NMELC News:
SUNLAND PARK — The New Mexico Environmental Law Center, on behalf of community members in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, submitted a request to the New Mexico Department of Justice (DOJ) and the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor Friday, Aug. 2, to investigate the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA) for violations of environmental protection laws; consumer protection laws; waste, fraud, or abuse of state and federal funds; and violations of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act.
Read the 24-page official request here.
This community-informed request comes months after the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) March 2024 request to these Offices for an investigation of CRRUA, and is in response to the ongoing public water crisis that the public utility has failed to adequately address, take responsibility for, and remedy.
“It is outrageous with CRRUA’s long history of delivering unsafe, non-potable water, for it to increase rates that essentially passes the responsibility onto its customers to ensure it has the capability to deliver safe, clean drinking water,” Empowerment Congress NM Director Daisy Maldonado said.
CRRUA continues to provide public water that does not comply with federal health standards; consistently fails to meet public notice requirements for contaminations and violations; and continues to ignore NMED’s attempts at enforcement.
Instead of providing consistently safe and clean public water to consumers, CRRUA has responded to the crisis by increasing residential utility rates, despite already receiving government funds to remedy these issues and additional government funds being available to CRRUA.
Vivian Fuller, Santa Teresa resident, said, “CRRUA’s actions in our community are proof of environmental injustice and bad decision making. For many years inadequate treatment and testing from CRRUA have resulted in a series of major water quality and health issues in our community.”
Moreover, CRRUA’s ongoing pattern and practice of canceling and rescheduling public meetings, without reasonable public notice, to seemingly limit public attendance and participation, has increased as tension between the public utility and the communities it serves persists.
Jose Saldana, Sunland Park resident, said, “It is important to me and to the community to submit this request for an investigation so that we can resolve the issues that have been going on for such a long time without a solution, ever since arsenic was found. No one could bathe in the water. Now kids are being sent home with notes from school saying, bring your own water, don’t drink the water at the school. If the water is as safe as CRRUA claims, why are they sending school kids home with notes saying don’t drink our water, bring your own? It doesn’t make sense.”
NMELC Staff Attorney Kacey Hovden said, “As a public utility, it is CRRUA’s responsibility to provide consistently clean and safe water to the communities it exists to serve; yet CRRUA continues to shift the burden and blame onto the public for the ongoing water crisis, without any regard for the harm it has and continues to inflict on the communities of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa.”
Hovden also said, “Despite NMED’s attention and effort to bring CRRUA into compliance with applicable law, CRRUA continues to operate in a manner that violates federal and state law and ultimately, violates communities’ inherent right to clean and safe water.”
The Request alleges CRRUA has violated the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency’s implementing regulations; the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Act; and the New Mexico Drinking Water Regulations because the public utility has and continues to exceed the permissible amount of arsenic maximum contaminant levels in the public water supply; fails to provide the public and NMED timely notice of such contamination and violations; and fails to meet NMED deadlines for compliance with the law.
Most recently, in mid-June, the public utility exceeded maximum contaminant levels for arsenic for two days straight, yet failed to notify the public until two weeks later. Federal and state law requires CRRUA to provide public notice within 24 hours of a known contamination to the public water supply.
Read the full request here.
Empowerment Congress NM’s goal is to transform high-need Dona Ana colonia communities into equitable, healthy and resourced places to live and enjoy a whole and prospered life. Nuestro objetivo es transformar las comunidades coloniales del condado dona ana con grandes necesidades en lugares equitativos, saludables, y con recursos para vivir y disfrutar de manera integral y próspera. https://empowernm.org/
New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) has been defending environmental justice since 1987. NMELC provides free and low-cost legal services to people fighting for clean air, land and water across New Mexico. www.nmelc.org.
