New Mexico’s environment secretary urges Sunland Park to cut ties with troubled water utility

New Mexico’s top environmental official made the rare move this week of wielding political capital instead of regulatory power, saying he has little confidence in a troubled water provider in the southern part of the state that has been dogged by ongoing violations in arsenic levels.

Environment Secretary James Kenney urged the city of Sunland Park to follow the lead of surrounding Doña Ana County and sever ties with the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority. An independent, third party should oversee the utility in the meantime, Kenney said.

“We’re weighing in at this point because we’ve had it,” Kenney told Source NM, and acknowledged that it is unusual for the state to speak on a water supplier’s governance. “While we’re exhausting our enforcement, our legal approaches, we have another approach: We have to speak about it.”

He encouraged the restructuring of the utility at the local level, saying the state has limited tools to address the chronic issues at CRRUA.

“We can continue to assess civil penalties, collect those civil penalties, take them to court, but it is difficult to sort of seek an injunction and say, ‘You’re no longer allowed to operate,’ because that means the community is without water for any purpose, including things like fire suppression,” Kenney said.

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.

The area has long struggled with arsenic – which over the long term can cause cancer and skin lesions – in drinking water, with health reports and concerns over treatment plants ongoing for nearly a decade.

State investigators intervened following a series of water quality issues in November 2023.The New Mexico Environment Department found that CRRUA sent drinking water with arsenic to residents’ homes while its three arsenic treatment systems were “offline and bypassed” for more than a year, in addition to dozens of significant treatment, training and facility issues.

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CRRUA is facing an ongoing lawsuit for alleged civil rights violations in state district court, and is also scheduled for a June 17 public hearing in Santa Fe regarding its protest of NMED’s $251,580 fines.

In media releases and prior statements to Source NM, CRRUA officials said they have worked to reduce arsenic levels and continue repeating that water is safe to drink. Specifically, CRRUA reported on May 5 that it has addressed 98% of the issues raised in the December 2023 report.

CRRUA said recent tests showing arsenic levels above the limit at one treatment plant were found as part of its voluntary testing.

“These follow-up tests are for internal monitoring and public transparency only. They are not for compliance purposes,” CRRUA Executive director Juan Crosby said in a press release Thursday. “Only the quarterly tests NMED conducts are for compliance and according to the latest compliance tests, the Santa Teresa Industrial ATF remains NMED compliant.”

Kenney said CRRUA can simultaneously be improving on the past violations, improving training and monitoring but also failing to restore the water quality.

“But at the end of the day, the only metric that matters is the quality of the water and the safety of that water getting into people’s houses,” Kenney said.

Past and recent arsenic level violations

No known safe level of exposure to inorganic arsenic exists, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a health-based limit on drinking water at 10 parts per billion.

On April 29, CRRUA reported an arsenic level of 12 parts per billion at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park plant. One week later, in a separate test shared with NMED, the same plant reported another violation of 12 parts per billion on May 6.

Kenney endorsed recommendations from community organizations asking for a health assessment and to supply arsenic testing strips or potentially additional sources of water.

In a May 7 press release, CRRUA said it would not provide test strips because it would violate the state’s anti-donation clause and that test strips contain “hazardous materials that require proper handling.”

Kenney said that “demonstrated an inability to understand the magnitude of the problem.”

“I don’t know why the concern about a one-time exposure to a test strip that may contain mercury is CRRUA’s greater concern than the arsenic in the water that’s hitting people’s homes,” Kenney said.

Daisy Maldonado, who has organized in the community at the nonprofit Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County, told Source NM she was surprised, but welcomed NMED’s endorsement of the recent demands the group issued to CRRUA.

“I would put it back on Secretary Kenney and if CRRUA says they cannot provide those types of services, then we’re going to look obviously to NMED to be a partner in providing funding for test strips, third-party water and that health assessment,” Maldonando said.

She said the opportunity to reshape CRRUA over the next four years will offer an opportunity for Empowerment Congress to build a utility that’s more responsive to residents.

“A new structure should be established that really serves, again, the community,” Maldonado said. “That the highest priority is safe, clean drinking water water that people can trust.”

CRRUA next steps likely to take years

Earlier this week, Doña Ana County took the first step in a yearslong process to separate itself from CRRUA’s current governance.

At the May 13 meeting, after an hour-and-a-half closed session, 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, a formal charter allowing multiple public bodies to work together. The agreement, renewed last year, requires either one of the parties to give four years notice.

Blame spirals as CRRUA governing record ‘misplaced’ and never sent to state

On Friday, Doña Ana County Commission Chair Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez told Source NM that the vote is a first step to force negotiations and correct customer dissatisfaction. He said the current agreement overrepresents Sunland Park on the board, and that termination is the only way to renegotiate the makeup of CRRUA’s governing board.

Schaljo-Hernandez emphasized that CRRUA will continue operating in the meantime, and that negotiations will begin very soon.

“We’re going to work towards making sure that every single person serviced by CRRUA has their water quality improved,” Schaljo-Hernandez said. “The county has the vision that we’re going to improve this for all users. We’re not saying to Sunland Park ‘we’re taking ours and you’re taking yours, good luck.’”

Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea told Source NM in a phone call that it’s too early to determine what the city will do, but did not commit to cutting ties with CRRUA.

“I don’t know what it will look like today or tomorrow,” Perea said. “No plans have been developed yet, this is still very early on in the process.”

When asked about recent arsenic level violations, Perea said he believes the utility is making progress.

“The steps that we’re taking are working and being able to detect these issues and we’re trying to correct it as soon as possible, rather than having to wait for the required state testing,” he said. “The utility has made its stride over the last year, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Further, Perea said more funding is needed for a successful water utility, not just form rate-payers, but from the state and federal government.

“This was done on the back of infrastructure in Sunland Park, and we haven’t received our fair share of funding in this part of the state,” he said. “I hope that in this process, the state can also have funding opportunities for us to tap into and address these issues that have existed or been deferred for a long time.”

The New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration secretary is required to approve all joint powers agreements, including any modifications.

In a statement Henry Valdez, the director of legislative affairs at DFA, said the secretary’s approval is “limited to reviewing for compliance to ensure the terms and conditions are applicable,” and that any amendments or modifications to an agreement would require the secretary’s approval.