Alamogordo NM
7-11-2026 12:24pm

Timberon’s Water Crisis: A Clean Sample, a Month Without Reliable Service, and a Hidden Violation

Timberon, N.M. — July 11, 2026 -A water sample pulled from a residence at 15 Molopac in Timberon on July 9 came back clean. The test, run by Diagnostic & Technology Center, Inc., an NMED-certified lab (#NM0301) in Alamogordo, used method SM 9223B — the standard enzyme-substrate presence/absence test for total coliform and E. coli — and returned an absent result for both. Free chlorine residual at the sample point measured 0.04 mg/L. The sample was collected by Travis Kelsey and submitted under the lab form’s “Special” category.

That last detail matters. The lab form itself separates “Special” samples from the Routine, Repeat, and Groundwater-Triggered categories that make up the state’s official compliance testing sequence — the ongoing schedule of samples a water system is required to collect and report to demonstrate its water is safe. A Special sample is not part of that sequence and does not count toward regulatory compliance monitoring.

It’s a useful, real data point — one address, one moment in time — but it is not the same as, and cannot substitute for, the sequenced compliance sampling NMED requires, and a single clean result at one location doesn’t rule out contamination elsewhere in a system experiencing the kind of low-pressure events that prompted the current boil-water advisory in the first place.

That advisory remains in effect. In a same-day public update, TWSD board member and treasurer JJ Duckett reported storage levels as of Saturday, July 11:

• Tank 2: ~0.25 ft (refilling)

• Tank 3: ~0.40 ft

• Tank 5: ~2.69 ft

• Tank 6: ~19.0 ft

Duckett reiterated that the advisory is precautionary — TWSD says it has had no failed compliance samples and no confirmed bacteria detections during this event — but asked residents to keep boiling water out of caution and to conserve, with bottled water available at the TWSD office. He said the shortage is likely to continue “at least” a few more days.

The pump that won’t stay fixed

The proximate cause of the outage is a transfer pump at the water treatment plant, which has been running at roughly 75% capacity for weeks. That’s enough to keep the system limping along but too slow to recharge storage tanks at a normal rate. TWSD says its wells are producing adequate raw water, but that water can’t reach Tank 2 without the transfer pump running at full strength.

Pressed in the comments by resident Duce Hughes for a repair timeline, Duckett explained that the district has struggled to settle on which replacement pump to order. A backup pump located in the second cistern at the filtration plant — intended as an emergency swap-in for exactly this kind of failure — was found to have a damaged wiring harness when the district went to use it. As of Duckett’s most recent update, the office was still “working on this,” and nothing had been ordered. Hughes noted that TWSD customers have now gone roughly a month without reliable water, and asked pointedly whether the district’s parts-procurement contact was having trouble sourcing a replacement pump on eBay.

Not the first time — and not the only violation

This is TWSD’s third precautionary boil-water advisory in five weeks, following advisories on June 8 and June 16, both tied to tank-pressure drops, and a November 2025 advisory as well. Board Chairman Otis Price has described the roughly 50-year-old system — built with substandard materials across some 100 miles of distribution line — as failing faster than crews can repair it, citing close to 50 pipe breaks in a single month. A 2023 infrastructure investigation had already found the system losing an estimated 85 percent of pumped water to leaks, with much of it moving through thin-walled PVC pipe never rated for pressurized drinking water, and nearly half the community’s fire hydrants out of service.

Separately, and more seriously from a regulatory standpoint, records show TWSD failed to properly notify its own customers of an earlier drinking-water violation. According to a June 9, 2026 Notice of Violation from the New Mexico Environment Department’s Water Protection Compliance & Enforcement Bureau, TWSD received an original violation under the federal Ground Water Rule back on March 5, 2026. State and federal rules required the district to notify every customer directly, by mail or other direct delivery, within 30 days, and to certify to NMED that it had done so within 10 days after that. NMED’s letter states neither step was completed, putting the district in violation for a second, independent reason. The letter warns TWSD could face an Administrative Compliance Order and civil penalties, and confirms the district has been added to NMED’s public Enforcement Watch list — its second appearance there, following an earlier citation for operating an unregistered solid-waste site since 1996.

A district that says it can’t afford to fix its own system

TWSD’s public statements paint a picture of an operation in real financial distress. The district closed the Timberon Community Pool for the 2026 season, citing an operating loss of about $26,500 the previous summer against roughly $3,500 in revenue. A former board chair has estimated the system needs $45 million to $50 million in infrastructure investment to be fully overhauled, and a state Public Regulation Commission official has publicly raised the possibility of receivership, which would strip the elected board of control entirely. More than 200 properties are reportedly now eligible for foreclosure over unpaid standby fees, and the board has directed its attorney to explore collection and foreclosure options against delinquent ratepayers.

It’s against that backdrop that the district’s handling of its golf course stands out. In April 2025, the board approved a 10-year lease of the district-owned golf course and lounge building to Discover Timberon Incorporated (DTI) for $1 a month, with DTI keeping 100 percent of any profits and taking on responsibility for insurance, maintenance, and utility costs. The vote was public — posted on a noticed agenda and passed 3–1 — with Duckett, the same board member now posting the pump updates, casting the lone dissenting vote over concerns about whether DTI’s insurance would actually cover the whole property.

What does not appear anywhere in the board’s own record is any appraisal of the golf course, lounge, and adjoining parcel, or any attempt to solicit competing offers — notable because the same board, at that same meeting, separately launched a competitive bid process for a waste-management contract. Under the lease, TWSD receives $12 a year and no share of profits from an asset it still owns and remains responsible for, while telling ratepayers it lacks the money to keep the pool open or the water system from failing. New Mexico’s Anti-Donation Clause generally bars public bodies from giving away things of value to private parties without adequate consideration in return; whether DTI’s assumption of costs constitutes fair value for a decade of $1-a-month rent is, at minimum, a question the board’s own record does not appear to have worked through.

Where things stand

TWSD’s messaging to residents continues to frame the current outage as a mechanical problem being actively addressed — a worn transfer pump, a backup unit sidelined by a wiring fault, and a system running on reduced capacity until a replacement is sourced and installed.

The one lab result reviewed for this story is consistent with the district’s claim that no contamination has been confirmed — but as a Special, non-sequenced sample, it speaks to a single address at a single moment, not to system-wide compliance, and residents on Tank 2 should continue following the boil-water advisory until TWSD or the state issues an all-clear through the official compliance testing process.

Beyond the immediate outage, that reassurance sits alongside a state finding that the district failed to properly notify customers of a separate violation for months, a board that says its half-century-old system is deteriorating faster than repair crews can keep up, and a decade-long lease of a public asset entered into without any documented market comparison, at a moment the district says it cannot afford basic upkeep elsewhere.

An IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) request for further documentation on the golf course lease remains pending.

Reporting on the state violation, district finances, and golf course lease draws on original reporting by Chris Edwards, 2nd Life Media Alamogordo Town News, July 9, 2026. Full story: 2ndlifemediaalamogordo.town.news

Water quality lab result: Diagnostic & Technology Center, Inc., NMED Lab #NM0301, Lab Sample ID# 070726-6, sample collected 7/9/26.

Community updates: JJ Duckett, “Timberon, NM – UNFILTERED” Facebook group. The board is welcome to send updates or protective press statements to ChrisEdwards@KALHRadio.org 

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