Home Care In Mesquite, NM

LA MESA - Beatrice Jimenez was surprised when she opened her water bill in June and found it was higher than normal.

Quite a bit higher, in fact: Her bill had jumped from a previous average of around $25 to $2,232.

A miscellaneous adjustment of over $2,200 had been added to her account which, she soon learned, was for overdue sewer fees; and unless she came up with the money or made payment arrangements, her water service would be turned off.

Jimenez lives in La Mesa, a colonia in southern New Mexico with a population under 800. She receives water service from the Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority, a governmental entity formed in 2006 serving over a dozen colonias across 100 square miles south of Las Cruces, with over 5,000 connections.

This summer, the utility assumed billing responsibility for Don?a Ana County wastewater services as well, inheriting 1,700 new accounts in addition to 700 of its own sewer customers and approximately 50 from the Anthony Water and Sanitation District, officials of the PWWA said.

A number of those inherited sewer accounts were in arrears, but the utility said the gross totals were not known. PWWA General Manager Martin Lopez said most of the accounts in arrears were behind "a couple of months or less," but some were further in the hole.

Lopez said most of the overdue sewer accounts had made payment arrangements, while a few had their own wells or inactive water service.

Still, 180 colonia residents had their water services shut off at least briefly during September, including customers behind on their old sewer bills who were not on payment schedules, Lopez said. Another 32 were on the disconnection list but qualified for exemptions.

"The bills go out about the first of the month, they're due the 25th," Lopez explained. "If people fail to pay that day, they get a penalty and then we give an additional two weeks of grace period to the 15th of the following month. At that point, they are disconnected."

Jimenez said she was caught by surprise, as the home is owned by a family member and she did not know about the sewer fees. When she missed the 3 p.m. deadline to make a scheduled payment on the 15th, her water service was turned off for a day.

It's back on, but Jimenez, who works as a legal assistant, says she now must pay $200 a month to pay down the sewer debt over 18 months, with penalties as long as the balance remains, plus a one-time reconnection fee of $50.

"Somehow we're supposed to come up with this money so we don't pay these penalty fees, but how are we going to do that?" she said in frustration.

Like other PWWA customers with county sewer service, Jimenez's regular bill will be higher from now on. Her water and sewer charges billed in September amounted to $78.81, according to her billing statement.

An agreement with the county

This spring, county commissioners approved an agreement with the utility to take over billing and collection of sewer fees.

"When we bill the wastewater customers, we don't have the ability, for nonpayment, to simply shut off the sewer line," Assistant County Manager Chuck McMahon explained to commissioners at their April 13 meeting.

McMahon did not state how much was owed in total during the public session, but said delinquent sewer fees were accumulating as the county had limited tools for collecting it. Ultimately, the county had authority to take a lien on properties and foreclose on them, but McMahon said that approach was "a rather large hammer."

A water utility, on the other hand, "has the ability to turn off the water meter to compel payment," he said.

The agreement, approved unanimously at that meeting, means customers getting their water from PWWA are now receiving a combined water and sewer bill. The agreement went into effect on July 1.

The deal creates new revenue streams for the utility.

The PWWA keeps 3 percent of the wastewater fees it collects and 25 percent of what it collects from accounts that were in arrears, as well as any late fees and service charges accruing on the accounts.

County Manager Fernando Macias calculated that 3 percent of the average bills for the county's 1,500 sewer customers amounted to around $25,000 annually, but that did not factor in what the utility might earn by collecting on delinquent accounts.

Also, effective July 1, the PWWA set residential sewer rates ranging from a minimum of $12.36 up to $36 based on usage. Sewer-only residential customers pay a flat rate of $23.18 monthly.

There is also a residential sewer connection fee of $2,500, with $500 for reinstating a connection, plus an increased delinquency fee of $50.

Lopez said customers were notified of the changes this spring and had ample time to make payment arrangements if they were behind.

The county provided a copy of a notice to its wastewater customers who get water from the PWWA, dated May 20, notifying them of the change and providing a window for addressing existing balances.

"If your wastewater account is delinquent and you have a payment agreement with Don?a Ana County, then LRGPWWA will honor that payment agreement," the county notice stated. Customers that were not current, on the other hand, would need to make arrangements from the utility.

Pandemic protections expiring

New Mexico's pandemic-related moratorium on shutoffs of gas and electric services ended in May, to be followed by a 90-day transition period. A similar moratorium that applied to investor-owned water and sewer utilities has expired as well.

Even if the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission extended its moratorium for water and sewer service, it would not apply to a governmental entity such as the PWWA.

As moratoriums have ended, tens of thousands of New Mexicans behind in their bills stood vulnerable to power or water shutoffs beginning in August, even as the COVID-19 pandemic resurged this summer, driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

"During the whole height of the pandemic, we worked with everybody," Lopez said. "We didn't ask for any confirmation whether they got COVID or anything like that."

The utility has promoted federal relief programs, including a rental assistance program for those affected by COVID-19 and related work disruptions, which closed to applications on Sept. 15.

Yet Lopez said the utility depends on collecting fees and penalties for its revenue.

"We get to the point where the other folks that are paying are carrying the load for the people that aren't paying," he said. "We don't have the ability to tax or anything like that, so the only revenue that comes in is from the water and sewer service."

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, [email protected] or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.