Investigation request submitted against CRRUA on behalf of New Mexico communities

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) — The New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) submitted a request on Friday, Aug. 2, to the New Mexico Department of Justice and the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor to investigate the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA) for violations of “environmental protection laws; consumer protection laws; waste, fraud, or abuse of state and federal funds; and violations of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act,” according to a press release from the NMELC.

The press release states the NMELC submitted the request on behalf of the Sunland Park and Santa Teresa communities.

The request alleges the CRRUA violated the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency’s implementing regulations, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Act, and the New Mexico Drinking Water Regulations as the utility has “exceeded the permissible amount of arsenic levels in the public water supply.”

The request also alleges that the utility has failed to provide the public and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) with timely notice of the contamination and violations and failed to meet NMED deadlines for compliance with the law.

The request comes after the NMED requested the same investigation in March and is also in response to the water crisis that the utility has “failed to adequately address, take responsibility for, and remedy,” the press release said.

“CRRUA continues to provide public water that does not comply with federal health standards; consistently fails to meet public notice requirements for contaminations and violations; and continues to ignore NMED’s attempts at enforcement. Instead of providing consistently safe and clean public water to consumers, CRRUA has responded to the crisis by increasing residential utility rates, despite already receiving government funds to remedy these issues and additional government funds being available to CRRUA,” the press release said.

The press release says in June, the utility exceeded maximum contaminant levels for arsenic for two days straight, yet failed to notify the public until two weeks later. Federal and state law requires the CRRUA to provide public notice within 24 hours of a known contamination to the public water supply, according to the press release.

The CRRUA released its latest arsenic water sample tests back in July where all arsenic treatment facilities met federal guidelines, according to the utility.

The CRRUA also reported earlier this month that it received zero calls from customers for discolored water for the month of June and July and also provided a table of data for the last six months. That data can be seen by clicking on the story below.

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