By Kent Paterson
Lawyers for residents of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa have requested stepped up oversight of a publicly-owned water utility from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In a December 20 letter to top officials of EPA’s Region 6 office in Dallas, Texas, the non-profit New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) requested that EPA undertake a comprehensive inspection of the water infrastructure, records and operations of the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA), and conduct rigorous water quality testing.
The Albuquerque-based public interest law center cites a lengthy record of repeat violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA) as well as more recent allegations of unsafe drinking water provided to the community.
To ensure that residents receive water safe to drink, the NMELC requests that, for at least five years, EPA oversee a monthly testing schedule of CRRUA’s water supply done by an independent third party with “no conflicts of interest” or connections to state, local and utility officials.
What’s more, the NMELC asks EPA to ensure that CRRUA and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) publish in Spanish and English- and in a timely manner- the test results on the CRRUA website, social and mainstream media; make them available in other widely accessible public spaces; make sure renters as well as homeowners receive pertinent information; and don’t require customers to sign up for test results.
“As an already overburdened community subject to a legacy of pollution and socioeconomic barriers, it is critical that EPA addresses the ongoing inadequate access to water and associated adverse health impacts Sunland Park and Santa Teresa residents continue to face as a result of CRRUA’s years of non-compliance with the SDWA,” the NMELC letter states.
Enforcement of the SDWA can be assumed by interested states, which are granted what’s termed primacy status by EPA. Currently among primacy states, New Mexico’s enforcement responsibilities are tasked to the NMED.
Nonetheless, as the NMELC states in its December 30 letter, EPA still retains the legal authority to carry out inspections and other actions to verify utilities’ legal compliance.
Although NMELC recognizes NMED’s involvement in the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa water saga, the environmental legal advocates contend that the state agency hasn’t delivered meaningful enforcement actions.
“NMED is aware of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center’s letter and is currently reviewing it,” agency spokesperson Drew Goretzka wrote in an email to the reporter
“While we are confident in our ability and authority to pursue enforcement action against CRRUA, we also welcome additional oversight. This is why we’ve already referred the matter to federal and state civil and criminal agencies.”
In December, NMED urged state lawmakers to pass a proposed agency budget that includes $6 million for a new Enforcement and Compliance Division and an emergency response operation. Lawmakers will convene January 21 in Santa Fe for the start of the two-month-long 2025 session.
According to statistics from the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) data base retrieved by NMELC, as of October 28, 2024, CRRUA was in non-compliance with the SWDA in all 12 quarters of the previous three years. A chart mentions 94 “informal” enforcement actions during the previous five years, amounting to $0 in penalties, and one formal enforcement action in that period.
According to ECHO, NMED conducted three sanitary surveys of CRRUA within the past decade-the first dated June 9, 2016, the second on August 28, 2019, and the last one on December 6, 2023. The most recent sanitary survey identified dozens of deficiencies which CRRUA now says have been largely corrected.
Apart from arsenic exceedances, other violations documented on the ECHO data base cited in the NMELC petition include treatment techniques for groundwater and monitoring and reporting requirements for chlorine, E.coli, coliform bacteria and asbestos.
Tests, More Tests and Trust
NMELC’s call for federal action comes a little more than a year after the latest water quality scandal erupted in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa when numerous residents complained of discolored, smelly and oily water.
As the drama unfolded, it was further revealed that three of CRRUA’s four treatment plants designed to remove toxic arsenic from the water supply, including the plants serving most residential and commercial customers, had not been functioning for more than a year, a revelation which recalled a similar situation that came to light in 2016.
See: https://elchuqueno.com/sunland-park-deja-vu-water-management-crisis-and-community-protest/
To this day, neither CRRUA nor NMED have not fully explained how the latest arsenic breakdown occurred and who was responsible.
CRRUA’s executive director during both the 2016 and 2023 crises, Brent Westmoreland, who had held the position since 2015, suddenly resigned in December 2023.
The utility’s deputy director, Juan Carlos Crosby, then stepped in as an interim director, until he was named to the job permanently last January by the CRRUA Board of Directors.
Citing litigation, CRRUA staff and board members decline to publicly discuss the utility’s previous administration.
According to the World Health Organization, long-term exposure to arsenic is linked to dermal lesions such as hyperpigmentation and hypopigmentation, peripheral neuropathy, skin cancer, bladder and lung cancers and peripheral vascular disease
In order to gauge whether arsenic levels are within legal parameters for the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa water supply, CRRUA conducts “voluntary” testing of its distribution network, with the testing performed by Eurofins Environment Testing, an NMED certified laboratory with offices in Albuquerque. The NMED, meanwhile, conducts separate, regular tests on a quarterly schedule.
In a mid-December message posted on CRRUA’S website, Executive Director Crosby said three of the four arsenic treatment plants were now compliant according to NMED’S Running Annual Average (RAA).
“All four arsenic treatment facilities are operating and functioning properly,” Crosby said “We are treating water that continues to be below the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) of 10 parts per billion (ppb).
According to CRRUA: “The RAA is determined by averaging the previous four (4) quarterly samples. At the end of each quarter, compliance is based on the RAA of quarterly samples. If the RAA is at or below the Maximum Contaminate Level (MCL) of 10 parts per billion (ppb,) the system is in compliance.”
CRRUA has passed 18 arsenic tests since January 24, 2024, including three consecutive NMED quarterly tests and 15 voluntary tests verified by an independent, NMED-certified laboratory, according to the website.
NMED’s quarterly sampling detected four arsenic violations in samples collected from the three arsenic treatment plants and the Border Tank site all on January 9, 2024, but the state agency’s quarterly sampling for the remainder of the year measured arsenic within the legal range.
However, surprise NMED sampling conducted first on March 1, 2024 and then on March 15, revealed two violations respectively, one at the Industrial Park (16ppb) and the other at 1673 McNutt Rd (13ppb), according to NMED.
A little more than three months later, CRRUA acknowledged that its voluntary sampling at the Santa Teresa Industrial Arsenic Treatment Plant came in at 13 ppb on June 11 and at 12 ppb the next day. “Immediate adjustments” were then made that brought the arsenic level down to a legal 8ppb, CRRUA reported in a June 28 customer message.
“We discovered this isolated exceedance through voluntary self-testing and were able to act swiftly and effectively,” CRRUA chief Crosby said in the message to customers.
Although both CRRUA and NMED numbers show that arsenic treatment is now working, many residents of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa don’t trust the utility or local authorities. Periodic reports of water quality problems cropped up throughout the year, even as CRRUA claimed steady progress on many fronts.
For instance, the NMELC mentions in its letter to EPA community reports of “foul odors” emanating from residential systems on November 18. In a survey done earlier this year by the Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County, a non-profit community organizing group active in the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa water issue which works closely with NMELC, 574 residents reported concerns with water quality, while 155 households reported health-related concerns from CRRUA water.
Interviewed as the November 18 CRRUA Board meeting concluded, new member Mark Rodriguez, who resides in the village of Doña Ana north of Las Cruces and Sunland Park/Santa Teresa, was impressed by the official arsenic test numbers of 2024, crediting the utility’s staff for a quick actions that he said should be recognized.
NMED’s separate arsenic tests bolster the positive record, Rodriguez contended. “Turnaround time for improvements has been amazing…,” Rodriguez said. “And of course, the numbers say it all. The State of New Mexico has provided numbers from their laboratory and their sampling too that illustrate these folks have turned this problem around.” In a comment during the session, Rodriguez ventured that the scanty public attendance at the meeting was perhaps a sign that local customers were now more satisfied.
Others, however, suggest the absence of the outraged, vocal customers who frequented public meetings earlier in 2024 suggest more a deepened mistrust of their public utility and a sentiment that showing up at CRRUA Board meetings is a waste of time.
“I believe there is still a lot distrust within the community, said Empowerment Congress organizer Vivian Fuller, after a December 9 CRRUA board meeting at the Sunland Park City Council chambers.
“They’re not really trusting CRUUA at this point, especially the way everything is being explained. I think they should educate the community a little more.”
According to Fuller, people were confused by the Rolling Annual Average formula CRRUA and NMED employ to assess arsenic standard compliance, concerned about billing rates, and couldn’t get personal phone calls to the utility answered.
Environmental Justice Looms Large Here
At least for now, outgoing President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14096 which directs federal agencies to incorporate environmental justice into their missions especially applies to the border community of Sunland Park, which was one of the early flashpoints of the environmental justice movement of low income and people of color that emerged nationwide during the 1980s and early 1990s. In a high-profile battle, hundreds of Sunland Park residents rallied against a medical waste incinerator and landfill.
According to the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Sunland Park and Santa Teresa region rank near the very top for socioeconomic and environmental burden indicators in EPA’s EJ Screen. In terms of drinking water noncompliance, EPA has given the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa region 110 points in its scoring scheme. That score compares with a statewide average of 5.6 points and a national one of 2.2 points, according to NMELC.
The legal advocates’ request for stricter enforcement by the EPA of the federal water law in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa contains other recent statistics (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2018-2022) compiled by the federal agency that portray an EJ community.
Of an estimated 23,087 residents, 92 percent are people of color, with 91 percent identifying as Hispanic. A majority of residents, 78 percent, speak a language other than English at home (mainly Spanish). More than half the residents, 52 percent, are classified as low income, with an average per capita income of $25,763.
It remains to be seen, though, if environmental justice principles and guidelines survive in the decision-making of the EPA in the incoming Trump administration.
In an interview, NMELC staff attorney Kacey Hovden framed the water quality issue in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa as a matter public trust, transparency, equity and governance.
“I think this goes into civil rights issues, and we’re looking at, essentially, you have an inherent right to clean water,” Hovden said. “You have an inherent right to understanding what your government is doing with your money. And you have an inherent right to understand what your government is doing with your water and to make sure you are receiving the services you are entitled to as a resident of New Mexico.
In addition to its request for enhanced EPA oversight of CRRUA, the NMELC has announced that together with the Empowerment Congress, community members, and local universities, it intends to commission a public health study in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, “specifically focused on the health impacts of acute and long-term arsenic exposure, in order to provide concrete evidence to support community members’ ongoing experiences that CRRUA, state, and federal agencies continue to deny.”
As for the EPA, the feds aren’t publicly saying yes or no to the NMELC’s December 20 petition.
“EPA has received the letter from the New Mexico Environmental Law Center,” Region 6 EPA spokesman Joseph Robledo confirmed in a December 30 email. “EPA cannot comment on potential or ongoing investigations.”
Featured image courtesy of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.