Over the past several years, the Cerro Regional Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association, led by President Vilma Bailon, has been working to identify why the community water well continues to regularly lose water.
A quick search of social posts dating back to June of 2019 show the Taos County Sheriff’s Office coordinating with Bailon to collect and deliver donated water to the Cerro Fire Department for residents after the well went dry, leaving over 100 households without water.
The same search also produces many social media posts and updates and posts from Bailon encouraging people to work together to conserve water due to freezing lines, water shutoffs, and low water pressure issues over the past several years.
The well, which was drilled in 1941 is regularly pumping low water, sometimes running completely dry, as it did in June of 2019. “This is a reality. The tank and the water line infrastructure was installed way before my time. Now, all I can do is work with the community to fix the infrastructure, but it’s impossible to do it alone,” Bailon said.
There have been many remediation efforts to fix the issues over the past couple of decades, including joining the east and west water lines to ensure the entire community gets water. More recently, the well is simply not filling up with water. “For the past 6-7 months, we have been showing extremely low water in the tank and we need people to help us identify where that water is leaking out so we can fix this issue,” Bailon notes.
Recently, the New Mexico Rural Water Association got involved in Cerro’s initiatives to identify the issues leading to the regularly empty storage tanks. Together, Bailon and the statewide association found leaks from the main line, and is regularly causing leaking water on residents’ land. “Right now, we can’t account for about 90% of the water the tank is supposed to hold because it’s leaking out and being wasted,” Bailon says.
Five leaks on properties and land have been identified since Feb. 10 and more are likely to be identified in the coming weeks. “If the leak is on private property, the owner is responsible for fixing it, but if it’s [in a section connected ] to the main line, we will fix it. The issue is, we need to communicate and work together on this situation. It’s not going to get done and this problem won’t be fixed unless we work together as a community,” she says. The call to ask people to look for and report leaks on their property is incredibly important at this point in time.
Over the past few years, Bailon has applied and been granted funding to help improve the water infrastructure in Cerro, but before the work on the project can get going, the leaks need to be addressed. “We’ve received over $3 million in funding for this project. It will allow us to run 6-inch water lines through the main roads to homes. Right now, the lines are under homes and that makes it incredibly difficult to access when there is an issue like the one we’re currently facing. Modernizing our infrastructure is the only way we will be able to create a long-lasting and sustainable water source for the community.” Unfortunately, if the community is unable to work together to fix the leaks, the Association may lose the money for the project entirely.
Bailon says she wants to encourage people to get involved in the Association. “We need boots on the ground to help fix the leaks, we need people to attend the meetings so they know what’s happening, but most of all, we need people to proactively cooperate to fix the leaks that are draining our community water. This is not an individual issue, it’s a Cerro-wide issue.”
You can contact Vilma Bailon by email at Cerrowater@gmail.com or text at (575) 770-7253 or attend a meeting on March 15 at 1 p.m. at the Cerro Guadalupe Community Center to vote on an election of officers.
