Latest news with #JointPowersAgreement
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Sunland Park City Council creates City utility department; Funds 3 water improvement projects
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Sunland Park City Council voted unanimously to create a City utility department that Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA) will transition into, and the allocation of $1.2 million to fund three water improvement projects. The utility announced on Wednesday evening, June 4, in a news release. As we've previously reported, the transition comes after Doña Ana County decided to terminate the Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) with the COSP that created CRRUA. Sunland Park considers creating its own water utility following CRRUA split 'The City Council and I are working proactively and quickly to establish the mechanisms needed for CRRUA to become a City department so that when the JPA is dissolved, CRRUA can transition into the utility department seamlessly and without service disruption,' said Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea. According to CRRUA, the board also approved to form an internal team to handle CRRUA's transition from joint ownership to a City department and a new community coordinator position responsible in part for participating in the water and wastewater transition plan. Along with creating the City utility department, $1.2 million will be used immediately to fund three water improvement projects that will 'enhance water service to the community.' The projects are sediment removal and rehabilitation of the Anapra, Meadow Vista, and Tierra Madre water tanks, CRRUA said. 'These projects will help reduce incidents of discolored water caused by sediment buildup in the water tanks,' CRRUA executive director Juan Crosby said. 'The sediment is primarily composed of the naturally occurring minerals iron and manganese. When the sediment is disturbed by water flow, it can enter the distribution system, causing discoloration. By removing sediment from the tanks, we will help eliminate discolored water throughout the system.' 'Now that the funding is approved, CRRUA can move forward with scheduling the sediment removal that will likely occur in the fall and winter months when water demand is reduced,' Crosby said. Doña Ana County cuts ties with CRRUA after years of water quality issues 'In addition to the water tanks projects, the COSP will identify other critical water and wastewater infrastructure priorities resulting from deferred maintenance, along with funding opportunities, development agreements, and revenue streams that will address capacity improvements and expansion,' Perea said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NM environment department sues CRRUA water system
NMED filed suit against CRRUA on May 28, 2025 after what it characterized as a decade of mismanagement. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM) New Mexico's environment department on Wednesday announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority and has asked the Third Judicial District Court to appoint an independent manager to oversee its operations. The suit follows more than a decade of 'mismanagement at the utility,' NMED states in a news release, including recent and repeated failed arsenic tests. As Source reported last week, tests the agency itself took at CCRUA on May 7 recorded arsenic levels at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park plant that violated the federal limit, marking the third overage recorded at the plant in recent weeks, although the other tests were from voluntary tests. New CRRUA arsenic violation prompts NMED to evaluate taking emergency action 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. At its May 13 meeting, 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. Environment Department Secretary James Kenney subsequently urged Sunland Park to also sever its ties with CRRUA, and acknowledged in an interview with Source NM it was an unusual step for him to take. 'We're weighing in at this point because we've had it,' he said. 'While we're exhausting our enforcement, our legal approaches, we have another approach: We have to speak about it.' Now, with its lawsuit, NMED is asking the courts to order CRRUA to: • implement real-time arsenic monitoring • distribute free arsenic test strips for all CRRUA customers • provide an alternative drinking water source if arsenic levels exceed state limits • conduct monthly public meetings • and pay civil penalties which, per state law, fund drinking water and wastewater utility operators for communities across New Mexico 'While the Environment Department has invested significant technical resources to assist CRRUA in fulfilling its duty to deliver safe and reliable drinking water, its failures continue to threaten public health,' Kenney said in a statement on Wednesday. 'Today's lawsuit and request to appoint an independent manager to oversee CRRUA signals a new approach in Environment Department efforts to protect the health of communities when they turn on their tap.' NMED's news release also notes that last July it placed 138 drinking systems across the state on notice, and that the City of Las Vegas and Cassandra Water System in Moriarity remain out of compliance.
