Water Emergency: The Hunt for a Million-Gallon Leak
Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal delivers a sobering report to the village council before they vote on emergency funding. Plus, key takeaways from the January 20 Council Meeting.
The village is bleeding roughly a million gallons of water per month from a leak that’s proven nearly impossible to locate in frozen winter conditions—a crisis that has Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal working through the nights to monitor dangerously low tank levels.
The council unanimously approved an emergency contract with Oasis Enterprises for as-needed water hauling at $759.17 per load—a discounted rate secured from a current Bureau of Reclamation grant contract that expires this Thursday.
“We’re losing just under a million gallons a month…At night, when normally everybody’s asleep, numbers are still high.”— JJ Carrizal
The search for leaks is brutal, as the Reader witnessed on site earlier this week.
Frozen ground has turned routine excavation into an endurance test for the small Public Works team. Employees work knee-deep in water, in freezing conditions, to repair leaks and replace valves.
“Today, we’re digging up a potential spot that we got a hit on, and normally, it takes us an hour to dig. Because of the ground being frozen, it’s taking us about three to four hours to dig just through the first foot,” Carrizal told the trustees.
“Water up here does not rise. It goes down to the rocks, the bottom. That’s why it’s hard for us to find these leaks out here,” he said.
Rural Water Association “circuit riders” joined the effort Monday and returned Tuesday to help cover additional areas. Carrizal said their equipment isn’t superior to the village’s—just additional hands-on-deck for the search.
“Back in the days, they didn’t install isolation valves when they were supposed to. But we’re trying to install them now so that we can pinpoint or narrow down the section of town where this leak is,” Carrizal explained.
Last week, crews isolated the Woodlands and Sugar Pine section by effectively cutting that neighborhood out of the distribution system, narrowing the search zone. Tuesday’s plan: read meters to identify homes with old meters that might harbor leaks.
The Numbers Tell the Story
According to Carrizal, the village is losing 30-40 gallons per minute—”right under a million gallons a month.”
“What we’re producing is reaching our tanks,” Carrizal confirmed. The problem lies in the distribution system between tanks and town.
Between December 1st and the 23rd, the average gallons-per-minute (GPMs) into town were 80, totaling 92,120 gallons per day. The well was running an average of 14.8 hours a day. The high-service pumps ran an average of 3.1 hours per day.
Between December 24th and the special January 9th council meeting, the well was running 24 hours a day, at 166.2 GPMs for an average of 209,968 gallons per day. The high-service pumps ran an average of 7.2 hours per day.
The acceleration is alarming. “The numbers that I gave you guys last meeting, they just doubled,” he told trustees. “And it’s day and night. At night, when normally everybody’s asleep, numbers are still high.”
Trustee Matt Willett said, “I’m sure that’s frustrating.”
Carrizal said, “It is. You’re looking at the tank at 12 o’clock at night, you’re at 2 foot level, and everybody’s asleep, and it’s on you.”
The Oasis contract carries no set quantity—it’s purely an emergency response when tank levels drop. “We won’t be hauling except when you tell us it would have the three-foot or whatever, and we’ll bring in the load,” Mayor Dusty Wiley said.
The village is trying to renew its $36,446 drought emergency grant through the Bureau of Reclamation to cover hauling costs, new Clerk Jini Turri confirmed.
Carrizal emphasized that this crisis is happening during the lowest-demand season.
“We need to really think about getting some money on the side for the future because this is winter. Summer’s coming up,” he warned.
Public Feedback
Resident Jaque Tanis asked during public input why the village doesn’t reuse filtered water from the treatment plant.
Carrizal explained the regulatory void: “The state of New Mexico doesn’t have regulations or standards for converting the wastewater from sewer to drinking water.”
A feasibility report that the village never received during the PURe project’s planning phase delivered bad news when it finally arrived: “Frankly, they told us Cloudcroft cannot afford to even have a plant like that to manage it every year,” he explained.
The current system treats water just enough to meet discharge requirements. “That gets treated just enough to get the nitrogen levels down to go down the canyon,” Carrizal said. The village is working on new, stricter discharge permit requirements.
“Please Help Us Save Water”
Carrizal closed with a direct appeal to residents and visitors: “We just encourage people to please help us save water right now at this time.”
The emergency contract resolution passed unanimously, authorizing water purchases for as long as needed while the search for the million-gallon leak continues.
Making it Official: Swearing Ins and Approvals
Trustee Hamilton was unanimously appointed Mayor Pro Tem on Mayor Wiley’s recommendation.
Four key village positions received unanimous confirmation, with Judge Mark Tatum giving oaths of office to Clerk/Treasurer Jini Turri, Police Chief Roger Schoolcraft, Volunteer Fire Chief and Emergency Manager Erich Wuersching, and Village Attorney Zach Cook.
The Planning and Zoning Commission gained two new members: Jesse Richards and Angela P. Daniel, both approved unanimously.
Lauren Groesbeck’s grants consulting contract was unanimously extended for $2,156.43.
Chief Wuersching announced the successful launch of Cloudcroft’s CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program—”fire department light.”
Eleven people completed train-the-trainer certification through New Mexico Homeland Security in 2025. First public classes begin February 5th.
“We’re hoping that this might be a draw for us eventually,” Wuersching said of recruiting interested residents into volunteer emergency services.
Library Director Sandra Barr had good news to report for the library—including her own continuing education on rural libraries, well-attended holiday events, teamwork with trustee and new Library Aide Gail McCoy, and community engagement and volunteerism, such as Storytime with Paige Martin at 10:30 a.m on Fridays.
The January 20 meeting wasn’t livestreamed to Facebook due to technical issues, according to volunteer Grover Sterling. Mayor Wiley said residents can expect livestreaming to resume for February’s meeting.
See you there.
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