000 contract by the county in April.

The basin is 12 miles west of Rio Rancho. After the engineering services are complete, the county will know if it’s feasible to turn brackish water into drinkable water. The project is funded by grants from the state.

Springfield said the pilot plant was delivered to the site last week and they are currently working the bugs out of the system.

Last October, Sandoval County officials claimed initial test results of a deepwater aquifer in the Rio Puerco basin showed enough brackish water to meet the region’s water needs for at least 100 years.

The results showed that, when purified at a desalination plant, the aquifer could produce 43,200 acre feet of potable water a year, for the next century.

Springfield said the goal is to achieve a 90 percent efficiency rate, meaning that for every 100 gallons of dirty water, the plant will produce 90 gallons of potable water.

Currently, he said the cost of that water would be $6 per 1,000 gallons at the rate of five million gallons a day. Springfield explained that as the plant increases its production to 25 million gallons a day, the cost of the water will decrease. He said the goal is to reduce it to $3 per 1,000 gallons.

Commission Chairman Donnie Leonard said it’s crucial to decrease the price of the water so the county can market it to other communities.

Water from the aquifer will be produced from three joint water claims that Sandoval County has on land in the Rio Puerco Valley that is owned by the King Ranch, the State Land Office and Aperion, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based developer. Those claims are for 80,000 acre feet a year in an area extending northward for about 15 miles from Sandoval County’s southern boundary with Bernalillo County.