Chama faces water shortage after main line breaks

Jun. 20—The Rio Arriba County village of Chama has run out of water after a line break 10 days ago left residents without service.

"Nobody has water," Mayor Ernest Vigil said during a Monday afternoon interview with Chama radio station KXJR-FM.

Village officials have been trying to find the source of the leak since June 10, town clerk Vanessa Martinez said Monday.

Residents in the town of about 1,000 people are not entirely without drinking water. The state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has been delivering 20,000 gallons of potable water to the village since June 10, Matt Maez, spokesman for the state Department of the Environment, wrote in an email Monday.

He wrote the agency is also "providing pallets of bottled water to the Village of Chama. The New Mexico Environment Department offered technical assistance and referred Chama's water utility to contractors who can assist with addressing this issue."

Martinez wrote the village had contracted with the Albuquerque-based American Leak Detection to find the cause of the break, but the company cannot begin work in Chama until Thursday.

During the radio interview, Vigil said if the lines and nearby water tanks do not have water in them, leak detection professionals won't be able to find the source of the problem.

"Without water that's not going to do any good," Vigil said.

Martinez said the steady leakage of water has led to the closure of nearly every business in the town, located about 100 miles north of Santa Fe.

"A lot of businesses have shut down but City Hall is staying open," she said. "If people have their own wells, they are OK, but unfortunately the businesses are all on city water and the majority of the town is, too."

Chama resident Billy Elbrock, a former village mayor who runs Fina's Diner, said he had to close the restaurant Monday morning.

"It's hit all the businesses," he said. "Everything is shut down — all the restaurants, the hotels don't have water, the laundromat doesn't have water."

He said village officials have told residents they should expect to be out of water until at least Thursday.

Bill Conner, executive director of the New Mexico Rural Water Association, said his agency sent a representative to Chama Monday to help find the source of the leak. He said while his association hears of such water line breaks periodically, rarely has the problem reached such an extent that an entire town or village has lost access to water.

"Somewhere we will find the break," Conner said. "I just hope it's within the next few days and not any longer than that."

Meanwhile, Martinez said the town is seeking portable showers and toilets and hand sanitization tools but has been "having a hard time finding them."

The owners of the El Vado RV Park, located about 30 miles south of Chama, have offered Chama residents free access to their bathrooms and showers, Martinez said.

Sheila Baca, one of the owners of that RV Park, said Monday the park also can offer water from its wells and bags of ice.

"We found out this morning that they (Chama residents) were out of water so we're doing what we can to help," Baca said.

Vigil said two water tankers are parked outside the village's City Hall — one for potable drinking water and the other for non-potable water for flushing toilets and other needs.

Among other problems, the water crisis will affect the village's tourism trade and may lead to the cancellation of some planned summer events, he said. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad had already postponed scheduling running until July 1, according to its website.

But with that date some 10 days away, it's unclear if the railroad will have to postpone again.

"How do we handle a crowd of four to eight thousand people without water?" Vigil said.

This is not the first time a rural community in New Mexico has gone without water. In the summer of 2013, because of drought conditions, the town of Magdalena's water system went dry.