I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Several New Mexico water systems are struggling to bring down arsenic levels, but when it comes to reducing the amount of fecal matter in the drinking water, the state is seeing tangible gains, state records suggest.
Bacterial contamination events like the one leading to this week’s state advisory about water at Cannon Air Force Base have become less common over recent years, according to a state Environment Department official and state records.
“We’ve really been working with the water systems to improve compliance,” Drinking Water Bureau Compliance Operations Manager Mike Huber told The Independent Thursday. “We have also greatly increased the number of formal enforcement actions, including enforcement actions with penalties, we issue to water systems that need that type of helping hand to achieve compliance.”
The New Mexico Environment Department issued the state’s first three “boil advisories” this week, including the air base warning. But two were administrative advisories, issued as a precaution because two Torrance County water systems have failed to comply with state-mandated bacterial testing of drinking water.
Boil advisories resulting from actual bacterial contamination of drinking water have become less common over recent years, records show.
Over the past four years, the number of contamination-triggered boil advisories has dropped from nine per year in both 2006 and 2007, to seven in 2008, and three last year, department records show.
Administrative or precautionary advisories have become slightly more common over the same period of time, from one in 2006, one in 2007, three in 2008 and two last year — possibly suggesting increased enforcement efforts by the state.
The Environment Department has emphasized prevention, Huber said.
“Through our Capacity Development Program, we have worked to enhance the financial, technical, and managerial capabilities of New Mexico’s drinking water systems via increased training and outreach efforts,” he said. “When a water system falls out of compliance, encounters difficulties that could cause it to go out of compliance, or just needs some guidance on the regulations, my group is there to support the water systems in achieving compliance and protecting public health.”
The Drinking Water Bureau has increased the frequency and detail of inspections, Huber added. Federal regulations require inspections of water quality at schools, hospitals, daycares and retirement homes only once every five years, but the state performs inspections every three years, Huber said.
Boil advisories are usually triggered by elevated concentrations of the bacteria E. coli, department records show. E. coli strains may be harmless or dangerous to human health, but elevations indicate that animal waste or leaking septic systems have introduced fecal matter into drinking water.
Fecal matter can carry other, more dangerous strains of bacteria.
Boil advisories are more common for small community water systems and trailer park water systems, department records show.
Boiling water for five minutes prior to drinking, cooking, bathing or washing dishes with it kills the bacteria, department records suggest.
