City actions regarding lead deficient

After almost two years of unresponsiveness to citizen concerns, Las Cruces Utilities is belatedly mounting a failing public relations effort to neutralize growing criticism about its actions regarding finding lead in drinking water piping across the city. Concerns also continue to increase about the Utilities Department’s practice of falsifying lead levels in drinking water found through sampling.

In July, the New Mexico Environment Department confirmed our analysis that Las Cruces Utilities publishes false water testing information regarding levels of lead which falsely downplayed lead levels that were higher than EPA’s action level. Its own documents show that the Department demonstrates a pattern of false reporting of lead levels. From 2015 through 2024, the Department misrepresented 38 lead levels in the Consumer Confidence Reports it publishes annually. (There is no safe level of lead in drinking water.)

Las Cruces Utilities continues to refuse to sample the tap of everyone with a lead, galvanized, or unknown service line who requests it—a requirement of the new Lead and Copper Rule Improvements which came into effect in October 2024 requiring all lead and galvanized drinking water piping to be replaced by 2037.

Utilities personnel recently acknowledged that service lines for all mobile homes in the city must be accounted for and included within the City’s lead inventory. This comes after denying for almost two years that this is a federal requirement and instead left approximately half the city off the map.

Shortly after the new federal rule was published in October 2024 requiring all lead piping to be searched out and removed, Las Cruces Utilities personnel repeatedly told concerned citizens, “Las Cruces doesn’t have a lead pipe problem.” This mantra gave the City’s game away. Through varied maneuvers, Las Cruces Utilities personnel continue to take actions designed to not find lead pipes. For example, the City uses an inadequate inspection technique which is unlikely to find lead. Moreover, it has stopped doing inspections.  This key information must be factored into Las Cruces Utilities’ boast that it has found no lead service lines.

Las Cruces Utilities pipe inspectors merely check the water meter box and do not use any additional method to find lead or galvanized piping. This technique by itself is not capable of finding lead-lined service lines or piping that has been patched farther up the line using different materials. Other cities use additional techniques like digging small potholes along the service line exterior or shooting a camera up the interior of the pipe. EPA recommends at least two different inspection methods—a fact which Las Cruces Utilities continues to ignore.

Citizens are concerned about Las Cruces Utilities’ nonsensical decision to stop conducting inspections at the end of March this year. Under the federal rule, the City has a mandate to find all the lead and galvanized piping, and compile an accurate and complete inventory which is publicly available for all customers to consult. This is important for home buyers. Yet, Las Cruces Utilities has stopped working on this mandate. Failure to work diligently on this huge task suggests that the City will not meet the federal deadline of removal of all lead by the end of 2037.

We are also troubled by Las Cruces Utilities’ refusal to prioritize truly disadvantaged properties despite agreeing to do so in a legally binding agreement with the state to receive $15 million in funding for pipe investigation and replacement. The City also irrationally categorizes dozens of properties valued at $1 million or higher as disadvantaged.

Las Cruces Utilities’ outreach to customers leaves much to be desired.  What little information provided is frequently false, misleading, and/or incomplete.  Examples, additional to those noted above, include: 

▪ failure to provide required notice to eight property owners whose pipes were found to be galvanized, including Fairacres Elementary School;

▪ failure to provide truthful information to callers about financial assistance for pipe replacement;

▪ refusal for four months to send out in Spanish the initial notification letter informing citizens about the new federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvement requirements.

The Utilities Director has refused to address more than 70 key questions related to lead levels and piping in Las Cruces posed by the public over an almost two-year period.

Lynn Moorer practiced environmental law in Nebraska before relocating to Las Cruces 12 years ago to take care of her parents. She has worked on cases related to cleanup of water at Superfund sites, nuclear power plants, proposed siting of a nuclear waste dump, and proposed siting of commercial hazardous waste incinerators. Ms. Moorer began working with citizens concerned about Las Cruces Utilities’ lack of compliance with the federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvements in November 2024 shortly after the new rule went into effect.