At public comment during the Dec. 15 Las Cruces City Council meeting, multiple residents urged the city to be more transparent and thorough in complying with the EPA's Lead and Copper Rule, saying current inspection methods may miss lead-lined or galvanized piping.

"Only 1 deficiency has been properly corrected that we know of," Lynn Morr told the council, saying the city's inventory and inspection techniques are not sufficient to determine whether service lines are lead-lined and that the city should use methods capable of identifying lined piping. Morr said she and other residents have repeatedly asked for answers and asked that the utilities director explain inspection methods and post responses on the city's lead-and-copper web page.

Liz Rodriguez Johnson followed, listing specific questions residents want answered: how far back city records document pipe materials for both city- and customer-owned lines; the extent of digitization of those records; rough percentages of records with no material or installation-date data; reasonable cost estimates for replacing a lead or galvanized service line; when and how schools are sampled for lead and copper; where sampling results are published; and notification procedures and required actions when action levels are exceeded. "We again request that the department step up to its responsibilities and provide factual complete answers to each of these questions and post them on the website," Rodriguez Johnson said.

Both speakers urged the council to hold utilities staff accountable for providing plain answers. The meeting transcript does not show a direct utilities-department response during the public-comment period; residents said the lack of posted answers and inconsistent explanations has eroded trust.

What residents want and what the council can do: Commenters asked the council to direct Las Cruces Utilities to publish responses to written questions, clarify inspection methods that can detect lined or galvanized piping, provide cost ranges for homeowner service-line replacements, and explain school-sampling schedules and notification protocols when lead or copper exceed action levels. Several callers said licensed plumbers had advised them that external meter-box inspections can miss internal lead lining.

Next steps: Councilors acknowledged the concerns during the meeting and staff follow-up was requested in subsequent agenda discussion items. The record shows residents requested posting answers to the city's lead-and-copper website and further staff engagement; the transcript does not record a timeline for that posting during the Dec. 15 meeting.