New Mexico utility to pay civil penalties to address clean water contamination

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority will pay civil penalties amounting to $72,600 and complete two supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) designed to address water contamination on the Pueblo of Isleta lands.

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) is a water utility company that services over 600,000 residents in the Albuquerque and Bernalillo County metropolitan area.

In 2022, ABCWUA had a 48-inch sewer line collapse which resulted in the discharge of approximately 6.7 million gallons of untreated wastewater. Three million gallons of the spill were routed to the West Bluff Pond while 3.7 million gallons reached the Rio Grande River. Some of the wastewater discharges affected the Pueblo by contaminating the river which they use for agriculture and cultural practices.

Later that same year, EPA and the New Mexico Environmental Department (NMED) staff met with ABCWUA personnel to conduct a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) inspection to determine the extent of the water contamination in the Rio Grande River. EPA worked with ABCWUA and the Pueblo to develop two SEPs to address water quality concerns within the Rio Grande and the Pueblo’s surrounding water infrastructure.

The first SEP will be an E. coli laboratory housed at the Pueblo’s Natural Resources Department facilities. The data generated from the laboratory will be used to identify any ongoing harms caused by the SSO to the Rio Grande, irrigation canals, and the Pueblo’s overall ecosystem. This data collection will allow the Pueblo to create remediation strategies to address long-term impacts and generate sustainable farming plans.

The second SEP is five portable advanced water quality monitoring systems with automated alert features. This system will allow the Pueblo to conduct both spot-check and long-term monitoring of dissolved oxygen, nitrates, ammonium, turbidity, and temperature, among other parameters, of both the Rio Grande and the water infrastructure within the Pueblo that connects to the river. The data from this system will allow for immediate action by the Pueblo during a contaminating event.

SEPs are environmentally beneficial projects that are not required by law but that a party agrees to undertake as part of the settlement of an enforcement action. Such projects are closely related to the violation being resolved, but go beyond what is legally required, and they secure environmental and public health benefits in addition to those achieved by compliance with the law. SEPs remain an important part of EPA’s enforcement process and has contributed to a reduction in pollution for communities across the nation.