KRQE News 13 (Albuquerque, NM) has presented a year-long Larry Barker investigation into the safety of the drinking water systems in New Mexico. The results are disheartening, if not downright dangerous for many citizens living in the state.
A Couple Examples
- In a rural Santa Fe County community located north of Tesuque, there is something wrong with the drinking water at the Pojoaque Terraces Mobile Home Park, as laboratory testing shows the water contains more than twice the legal limit of (naturally-occurring) uranium. Corrective action has not happened and the water remains contaminated, despite a dozen New Mexico Environment Department (“NMED”) notices of violation since 2021.
- The Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (“CRRUA”) in Sunland Park has received more than 120 NMED notices of violation regarding excessive arsenic in the public’s drinking water since 2012. The violations have been mostly ignored. In fact, according to NMED Water Protection Division Director John Rhoderick, the CRRUA has an arsenic treatment plant, but last year the CRRUA turned the treatment plant off.
The six geographically-diverse water systems identified in Larry Barker’s investigation include the Pojoaque Terraces Mobile Home Park, De La Te Mobile Manor, Town of Springer, Cassandra Subdivision, El Shaddai Subdivision, and the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority – which have collectively accumulated 413 Safe Drinking Water Act (“SDWA”) violations. None of these public water systems are currently in compliance with the law.
The KRQE News 13 article may be read in full HERE.
Here is a YouTube video featuring an overview of Larry Barker’s KRQE News 13 investigation:
My brothers and sisters, as a former NMED inspector, investigator and enforcement manager of more than 23 years, I can attest first hand that because the NMED does not have a criminal, investigatory mandate under the law and enforces the requirements of relevant statutes, such as the federal SDWA, through administrative enforcement and civil litigation, corrective action can be safely ignored in most instances – sometimes for years.
The NMED does not have the will and/or the budget (i.e., sufficient numbers of law enforcement-trained investigators and environmental lawyers) to issue legally sufficient and timely administrative compliance orders with monetary penalties or judicial injunctions or civil enforcement actions in most cases of regulatory noncompliance.
Referrals to the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) is an option in severe or repeated instances of noncompliance; however, the AGO is selective in what will be accepted and is itself limited in the number of environmentally-trained and focused investigators or attorneys.
When the NMED’s Cabinet Secretary, James Kenney, admits publicly that there are so many drinking water violations in New Mexico that enforcement is nearly impossible, and states that “what bothers me is that New Mexicans are going with water that doesn’t meet federal drinking water standards,” you know that the situation is serious.
Let’s pray that all persons involved in the safety of our drinking water (e.g., water providers and utilities, municipalities and state or local regulatory agencies and the state legislature) would see the situation for what it is and move forward to a resolution. This is the perfect example of having multiple layers of regulation without the means to assure compliance.
Perhaps, just perhaps, as a state (or even a nation) we could get back to spending taxpayer money directly and efficiently on the monitoring and protection of our food, soil, air, surface water, ground water and yes, DRINKING WATER, instead of diverting millions of dollars every year to green energy programs which come and go without any realistic chance of successfully supplanting the incredible blessings in our lives from fossil fuels (e.g., oil, natural gas).
Strong regulatory protection to prevent the poisoning of our air, water and soil from hazardous substances or wastes is absolutely critical. In this writer’s opinion, these are the priorities that need to remain the overriding focus of our federal, state and local environmental regulatory agencies.
The key to success, whether we are from industry, government or citizen consumers (and we are all consumers), is for every person to do all things to the best of our abilities, with integrity, quality and efficiency, as unto Christ! If something isn’t working or becomes ineffective, don’t double down on what led to failure (as government seems to do often), move on to a fresh (hopefully prayerfully considered) new approach that works!
The bible reminds us to do what we do with excellence, integrity and moral character, as unto the Lord:
Colossians 3:23 (NKJV)
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men…”.
Proverbs 10:9 (Amplified Bible)
“He who walks in integrity and with moral character walks securely, [b]ut he who takes a crooked way will be discovered and punished.”
