Water Coverage

Dive into our years-long reporting of Cloudcroft's water woes

Cloudcroft sits at 8,600 feet on the western flank of the Sacramento Mountains. The village pumps from a thin set of mountain wells, stores in aging tanks, and serves a year-round population that swells with tourists. Water has shaped every fight over the village’s future - budgets, growth, infrastructure, public trust.

Since launching in September 2023, Cloudcroft Reader has covered that fight closer than any other publication. Our reporting tracks the leaks, the lost gallons, the hauling contracts, the failing wastewater treatment plant, and the political decisions behind all of it. We follow the story from the Village Council dais to the well house, from the Hilltop Tank to Pineywoods Estates in High Rolls.

We report on water rights, nitrogen limits, federal permits, state grants, and the people doing the work. Our coverage extends to neighboring communities on the mountain - Pineywoods, Cloud Country West, High Rolls, Sunspot, Mayhill - wherever water shapes life on the mountain.

This page collects our water reporting in one place.

Stories

• Drip, Drip: PURe Water Project

• Workshopping Cloudcroft’s Water Challenges

• Village Hauling Water Again

• Water We Waiting For: Emergency Council Meeting Turns Town Hall

• Water Emergency: The Hunt for a Million-Gallon Leak

• The Hunt for a Million-Gallon Leak, Bluff Springs Closures Extended, and More

• Key Hires, Lingering Water Questions and More at Cloudcroft’s March Council Meeting

• Cloudcroft Council Covers It All: Grants, Staff, Water, Fire Prevention, and Pickleball

• From Water to Roads: How One Grant Writer Shapes Cloudcroft’s Future

• A High Stakes Balancing Act at Bluff Springs

• Bluff Springs’ Road to Recovery: An Update

• Bluff Springs (by Drew Gaines)

• Breaking News: Bluff Springs and Other Closures

• Making a Budget

• Cloudcroft’s Murky Accounting

• Water Dept. Raises Finally Flow; Federal Shutdown, Local Impacts; Election Events; Mountain Monthly and More

• Water, Key Hires on VoC’s First 2026 Agenda; Support Group Survey Results; Bark Beetle Challenges Forest Management, and More

• Cloudcroft Temporarily Hires Leak Detection Company

• Storm Batters Cloudcroft; Water News; NM Downwinders Eligible for RECA; Recommended Reading, and More

• Public Works Finds the “Big One”

• Big Leak Found, Fixed; New Podcast; Snow Removal Program; P+Z Gains; Winter Storm Fern, and More

• He Fell Waist-Deep Into a Hole. That’s How Pineywoods Estates Residents in High Rolls Found Their Water Leak.

• Pineywoods Water Crisis; El Paso Airport Closed, then Reopened; Snow-Removal Program, and More

• Cloudcroft Stops Hauling Water: Plus, Key Takeaways from Last Night’s Meeting

• Last Night’s Village Meeting; Pineywoods Update; Meet Robin Faux, and More

• Cloudcroft’s Fresh Start: New Year, New Mayor

• Cloudcroft’s New Mayor Confronts Water, Budget in First Interview

• Administrative Challenges Mount for Cloudcroft Village Government

• Council Hires Familiar Face for Second Police Officer. Plus, Higher Trash Rates and a Fiscal Roadmap Update

• Village Meeting Recap; Insider Look: 1899; Pickleball Court Repairs; FireWise, and More

• The Man, The Operations Manual

• Failing Wastewater Treatment Plant, New Dark Skies Committee Forms: Village Updates

• Failing WWTP; Meet Greg Crinklaw and Scott Powell; Spring Updates, and More

• Expert Says Cloudcroft Must Fix Aging Wastewater Plant as State Tightens Nitrogen Rules

• Down to the Brass Tacks: Cloudcroft’s FY 2026–27 Budget Workshops

• Department Heads Make Their Case at Cloudcroft’s Budget Workshop