A New Mexico Water Service water tank serving the Morningstar subdivision. Courtesy Cynthia Apodaca
A New Mexico Water Service water tank serving the Morningstar subdivision. Courtesy Cynthia Apodacacca

New Mexico environment officials put more than 100 drinking water systems on notice recently that they need to provide plans to address drinking water deficiencies by mid-August or face steep fines.

Eight were in San Juan County.

The 138 letters sent on July 29 by the New Mexico Environment Department declare that those drinking water systems responsible for sending water to at least 100,000 New Mexicans still haven’t fixed current outstanding water quality violations, according to Source NM.

Once they receive the letter, the parties have 15 days to send their plans to resolve their issues with the state.

The list of all 138 water systems was forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 office in Dallas, and both the state auditor and attorney general’s offices. Failure to to submit a plan could bring a fine of $1,000 per day, the maximum penalty under state law.

According to Source NM, the new director of the Compliance and Enforcement division, Bruce Baizel, said the notices were based in part by findings that the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority sent arsenic last year to thousands of residents in Sunland Park, Santa Teresa and Southern Doña Ana county – without telling the public or the state.

At the end of the 15 days, in the third week of August, the department plans to list the utilities that sent in plans and also name those that failed to comply.

More than 100,000 people get their drinking water from the 138 water systems.

Baizel said he expects to see stricter penalties levied at larger water systems in the coming weeks.

Tri-City Record contacted the eight water system owners in San Juan County who received letters, asking for their comments about how the violations were being addressed. As of Aug. 9, four responded – Blanco Mutual Domestic Water Consumers & Mutual Sewage Works Association Inc., Morningstar Water System (New Mexico Water Service), Aztec Domestic Water System and Navajo Lake State Park.

Drew Goretzka, director of communications for New Mexico Environment Department, emailed information provided by Joe Martinez, Drinking Water Bureau chief, regarding the water testing process.

“Water systems in San Juan County had a variety of violations that triggered the enforcement letters,” Martinez said.

Facts about water testing

(By Joe Martinez, New Mexico Environment Department Drinking Water Bureau chief)Drinking water sampling is conducted in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s National Primary Drinking Water Regulation requirements. Any drinking water sampling completed in New Mexico must be conducted by a certified operator. Sampling is completed by NMED staff and certified operators or certified samplers from each individual public water system. NMED staff generally collect the compliance samples that are required to be collected at the point where the water leaves the water system source or treatment location and enters the distribution system. Public water system operators or samplers are required to collect samples that collected from points in the distribution system. These samples include microbiological samples like coliform and E.coli and also samples like lead and copper. Sampling schedules are conducted on schedules ranging from monthly up to as long as once every nine years. Schedules are dependent on the type and size of water system, the sample being collected and the results of previous samples. Some samples are required to be collected monthly, while others must be collected quarterly, twice per year, yearly, and triennially. Some samples like asbestos are required to be once every nine years.

Apple Orchard MDWCA: Total haloacetic acids MCL2.Aztec Domestic Water System: Failure to correct deficiencies noted in a Sanitary Survey.Blanco MDWCA: Total trihalomethanes MCL4.La Vida Mission Community Water Supply: Failure to conduct a Level 1 assessment after multiple total coliform positive results1. Failure to correct deficiencies noted in a sanitary survey.Morningstar Water System: Failure to correct deficiencies noted in a sanitary survey.Navajo Dam Domestic Water Consumers Inc.: Total haloacetic acids MCL4 and total trihalomethanes MCL19.Navajo Lake State Park – Pine site: Failure to correct deficiencies noted in a sanitary survey.Rosa Joint Ventures Water System: Failure to conduct a Level 2 assessment.

Martinez provided a breakdown of the deficiencies that caused the violation warning letters sent to eight water system owners in San Juan County.

“Haloacetic acids five (HAA5) refer to the five haloacetic acids most commonly found in drinking water. HAA5 consists of monochloroacetic acid, dichloroacetic acid (DCA), trichloroacetic acid (TCA), monobromoacetic acid, and dibromoacetic acid,” as stated on the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services website.

“Trihalomethanes are volatile organic compounds which include a group of four chemical compounds that are formed along with other disinfection byproducts when chlorine or other disinfectants used to control microbial contaminants in drinking water react with naturally occurring organic (humic substances) and inorganic matter in water,” it states on the Know Your Water – Water Research Center website.

Goretzka said Level 1 assessment is a basic examination of the entire water system, including sampling practices, to try to identify the cause of TC+ samples.

“The water system is responsible for ensuring the assessment is completed,” he said, adding, “triggering a Level 1 assessment is not a violation; however, not completing it within 30 days is a violation.”

A Level 2 assessment is a more in-depth examination of the entire water system usually done to identify the source of E. coliform in the system.

“It may also be triggered to find the cause for repeated occurrences of TC+ samples. Level 2 assessors must have a higher level of operator certification at either the WS3 or WS4 or any level of operator that attends an approved NMED 8 Hour RTCR Training Session,” Goretzka said.

Water system owners respond

Don Archuleta, president Blanco Mutual Domestic Water Consumers & Mutual Sewage Works Association Inc., stated in an email that they are now in compliance.

He provided their response to Bruce Baizel, director of the Compliance and Enforcement Division, as closing comments.

“It is disappointing that NMED has to include the statement the failure to comply with these standards may subject your drinking water system and individuals to civil and/or criminal penalties. The Board of Directors volunteer to serve their Community and get no compensation for the time they give. System Water Operators generally work for a flat fee, but are on emergency call out standby 24/7, 365 days a year. We live and depend on a safe water system, why would we Not want to comply? Just a comment from the departing Operator/Manager Only, but it may explain why there is a shortage of Board Members and Water Operators. But you do what you have to do.”

Cynthia Apodaca, general manager of New Mexico Water Service, which provides the drinking water to the Morningstar subdivision, said in a phone call Monday that the two violations were procedural, not contaminant, in nature. She said the New Mexico Environment Department has been notified and they are in full compliance.

Finished water is purchased from the city of Farmington and delivered to customers by New Mexico Water Service, Apodaca said. They bought the water system from AV Water in April 2022.

Cynthia Apodaca, New Mexico Water Service general manager, said they have addressed the New Mexico Environment Department water violations. (Courtesy Cynthia Apodaca)
Cynthia Apodaca, New Mexico Water Service general manager, said they have addressed the New Mexico Environment Department water violations. (Courtesy Cynthia Apodaca)cca

Regarding testing procedures, Apodaca said, “some of them are done by New Mexico Water Service personnel, and others are done by the New Mexico Environment Department.”

“So one of the things that we take great pride in is delivering safe, clean and reliable tap water,” she said.

“When we took over the system, we just adopted the approved sampling plan, which calls for us taking five samples after we became the owner of the system, and then New Mexico Environment Department informed that we should be taking 20 samples, which is now being done,” Apodaca said.

The other violation occurred because their predecessor mistakenly checked an asbestos box in a NMED survey, whereas, there is no asbestos pipe in their system, according to Apodaca.

Ruben Salcido, Aztec public works director, said that four of 11 deficiencies remain to be corrected. The bladder tank project on the south side of town is causing a delay in correcting the issues, two of which will be resolved in November.

The final two deficiencies will be rectified when the total project is done in 2025.

“During the sanitary surveys completed by NMED they found overflow pipes that were not properly screened to prevent access by insects and rodents, and rodent droppings in the treatment building. The Division has corrected these deficiencies and posted public notice as required by the NMED,” Jared Langenegger, field operations bureau chief, N.M. State Parks Division, stated in an email on Thursday.