September 17th Board Meeting:
6 PM at the Community Center, the Agenda can be downloaded HERE.
Q. Why is my bill so high?
A. There are several factors to consider, but the most common reason for high bills is missed or late payments; assuming that's not the case, the next thing to look at is usage/leaks. The national average for water usage is about 100 gallons per day per person, or roughly 3050 gallons per month. If your usage is less than 10,000 gallons per month (enough for 3 people), then it probably isn't affecting your bill very much, however, if your usage is over 15,000 (enough for 5 people), then it might be adding more than $20 to your bill- which is roughly the same as if you were paying late every month, or consistently in arrears.
We also need to maintain a high enough net revenue to maintain the debt service ratio, defined as 1.3x, by the New Mexico Finance Authority, to qualify for and pay the loan portion of the grant funding we depend on to build and maintain infrastructure. Our current loan payments are about $16,000 per year, which works out to about $10 per bill. Because we fell below this ratio in 2021, and did not have sufficient cash reserves to cover it, we lost over $1,000,000 in grant funding to replace the almost 50 year old sewer plant- midway through the project. While it varies from project to project, many of these funds are over 80% grant- meaning we lost the funding because NMFA decided we couldn't handle another $200,000, 30-year loan.
The average bill in our community is about $150. Almost a third of that goes to Waste Management for the trash service, the rest is split between water & sewer.
Q. Do I have Lead?
A. Probably not. Lead plumbing became less common in the 1960s, and was banned outright by the Federal Government in 1986, a ban which was formally adopted by the State of New Mexico in April 1987. Most of our water system was built in the 1970s, and in 1975 the private entity was dissolved when Valencia County passed Resolution #18952 , forming the Bluewater Water & Sanitation District- a local government entity and legal subdivision of the state, which has maintained the system since then. Our water lines are nearly all white PVC, except for a couple older black-poly connections, but depending on who was hired to install the lines to and inside your residence, and when, there is a possibility they used lead pipes, or more likely lead connectors or solder (especially if the pipes were copper or iron/galvanized steel).
Regardless of what we believe, the EPA is requiring ALL WATER SYSTEMS, NATIONWIDE, to make a detailed inventory of all the water lines in their systems, including as much information as we can provide about the lines on the customer side of the meter. That portion of the inventory requires your consent and cooperation, but the EPA has set aside additional funding to replace private lead lines, so it is in your best interest to cooperate, especially if you believe you might have lead plumbing installed. They want to know the diameter and material of each line from the water source all the way to the home/structure. Systems have until October 2024 to complete and submit this inventory to their state environmental authorities (in our case NMED), who then compile it and pass it on to the EPA.
Q. Is bottled water safer?
A. No. The Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department set the standards for "tap" water quality, including requiring regular testing for and treatment/removal of contaminants. Bottled water has no such regulation or testing requirements. Many brands are bottled from Public Water Systems, but many others are not. Never drink from a plastic bottle that’s been sitting in the sun, UV light breaks it down an causes it to leach chemicals into the water.
NMED’s Drinking Water Watch website tracks the results of 223 possible contaminants regulated by the Drinking Water Bureau and EPA, all of which every Public Water System must test for- some are taken monthly or quarterly, some only need be done every few years. They make this information publicly available on the site.
Q. What challenges does our community face with ground water?
A. Some parts of our local aquifer contain high levels of Arsenic, any water we pull from the old well has to be treated for this, while the levels from the new well are lower. (The old well tested at 11.8 BBP untreated, the new well at <8 PPB, and the Maximum Contaminant Level [MCL] for Arsenic is 10 PPB.) In addition to blending sources to keep it under the MCL, we pass through a treatment filter that removes Arsenic.
A few miles North of the village, and stretching to North Milan, they are dealing with Uranium. If you have a private well in Northwest Cibola County, you should be testing for both of these contaminants.