Questa water outage continues, fix may be days off

Crews have completed a new well to return water to Questa residents, but it could be another week before water is flowing.

Residents of Questa have been without water since Dec. 5 – after one of the village’s two wells ceased producing water. The village serves about 1,800 customers, though it’s not clear how many people have been entirely without water.

To fix the issues, the village has decided to drill a new well. Tommy Lyles, a Chevron employee who’s helping the village during the outage, said in a phone message that crews made progress over the weekend.

“The well is drilled and cased,” Lyles said Dec. 12, adding that the well still needs to be developed and connected to the system. Additionally, water quality checks must be conducted. “We’re looking at about a five-to-eight-day process from here for returning water to the village,” Lyles said.

Bottled water is available at the village administration building in Questa. The village is also providing non-potable water from large tanks.

The village is also worried about how to put water back in the system without causing damage to homes and plumbing once the new well comes online. Officials said re-pressurizing the lines has, in the past, caused damage to water heaters and faucets. The village is asking residents to pay attention to instructions for how to safely bleed their plumbing of air once service is restored.

‘Without God’

In the week since the outage began, Questa residents have had to get creative.

“A town without water is like a town without God,” said Gloria Gonzales, 73, who laughed as she buried her face in her hands at her Questa home Dec. 9.

Gonzales cares for her ailing daughter, and she said she needs water to bathe her and wash clothes. Two days after the outage began, Gonzales drove to Taos to rent a hotel room so they could take showers and go to the laundromat.

Gonzales is frustrated that the village government didn’t do more to prevent the problems, which she said have been ongoing for months. But Gonzales also noted things could be worse. After all, she grew up in Questa hauling water from the acequia to take a bath. Like many Questeños, she’s resilient.

The widespread outage appears to be related to problems with one of the village’s two supply wells.

Officials tried to pin down the exact cause, but as of Dec. 9, they said they still hadn’t identified the underlying problem.

It could be that the aquifer has run out of water or isn’t replenishing as fast as the pump is pumping. Or it could be the well casing is rotted, allowing air to enter the system below ground. Or the screen at the bottom of the well could be so clogged that water isn’t passing through.

Rather than troubleshoot problems with the existing well and risk prolonging the outage, the village chose to drill a new well.

In an interview from village hall Dec. 9, Mayor Mark Gallegos said the village did not know exactly how much the new well would cost. Gallegos said the village has its mandatory cash reserve, but he said it wouldn’t be prudent to dip into those funds to pay for the drilling.

“To be quite clear, we don’t have it,” Gallegos said, adding that the village would be aggressively seeking grants (including emergency appropriations from the state) and other money to cover the cost. At one point during the interview, Gallegos was asked to sign a letter to Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, asking for federal help.

According to state records, the village has received more than $1 million in unspent appropriations for repairs to its water and sewer system. However, the village was prohibited from spending that money for years because of accounting irregularities.

While it’s unclear exactly what money might be available to pay for a new well, Gallegos said the village couldn’t wait. “This is the health, safety and well-being of the community, and there’s not a price to that,” Gallegos said.

Gallegos insisted the village had done what it could to keep the system operational, despite red tape and limited funds. Village officials have acknowledged that residents have been cooperative and shown charity for one another during the crisis.

“People are going through a hard time,” said Max Ortega, with the Questa Volunteer Fire Department. “They can’t take a shower. They can’t wash clothes. It hurts me in my heart to see people out there like that.”

Questa officials said they weren’t sure exactly how many people were without water. In fact, even those who had water at some times didn’t at other times. Officials did agree that the problems were widespread. “It’s the majority of the community,” Ortega said.

History of problems

For much of the summer, the village was experiencing frequent – though limited – outages and drops in water pressure, thanks largely to leaks in the system. Gallegos said the village worked hard to patch those leaks, but it was far from a long-term fix. “It’s been one thing after another,” he said. “We’ve had to continue to put Band-Aids on here to keep things rolling.”

The village relies on two wells for water, both of which are located near the Questa Jr./High School. Questa officials explained that “Well 1” generally supplies water directly to the distribution lines. “Well 2” also delivers water for distribution, but any excess is pumped to a water tank on the east side of the village.

With Well 2 down, officials say Well 1 can’t keep the distribution lines pressurized, let alone pump water up the hill for storage.

“I think it can’t keep up with demand,” Ortega said.

State records show Well 1 is 300 feet deep and has a pump capacity of 150 gallons per minute. Records show Well 2 is 395 feet deep and had a capacity of 100 gallons per minute. Records show the well hits static water at 225 feet.

Bill Conner, with the New Mexico Rural Water Association, told The Taos News his organization helped the village install a new pump on Well 2 a few weeks ago to try and improve system reliability.

“Between the two wells, it was just barely keeping up with their needs,” Conner said. The old pump on Well 2 was pumping around 75 gallons per minute, according to Conner. He said a new pump was moving close to 120 gallons per minute. But the pump began having trouble when it appeared there wasn’t enough water in the well to keep up with the higher rate.

Even if the new pump caused the current outage, Conner said it was a necessary fix. “They’ve had issues for years. It just finally came to a head when we put that new pump in,” he said. “What’s happening right now should have happened years ago. They’re lucky they’ve made it this long.”

Conner agreed that the smartest thing to do was drill a new – and deeper – well. “They really needed to do it to have a truly adequate supply for the village,” he said.

Conner’s organization does work all over the state and he said it’s not unusual for small water systems to be without a reliable backup if there’s a problem with a well. Some systems have just one well, he said. He also said New Mexico Tech is working on a monitoring program that would alert small water systems to potential problems ahead of time.

While the outage was unplanned and has been a hardship for residents, the silver lining may be that it could spur an overhaul.

“This is going to give us a real opportunity to assess the whole system,” said Questa Village Councilor John Anthony Ortega. “This crisis isn’t over until our system is working perfect.”