Cloudcroft Temporarily Hires Leak Detection Company

Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal calls in reenforcements.

Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal informs the council of the emergency water situation at the Jan. 9 special council meeting.

The Village of Cloudcroft is bringing in professional help to locate water system leaks starting Monday, January 26th.

So far, they haven’t found “the big one”—a nearly million-gallon-a-month leak.

Professional Help Arrives Monday

McKim & Creed arrives early next week, a company that helped find leaks last year. Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal confirmed that last year the company used satellite technology to help locate major leaks in the village, funded by the state of New Mexico.

“We got them for 40 hours. They’ll come and find the leaks that we have, and if we got a big one like I think we do, they’ll find it,” Carrizal said.

Cost vs. Benefit

Carrizal planned for the $10,000 expense in his last year’s budget request, anticipating winter leaks.

Carrizal explained the financial reasoning: “We’re spending $10,000. They will locate leaks. We dig it up, fix it. It’s cheaper than $36,000 for all the water hauling.”

“All the overhead we spend on transferring water on the weekend. There’s overtime for setting up hoses, pumps, and fixing leaks. It’s adding up.”

Why Not Shut Off Water at Night?

Responding to resident suggestions about turning off water overnight to let the system replenish, Carrizal explained the risks:

“When you turn the water back on, it causes more leaks. It pressurizes, it causes more leaks, so then we’re gonna have dirty water calls.”

“Pipes, gaskets, pipe fittings, service lines tend to relax, and then they can leak when you pressure back up.”

“Also, if there is a fire at night, we want water available.”

The process disturbs sediment in pipes, requiring extensive flushing. “We have to go to the hydrants near that complaint and flush the hydrants. We could be flushing up to 500 up to 2000 gallons of water to get that complaint satisfied,” he explained.

Carrizal added that shutting down the system would be “totally the last option.”

The leak detection work begins Monday, with results expected to guide repair efforts.

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