Workshopping Cloudcroft's Water Challenges
The Village of Cloudcroft Council meets with CDM Smith engineering firm, Public Works, and concerned citizens to discuss water issues
[ANALYSIS]
Cloudcroft is grappling with multifaceted water challenges, marked by aging infrastructure, increasing demand, drought, looming equipment failures, and regulatory pressures for the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP), which paints a complex picture of the village's present and future water security.
On Monday, April 14th, in an effort towards transparency regarding the village's pressing water issues, the Village Council organized a public workshop and presentations by engineering firm CDM Smith and the Village Public Works Department to discuss our water infrastructure, challenges, and potential innovations.
The following night, Tuesday, April 15th, the council held its regularly scheduled open meeting. CDM Smith, Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal, and the council followed up on water discussions.
The council also voted to approve a new project proposal and PUReWater Project engineering change with CDM Smith.
Pinpointing Leaky Pipes, a Persistent Problem
The Village of Cloudcroft council has recently prioritized ongoing water infrastructure challenges, particularly its aging systems and significant water loss, to the tune of millions of gallons per month (more on that later.)
Public Works Supervisor Joe John (JJ) Carrizal and the public works team have been leading efforts to manage these issues, especially in light of recent water shortages, where demand has exceeded production.
In a special meeting on January 28th, the council approved trucking in water. The most recent truck came through on February 21st, and the village has spent $31,625 total on water hauling since January 30th. Also in January, the council enacted Level 3 Water Restrictions as the village struggled to meet demand.
According to Carrizal, a significant contributing factor to these challenges has been burst pipes due to a lack of insulating snow and freezing temperatures, coupled with vulnerable plastic meters and aging pipes.
The village has been utilizing technology with audio sensors to pinpoint these leaks. A major breakthrough occurred late in March 2025 when a "4-inch main line, cracked all the way around," was repaired, significantly reducing daily water usage.
Water Operator Aaron Foster compared the gallons per minute usage before and after the leak was fixed. "The 10 days before the week, I averaged it out, and we were averaging 124 gallons per minute of water demand. The 10 days after the leak, after they fixed it, we are now averaging 70.5 gallons per minute.”
The water report at the Tuesday council meeting showed an increase in gallons during Cloudcroft’s typically slower tourist season. The monthly gallons sharply increased from September on but decreased after repairs in the late winter through March. Here’s hoping the decreasing trend continues.
The village's reported peak of gallons per month happened in January at nearly 6 million gallons.
Carrizal has emphasized water conservation efforts at the workshop and several other meetings. “I think also what it could be, too, is that we're on Water Restrictions (Level) 3, and the community, in my opinion, is doing their part in conserving water,” Carrizal said.
The Reader followed up with Carrizal, who cautioned that the village remains "one main break away from being back in the same situation.” When asked if the town could expect numerous new leaks, Carrizal said, “Unfortunately, yes.”
The village now has over 640 cellular-read water meters, which can notify the village (and consumers) of leaks immediately rather than monthly through an app. Trustee Foster said that so far, only 16 villagers have signed up.
Download the EyeOnWater app to join in—all you need is your address and account number. Any home can sign up, and those without cellular-read meters can still easily monitor their monthly and yearly usage. Folks with cellular-read meters can also monitor their water usage daily and weekly.
Solid Presentations on Liquid Waste
The discussion surrounding the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) highlighted several key issues, beginning with permitting.
The village WWTP has been operating without a discharge permit, but the state recently issued new requirements. A wastewater discharge permit is a legal authorization from the New Mexico Environment Department that allows an entity to discharge wastewater, pollutants, or liquid waste into a water body like a river, stream, lake, or groundwater. This new permit, as discussed during the water workshop meeting, necessitates upgrades to the WWTP, particularly concerning the limit on total nitrogen in the discharge.
Details on the WWTP included:
Substantial upgrades will be needed for millions of dollars to meet the new permit requirements and address aging infrastructure. CDM Smith Project Engineer Chad Johnson quoted potential costs of $5.5-7 million (and up.)
A package treatment plant is considered a potential solution to refresh the entire system—Johnson said the refurbishment costs compared to the package plan were “nearly identical.” On Tuesday night, the village council voted to approve CDM Smith moving forward and presenting a proposal for the “Package Plant” for their consideration by the May 15th council meeting.
Johnson presented the package treatment plant option, which involves off-site assembly and on-site installation and potentially refreshes the entire system for “30 to 50 years.” At the Monday workshop, Wastewater Operator Scott Powell and Public Works Supervisor JJ Carrizal supported this option.
The group discussed concerns about the age and condition of the existing WWTP infrastructure, including the concrete structures and the lifespan of the membranes in the newer Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) system. According to Wastewater Operator Scott Powell, replacing parts can be difficult and expensive. “You can't go out and just buy it anymore. They have to manufacture it—if you're lucky enough to find somebody to take on the project to build. But yeah, doing just one gear drive was around $5,000,” Powell said.
Johnson told the council Tuesday night that the “MBR basins’ concrete housing is now 20 years old” and that “concrete has a 50-year” design time life but that “these had some problems in the beginning, so their design life is less, so they could already be 50% or more through the design life.”
In past discussions, Carrizal foreshadowed potential fines if untreated wastewater is discharged during power outages due to new permitting.
Public Input, Microsoft Teams Observation Deck
The council offers Microsoft Teams video streaming instead of the typical live stream from the Village of Cloudcroft Facebook page for the water workshop and upcoming village meetings.
According to Mayor Tim King, Meta “will delete the old livestreams,” and he is “working on downloading them.”
Microsoft Teams participants were able to look and listen in on the April 14th water workshop. However, the Teams chat section and public comments, even from Trustee Gail McCoy, who attended virtually, were not considered or discussed at the workshop. The tech was used at the Tuesday night council meeting, as well.
Retired systems engineers Dana Dunlap and John Snook spoke during the public comment portion of the water workshop, with the recommendation for a village-wide master plan to provide a holistic view of all necessary improvements and prevent uncontrolled costs, similar to the challenges faced by the PUReWater Project.
The back-and-forth discussions and Public Works presentations highlighted several important numbers for the village’s water supply and storage. Here’s what we learned:
According to Aaron Foster, “Right now we're at 43% full in all of our reservoirs.” He clarified that this percentage does not include any of the tanks in the system and refers specifically to the water plant reservoirs. Foster further quantified the reserves, stating, "...the 568,000 gallons that we have roughly, equates to 5.3 days of reserve.”
According to Public Works, the village can only store 10 days of water reserves.
Monday’s workshop had a structured public comment section. However, Tuesday night’s council meeting seemed to have a productive, gentle back-and-forth between the council, engineers, department heads, advisory board members, and the public, generating thoughtful questions and answers.
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Past council discussions on water have involved purchasing land and water rights, drilling additional wells, trucking in water from nearby sources, and the PUReWater Project.
The PUReWater Project, initiated in 2007 to create a sustainable water supply through Direct Potable Reuse (DPR), has been delayed, as the Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) completed in 2024 by CDM Smith recommended prioritizing immediate wastewater treatment plant upgrades and addressing non-revenue water after the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) denied project approval in 2020 due to insufficient Treatment, Management, and Financial (TMF) capacity.
On Monday, the village council and engineers discussed the current costs of a DPR project and said that running something like the PURe project in Cloudcroft would be cost-prohibitive at this time, with the burden falling on citizens. They estimated water bills would average “$1,000 a month” to fund the project, making it infeasible.
Trustee Jim Maynard mentioned that larger cities like El Paso are starting DPR projects “20 years after Cloudcroft” began the PUReWater Project and that the process will be more normalized in the future. Carrizal asked if the proposed package treatment plant could be used for a future DPR project, to which CDM Smith Engineers assured him, “Yes.”
Innovation in the (Public) Works
Discussions explored the potential for reusing treated and disinfected wastewater effluent for snowmaking at Ski Cloudcroft, which could conserve the village’s precious potable water supply.
Trustee Tabitha Foster asked if “kids could eat the snow” and questioned any potential health hazard risks.
CDM Smith Project Engineer Jill Tedder said the water “would be chlorinated” and, “Yes, there are classes of proclaimed water use in New Mexico, and this would fall under the highest class of reclaimed water, meaning it's disinfected and safe for public access locations.”
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Adams Family, which leases the Ski Cloudcroft property through the village, asked engineer Chad Johnson again about potential risks. Johnson said the water “meets acceptable guidelines for reuse for land application and the meets the highest level the state requires” and that it would be class “1A” water, which does not require restrictions on public access and exposure.
This initiative could save approximately 220,000 gallons per month of potable water, which could be only a portion of Ski Cloudcroft's potential usage. However, the reclaimed water would be available to the village year-round.
Who will pay for it? Mayor King said a grant needs to be used, and soon, for the project:
“This came about when I met with the governor and we talked with John Roderick. We have to spend this money, so J.J. and Aaron came up with this idea so we can get this money spent and as wisely as possible.”
“If we don't get it spent by next year, then they're probably not going to extend any more grants. We already authorized it, I believe 3 times since we started this project, and they're telling us this is it.”
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Cloudcroft Volunteer Fire Department Chief Erich Wuersching said the water could be used for firefighting purposes.
Discussion moved to using the village’s West Reservoir for storage of the reclaimed water. This reservoir is intended for grey water and can hold up to 1 million gallons. Carrizal emphasized that it has a “physical break” and no cross-contamination risks.
This reuse would require new infrastructure, including a chemical feed building for disinfection.
During the water workshop, Carrizal proposed establishing a filling station at the maintenance yard on Mescalero Avenue where the village maintenance crew could access non-potable water from the treated wastewater to use and sell to contractors, conserving the village's potable water supply.
Later, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Chairman Matt Willett asked if the reclaimed water could be used to water the newly-named Elevation Park. The council and Carrizal seemed to welcome the idea.
The council approved a “change in WWTP Engineering” at the Tuesday night meeting. The move, Mayor King later told the Reader, was needed to “approve the changes to the WWTP plan to move towards sending permeate water to Ski Cloudcroft. We have the grant money but needed to make that change (in engineering.)”
The CDM Smith fee for services was $215,000, which includes project management, the initial verification of infrastructure and construction cost estimate, snowmaking reuse design, permitting support, public outreach, and bidding and construction phase services.
More Grants: Hope Springs Eternal
At the March village council meeting, Grant Writer Lauren Groesbeck mentioned that the village has "another year to work on the wastewater treatment plant updates" after Debi Lee from the Southeastern New Mexico Development District assisted with the village’s grant reauthorizations.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the council approved a contract with Groesbeck’s consulting firm, GG Consulting, “for ongoing grant support including grant writing and grant management at $45 per hour not to exceed $15,000 within a calendar year.”
Of Groesbeck’s service to the village, Trustee Tabitha Foster said, “She’s worth her weight in gold.”
The village also has the following water-related grants:
A $35,000 grant from the US Bureau of Reclamation will cover water hauling in emergency situations over the next 365 days. This grant was recently approved, and the village has already spent $31,625 hauling water since January 30th, with the most recent truck arriving on February 21st.
The council approved using the gross receipts tax fund as a match for a Water Trust Board grant to refurbish the Hilltop Tank, which is a $1.1 million project. Groesbeck clarified that this project would cover the refurbishment of 4 tanks.
The village has a Colonias Infrastructure Project loan and grant agreement initiated in 2017 to address the antiquated water and wastewater system serving the Mountaintop area near the Lodge. The award is for $2.6 million, but this will only cover a portion of the originally-scoped work, now estimated to cost roughly $4.3 million due to increased costs since 2017. The village is awaiting to learn if the state will require a ‘fiscal administrator’ to be attached to the project after submitting its 2023 budget. The grant should include a packaged low-interest loan to match the grant, nearing $260,000, with the village producing the remaining funds of the same amount. It appears this matching funding has been approved in the previous village budget.
The Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) is seen as a tool that can help secure future grant funding by demonstrating that the village understands its water infrastructure challenges and has plans to address them.
In the meantime, Cloudcroft faces significant and interconnected water challenges.
Addressing the aging WWTP and complying with new permit requirements are paramount. Simultaneously, the village must tackle any immediate water shortages through leak detection and conservation while strategically planning for long-term solutions like an efficient WWTP, infrastructure, water storage solutions, and exploring sustainable water management practices.
The Reader will continue to report developments on these critical issues.
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Dear Cloudcroft Reader,
I believe you should solicit ideas for solving the village’s water problems. I would like to begin by providing one I have not heard discussed.
It is apparently well known by many in the Forest Service how thirsty our trees are. Wikipedia says that fir trees drink and aspirate 10 gallons of water per day for each inch of trunk diameter. Thus, a 10” diameter fir tree will drink 100 gallons of water per day – about the same consumption as a typical household. We all love our trees – they are part of what makes Cloudcroft special - but the forest is overgrown. My suggestion is to hire a hydrologist to identify the bounds of the underground aquifer from which the village draws its water, and thin the forest above the aquifer in the region of its watershed. This will allow more of the surface water to make it to the aquifer. Thinning even 100 trees would add 10,000 additional gallons of water to the aquifer EACH DAY (on average). Additionally, thinning the forest would help mitigate the fire danger to the village and the trees that remain would become healthier. I would not think the Forest Service would object to the thinning on the watershed portions that fall on National Forest land.
Would thinning really work? I am compelled to relay a story told to me by the late Bill Mershon, who grew up in and spent his life in these mountains. Bill told me about an experiment in an area of mountains east of Cloudcroft. In this experiment, there were lots of dry springs identified on a hill. They thinned the forest on the hill and the springs all came back to life. Bill believed that we had allowed the forest to become woefully overgrown in the last 75 years.
Another efficiency related idea: Require all new homes or hotels to be plumbed with hot water recirculation systems. When I had my plumbing rebuilt 2 years ago, I had hot water recirculation installed and it is wonderful! I remember going to shower at my sister-in-law’s house. I would turn on the hot water and wait while 10’s of gallons went by before any hot water came out. I could go for breakfast and come back before getting hot water. With my hot water recirculation system, when I turn on the hot water, it is hot by the count of 1, 2, 3, saving a lot of water. We also installed new dual-flush toilets at the same time to save water (these should also be required).
However, there is a potential problem with making homes more water efficient – the sanitary sewer system has not been designed in advance for low flow, and sewer system problems could emerge if house water flow drops. I was told by one of the village operators that the sewer system should be flushed out periodically with 100 gallons of water discharged into the sewer near the top of the system. This would be a good use for any treated wastewater – to keep the sanitary sewer system healthy.
Regards, Bob Higgins