11-07-2024 2:21pm

The New Mexico Environment Department Enforcement Watch Shows 41 Water Quality Concerns in Otero County

Chris Edwards Editor

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) released Enforcement Watch updates for the month of October 2024. Eight cases are showing for Alamogordo with 7 related to water quality issues. In all of Otero County there were 42 issues appearing in reporting with 41 related to drinking water with a large concentration in Alamogordo's Thunder Road area and in Tiberon.

The Enforcement Watch is a listing of all active and resolved enforcement cases.

Active cases involve an alleged violation of a regulation, rule, permit, license, etc.

Resolved cases are those that were adjudicated in court of law or administratively resolved.

The Enforcement Watch also provides tools for the public to report alleged environmental or workplace safety violations.

“The increased number of resolved drinking water cases this month shows the importance of our heightened enforcement efforts,” said NMED Compliance and Enforcement Director Bruce Baizel. “We applaud the operators who committed to providing safe drinking water to New Mexico residents.”

In October, 197 new entries were added to the Active Matters listing and 53 were moved to the Resolved Matters listing.

New additions to the report included:

• 105 notices of violation issued by the Drinking Water Bureau

• 74 notices of violation issued by the Food Safety Program to retail food establishments that failed to timely pay their permit fee, resulting in a $25 late fee