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Residents press Las Cruces Utilities on lead-and-copper notices, inventory accuracy
Summary
Two residents told the City Council they remain unconvinced Las Cruces Utilities is complying with the federal lead-and-copper rule, saying customer notices, inventory data and Spanish-language materials are inadequate and asking for outside review and funding plans for pipe replacement.
Two residents told the Las Cruces City Council on Sept. 15 they remain concerned that Las Cruces Utilities has not fully complied with the federal lead-and-copper rule and that public information about service-line materials is incomplete and misleading.
At a public-comment period dominated by utility concerns, Lynn Moore told the council she had requested “all notices notifying new customers of their pipe material” and said the city's response at an earlier meeting misrepresented her request. Moore said the notices required by the rule “must...be provided at the time of service initiation” and that the city’s inventory and customer notices leave property owners with “significant problems.”
Moore said the utilities inventory omits about half of city properties and often lists an installation date or basis for the classification that she called unreliable. “If it says basis is water sampling only with no records or field inspection only with no records, both bases are untrustworthy,” she said, and added: “An honest, independent engineer needs to be brought in to evaluate the city's compliance.”
Liz Rodriguez Johnson, another speaker who said she had shown a city-produced video at the previous meeting, criticized the outreach materials and the utility’s public communications. She said the video’s “production qualities” did not compensate for substantive shortcomings and that the city’s web links and letters remain hard for English- and Spanish-only speakers to understand. “This is not a technique that's highly accurate in identifying the true nature of piping,” Rodriguez Johnson said of the guidance the utility promoted for homeowners.
Both speakers questioned what the city has done to seek outside funding for pipe replacement and how it has communicated those efforts. Rodriguez Johnson asked specifically: “What has the city done to obtain funding for folks who don't have the funds to replace their lead or galvanized pipes? Where has the city applied for funding? When did the city apply and for how much?”
Councilors did not take formal action directly on the utilities questions during the meeting. The utility director, Adrian Widmer, was listed among staff in closed-session attendance earlier in the day; the transcript record shows the public raising the issues and asking for clearer, bilingual outreach and independent review.
Why it matters: The lead-and-copper rule governs notification and inventory practices intended to let property owners know whether they might have lead service lines or other hazardous materials. Residents told council that gaps or misleading entries in the publicly posted inventory can mislead property owners, complicate property sales and delay necessary replacement work.
What’s next: Residents asked the council to seek independent verification of the inventory and to disclose applications for replacement funding. The council did not announce a specific follow-up at the Sept. 15 meeting.
