‘I make my own water’: Santa Teresa residents plagued by discolored tap water

Santa Teresa, New Mexico (KVIA) -- Discolored, yellow water is once again pouring from household taps in Santa Teresa, leaving residents frustrated, distrustful, and forced to spend hundreds on home filtration systems just to get usable water.

Residents have exhausted all options from installing Puronics water purification systems, water softener systems, heavy metal tanks, additional carbon filters, UV filtration, to even making their own water.  

The Camino Real Regional Utility Authority (CRRUA), which supplies water to Sunland Park and Santa Teresa—tells ABC-7 that an overnight system outage may have caused the temporary discoloration. However, for residents, this latest incident follows a long history of water quality concerns and administrative fines.

Homes across the community report trying everything—from installing high-end water softeners, heavy metal tanks, Puronics purification systems, and UV filtration, to making their own distilled water at home.

• Recent System Fine: Earlier this year, CRRUA agreed to a $189,000 settlement with the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) following years of drinking water violations, including unnotified arsenic spikes and operational deficiencies.
• System Deficiencies: An NMED Sanitary Survey identified 58 operational deficiencies within CRRUA’s facilities, including previous failures to properly maintain arsenic filtration systems and prompt customer notification protocols.