Jacqueline Beam, Santa Fe County’s sustainability manager, told commissioners the county will emphasize conservation, green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) and low‑tech measures as part of a broader water resilience strategy.

Beam said the sustainability division maintains online tools (water calculators and a water footprint tool) and has been working to integrate energy‑water planning. She recommended native landscaping, rain gardens and soil‑health practices to increase infiltration and reduce irrigation demand, and noted the county’s monsoon pattern and roughly 12–14 inches of annual precipitation can be leveraged with the right on‑site measures. “You can irrigate for at least a season from our monsoons,” she said when describing small‑scale harvesting strategies.

The county’s GSI guide — designed to apply to both denser and rural contexts — is in draft form and expected to be completed in December. Beam said the county is pursuing workshops (rain‑garden and composting trainings), partnerships with the Santa Fe Watershed Association and Xerces, and program ideas such as laundry‑to‑landscape kits and incentives that could be included in SLDC updates. She noted that the county currently lacks broad rebate programs and that anti‑donation legal constraints complicate some direct rebate models, but that partnerships with Save Water Santa Fe and state grant units are being explored.

Beam emphasized equity and affordability in program design, acknowledging that some residents cannot afford rain‑barrel kits or more expensive retrofits. She said the county is understaffed for grant work but has funded a grant manager FTE; the position remained unfilled at the time of the meeting and county staff said they will also leverage a new state capital grants unit.

On agriculture, Beam said agriculture uses a large share of statewide water and urged case‑by‑case consideration of irrigation practices, noting both drip systems and some flood irrigations have different soil‑health and recharge tradeoffs. Beam said the sustainability division will coordinate with growth management, the county’s aggregate program and WPAC to pursue financing support for mutual domestic operators and outreach to rural systems.

Beam closed by highlighting the county’s role in incentives and code changes: staff will seek ways to include GSI and low‑cost conservation measures in SLDC updates and to pursue grant funding to lower cost barriers for residents.