Informing the department of Interior

We need to announce to the Department of Interior there is currently no coherence or harmonization between local governments and national governments.  Local priorities and local issues are not being addressed in a wholistic and sustainable developmental manner.  Because 85% of New Mexico communities fall under the median household income level (MHIL) because of the failing policies and overburdensome regulations across the board in state and federal governments, leadership is needed more than ever.  

Even more concerning is 80% of those same New Mexico communities which fall under the MHIL are made up of volunteers who serve as board members of the local Community Public Water Systems (CPWS).  The 4th branch of government, AKA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states CPWS do not have the managerial, secretarial, operational and financial capacity to operate their systems. They say New Mexico CPWS do not have the capacity when they themselves have reduced their management by 54% nationwide since FY2000, costing Americans hundreds of millions of dollars in overpaid invoices.  For at least eleven years, according to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), 64% of the EPA’s research fellows were foreign nationals.   Other concerning security issues were discovered with data storage; other security issues which could lead to personal identity theft were also discovered by the OIG 2018 report.

The ongoing mismanagement by these agencies and the elected officials who are responsible for oversight of these programs, policies, and regulations, need to be addressed. Regionalization efforts that serve as a solution to government created problems is not an acceptable solution to their continuing mismanagement.

Distributive (In)justice for New Mexico Rural Communities 

National security risks are being made to meet many  Economy of large scale issues 

• Regionalization activists are seeking authority which requires all residents to abandon personal water wells and hook up to systems within service areas of newly formed quasi-government entities statewide in the upcoming 2023 Legislative Session

• “Water Rights are not a right they are a declaration”: The 50-year plan includes new governance of water and the 50 liter  home: “13 gallons” per day, per person, per family, per home, requiring retrofitting every home to meet these standards by 2050 

• “There are not enough resources (bureaucratic capacity) to serve all 650 Community Public Water Systems in New Mexico”.  After decades of failing to meet their own  Environmental Protection Agency’s goals and missions, due to negligence and neglect, the EPA promotes Regionalization for Community Public Water Systems (CPWS) as a solution to their own bureaucratic mismanagement.  The Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration echoes the EPA in a recent regionalization meeting where State Engineer, Mike Hammonds stated “the key for government to shovel out all the available funding  is for CPWS to Regionalize”

• “There is a little bit of letting go in building capacity through Regionalization”: After decades of failing to manage their business the EPA now seeks to direct and manage the business of local governments  by reducing the amount of board members representing your local community.   They claim to not have the ability (capacity) to service so many New Mexico entities.  So they aim to consolidate  and reduce the total amount of CPWS  in New Mexico and many more communities throughout the nation in a nationwide reduction effort AKA building capacity through Regionalization.  Their aim is to reduce the amount of local government entities /CPWS with whom federal and state  agencies have to deal 

• Once a community goes through the Regionalization process there is no going back, Regionalization is a Forever-Change in  local government autonomy 

Keys to the Game as they presented it in the 2021 Regionalization meeting:

• “More subsidized funding for those who surrender their autonomy”: More grant funding will continue to decrease and become more competitive with funding increasingly based on innovation and a regional, rather than local, focus. Recommendation: Need to work with other groups, build larger ready-to-roll partnerships and tie-into larger Grants versus going [at] it alone

• Many historic Grant programs are moving into loan programs (USDA) which are also  based on Median Household Income to qualify as a worthy project 

• New Mexico Water Control Commission changed rules and policies without public participation, (start viewing at 2:18) making state revolving funds originally purposed through the Clean Water Act for small communities with low populations in rural areas. These changes to policy/rules will make funding more  accessible and agile to bigger cities because it is said that small CPWS have failed to utilize these funds due to not being eligible to meet affordability criteria required by federal and state regulations.  This is due to 85% of New Mexico communities falling under the Median Household Income, therefore, not qualifying as a worthy project

• Lack of technical support for CPWS in the state of New Mexico is another example of lack of attention and prioritization at all levels of government. New Mexico Rural Water and Rural Community Assistance Corporation has a combined total personnel of 18 serving the CPWS in the state of New Mexico.  There is a drastic lack of technical support for these systems.  Both nonprofit organizations work tirelessly attempting to provide technical support and professional services that help ALL 1,300 New Mexico Water Systems maintain compliance of state and federal regulations.  Additional funding for service providers is needed to provide adequate service