NM environment department sues CRRUA water system
New Mexico's environment department on Wednesday announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority and has asked the Third Judicial District Court to appoint an independent manager to oversee its operations.
The suit follows more than a decade of 'mismanagement at the utility,' NMED states in a news release, including recent and repeated failed arsenic tests. As Source reported last week, tests the agency itself took at CCRUA on May 7 recorded arsenic levels at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park plant that violated the federal limit, marking the third overage recorded at the plant in recent weeks, although the other tests were from voluntary tests.
New CRRUA arsenic violation prompts NMED to evaluate taking emergency action
CRRUA serves approximately 19,000 people in the border city of Sunland Park, Santa Theresa and the southernmost portion of Doña Ana County, an area with naturally occurring high levels of arsenic in the groundwater. Sunland Park and Doña Ana County jointly operate the utility, which is governed by a seven-member board.
At its May 13 meeting, the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted to send immediate notice to Sunland Park to start the termination process of the Joint Powers Agreement. Environment Department Secretary James Kenney subsequently urged Sunland Park to also sever its ties with CRRUA, and acknowledged in an interview with Source NM it was an unusual step for him to take.
'We're weighing in at this point because we've had it,' he said. 'While we're exhausting our enforcement, our legal approaches, we have another approach: We have to speak about it.'
Now, with its lawsuit, NMED is asking the courts to order CRRUA to:
• implement real-time arsenic monitoring • distribute free arsenic test strips for all CRRUA customers • provide an alternative drinking water source if arsenic levels exceed state limits • conduct monthly public meetings • and pay civil penalties which, per state law, fund drinking water and wastewater utility operators for communities across New Mexico
'While the Environment Department has invested significant technical resources to assist CRRUA in fulfilling its duty to deliver safe and reliable drinking water, its failures continue to threaten public health,' Kenney said in a statement on Wednesday. 'Today's lawsuit and request to appoint an independent manager to oversee CRRUA signals a new approach in Environment Department efforts to protect the health of communities when they turn on their tap.'
NMED's news release also notes that last July it placed 138 drinking systems across the state on notice, and that the City of Las Vegas and Cassandra Water System in Moriarity remain out of compliance.
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