New Mexico Supreme Court asked to weigh in on Tesuque wastewater conflict

Yahoo

25-04-2025

Bernadette Romero-Jaramillo, a lifelong Tesuque resident and Protect Tesuque board member told Source NM the issues over wastewater 'are bigger than us, it's not just a Tesuque Village concern, it's a state concern.' (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
A dispute over sewage disposal in a village outside of Santa Fe is leaking into the New Mexico Supreme Court, as residents contend state environmental agency actions surrounding a draft waste permit were unconstitutional.
Dozens of people gathered at blue cafeteria tables and the bleachers lining the Tesuque Elementary School gymnasium Wednesday night to hear the latest in the ongoing fracas over a permit for a leach field to dispose of treated wastewater from Bishop's Lodge hotel and 82 adjacent homes in Tesuque Village.
Democratic Santa Fe elected officials also attended the town hall, including County Commissioner Justin Green in the room, and Rep. Andrea Romero and Sen. Peter Wirth virtually.
Tensions in the case have been building for the last year, as residents oppose multiple proposals for sewage disposal by the resort.
The meeting followed the latest development in the case: On April 22, attorneys for the nonprofit Protect Tesuque requested the state's highest court order the New Mexico Environment Department to halt the permitting process for the hotel and homes, arguing in an emergency petition that the agency wrongly applied state environmental laws in the permitting process.
Specifically, they say the limitations in liquid waste laws should also apply to larger permits — dischargers disposing more than 5,000 gallons, which are regulated under another law.
State environmental regulators disagree.
'The New Mexico Environment Department maintains full confidence in its legal position that the Bishop's Lodge wastewater treatment system falls under ground and surface water quality regulations,' said NMED spokesperson Jorge Estrada in a written statement. 'NMED has consistently affirmed that the facility meets — or exceeds — all applicable state water quality standards.'
An administrative hearing officer on April 7 rejected Protect Tesuque's request for the department to deny the permit.
Protect Tesuque's argument to the state Supreme Court is that NMED's permitting process for large dischargers ignores the regulations passed by the Legislature, and the agency doesn't have the legal authority to make exceptions to those laws.
'NMED is making their own laws,' Hnakso told Source. 'Their whole basis for doing what they're doing is only applying the law if you're discharging less than 5,000 gallons per day. If it's more, they apply a different law — but that's not what the Environmental Improvement Act says.'
He called it a separation of powers issue.
'The plain language is that the executive branch has to apply the law as written by the legislature,' Hnasko said. 'If they don't, it's a constitutional violation.'
On Wednesday, attorneys for both NMED and Bishops Lodge filed court documents requesting that justices either dismiss the case or issue a schedule with deadlines for responses.
Thomas Hnasko, an attorney representing the nonprofit Protect Tesuque, in comments at the town hall to the approximate 60 attendees, said he was unsure if the state's highest court would hear the emergency petition, and noted that the arguments had to contend with years of agency permitting.
'It's a heavy lift because that's the way it's always been done,' Hnasko said. 'It's really difficult when you're taking a position that's gonna upset the apple cart and not only affect Tesuque, but have an effect statewide.'
But lawmakers, Hnasko said, could clarify which laws guide NMED's permitting decisions.
'If changes need to be made or variances need to be applied for, that can happen in the Legislature,' he said. 'But right now, the Environmental Improvement Act does not allow what they're doing.'
Tesuque Village, with a little over 1,000 residents, depends mostly on septic tanks for sewage, and private wells for drinking water.
When Bishop's Lodge's 1970s-era wastewater treatment plant stopped working, the resort began trucking wastewater into Santa Fe for treatment, which the owners described as expensive and inefficient.
'Bishop's Lodge and the Hills & Villas Community have worked closely with the New Mexico Environment Department Groundwater Quality Bureau to replace their old wastewater treatment system,' Chris Kaplan, the head of Asset Management at Juniper Capital, which owns Bishop's Lodge, said in a written statement. 'The new system, installed in 2024, is a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility designed to meet or exceed all local and national water quality standards.'
The resort changed its plans in response to community pushback, he added. 'The original plan to release the fully treated effluent to surface water was abandoned in favor of an on-site, low-dosing area that will capture the fully treated effluent in the winter months.'
The current state permit authorizes Bishop's Lodge to discharge about 14,700 gallons per day into two leach fields on the property. The new request would allow for discharge of up to 30,000 gallons of treated wastewater into a new leach field.
Protect Tesuque opposes the new disposal plan, writing on its website that the proposal fails to meet 'engineering, siting, and contamination safeguards required by our state laws,' and pushes potential impacts downstream.
Residents Wednesday night expressed concerns about the costs of well testing and the potential loss of home values and safety if contamination occurred in the aquifer.
'I don't want to have to spend $3,000 every year having my well tested test just to have somebody tell me they screwed up my water and I lost, you know, a considerable value in the house and I won't be able to sell,' resident Brian Corcoran said.
A week-long hearing on the draft permit is scheduled to start May 19.
In Wednesday's town hall, local officials suggested longer-term initiatives that could help address some of the issues at play.
For instance, Commissioner Green announced a plan to start engineering a regional water system that could move forward, after securing the final signature from the Pueblos of Tesque, Nambé, Pojuaque and San Ildefonso earlier that day. He said work on the study should begin in the next few months.
'That said, these things don't happen very quickly. This is a large capital project, this will take years and years and years to do a lot of this groundwork,' he said.
Wirth agreed that ultimately the long-term solution must be developing a regional water and sewage system.
Residents said the solution isn't fast enough.
'I'm sorry. But you're moving too slowly,' said Donna Amos, a resident who lives near Shidoni Gallery, garnering applause from other attendees. 'We will all be dead by the time a regional water system is done.'
Both Wirth and Romero, after multiple requests from audience members, committed to meeting with Juniper Capital representatives, but hesitated on further actions, such as introducing legislation, both saying it would be important to see if the state's Supreme Court will weigh in on the issue.
After the town hall, Bernadette Romero-Jaramillo, a physical therapist and member of Protect Tesuque, said she believes the situation is no longer just a local fight, but one with statewide implications if the court takes up the case.
'Ours is a community that is here to fight to the bitter end to protect our village, our resources — it's about our future,' she said. 'We need a resolution for the now.'
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