Water Advisory Issued For Ruidoso
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) is asking all village of Ruidoso evacuees to conserve drinking water when returning to areas which have been impacted by the Little Bear Fire. The fire may have damaged electrical wires or other water facilities which are critical to producing drinking water. If unable to produce drinking water, the systems must rely on existing storage until critical water facilities are repaired. Water conservation allows the systems additional time to make the needed repairs and avoid complete water outages.
In addition to requesting water conservation, the NMED is also issuing a “Precautionary Boil Water Advisory” for areas impacted by the Little Bear Fire. If returning evacuees notice a color change or significant change in water pressure they are advised to seek an alternate source of drinking water, such as bottled water, or boil the water for five minutes before drinking, cooking, and dishwashing. This is a precautionary advisory only: no contamination has been detected in the drinking water system at this time.
The NMED will continue to monitor the situation and provide technical assistance as needed. NMED will collect monitoring samples from the system and test the water to ensure no contamination has occurred.
For more information, call NMED Communications Director Jim Winchester at (505) 231-8800 or Andy Edmondson, Technical Services Manager, at (505) 222-9531.
