Home Care In Mesquite, NM

According to New Mexico State University New Mexico dairies generate one hundred eighty million dollars in economic impact annually in Dona Ana County alone… But that might be coming at the expense of some communities scarce ground water resources.

While a number of dairies in Dona Ana County will tasked with new ground water monitoring requirements- County residents are concerned they won’t go far enough to protect their drinking water.?

Dairy farm workers whistle, call and whoop as they rustle the next line up of cows through the stock yards and into the milking parlor at the Big Sky Dairy, one of 13 operations on dairy row lining interstate 10.

Dairy owner Ed De Rutyer says the daily milking of close to 2000 cows is just one of the never ending farm chores in the 24/7 life of Big Sky Dairy in Mesquite.

"We got some people doing artificial insemination, then we do preg(nancy) checking. Others are doing the milking feeding the cows grain and then we also feeding of the calves” De Ruyter said.

Between his 5 dairies De Rutyer employs about 250 workers, mostly from the surrounding communities.

Workers in the milk parlor sanitize the cows’ udders and prepare them to be pumped. As the milk makes its way into steel tanks. A mix of cow manure, sterilizing chemicals and spilled milk on the parlor floor is hosed off into the yards, where it can seep beneath the soil possibly contaminating the groundwater.

Engineer Kathy Martin says groundwater surrounding the dairies sometimes contains high levels of nitrites.

“The nitrates concentrations in 'Dairy Row' are between 50 and 100 parts per million. So we are talking 5 to ten times more than the level where you still can’t drink it. So it is not good” Martin said.

Arturo Uribe lives in neighboring Mesquite. Though he doesn’t work at a dairy some of his friends do and his sister is married to one of the dairy owners sons

“I’ve known him since I was like 14 years old, he has been with my sister she was like 14 years old. So I have a niece and nephew" Uribe said.

Uribe says the stench of manure and swarms of flies have been a major nuisance since the dairies moved in 40 years ago but with so many inter family relationships and work connections most residents have been reluctant to do much more than complain..

“You can only go to so many meetings and listen to a dairy owner say well that’s the smell of money you know”Uribe said.

In 2012 Uribe filed a lawsuit against area dairies citing the public nuisance of the odor and the flies. But it was groundwater contamination that convinced others to appeal to the New Mexico Environment Department for help.

“When it does become contaminated, who is ultimately going to be responsible for the clean up and you know. Will there be a recourse to have the dairies to do that” Uribe said.

At a recent environment department hearing in Anthony New Mexico the dairies agreed to a remediation plan that would require plastic lining for runoff pits and more groundwater monitoring.

Ed De Ruyter represents his fellow dairy owners as part of a consortium called Dona Ana Dairies.

“We just want to be able to have a realistic approach with agricultural people in mind" De Ruyter said. "So that we can handle costs and handle the problem with pollution you know we are trying to be good stewards of the land. We live right there on the dairy we drink the water from the ground and the cattle drink all the water. So we want to make sure the cows are healthy and we are doing our best to alleviate the problem” De Ruyter said.

New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission engineer Bart Faris says the contaminated water flowing beneath the dairies hasn’t gotten into the drinking water supply yet. Even with the well monitoring he says there are still some unknowns.

“It is dark down there! You got to understand, to see the detail of each site how water is flowing, how does it move, how does it react this chemical when it hits this certain formation” Faris said.

While the polluted groundwater is monitored and left to dilute naturally, it is business as usual back at dairy row. Engineer Kathy Martin represents concerned residents who live near the dairies. She says progress has been made but not enough has been implemented to stop future contamination.

"The point is, don’t let it get in to the ground water in the first place, have the best liner system you can keep your waster water up above ground maybe in tanks” Martin said.

Ed De Ruyter says the dairies don’t want to invest in containment measures that aren’t scientifically proven.

“These costs get to high you know you will not be able to continue doing business we will just have to do something else” De Ruyter said.

Uribe agrees he says finding lower impact uses for the land along dairy row might be the only way to secure the drinking water supply for communities like Anthony, Mesquite, Vado and Berino.

"They should leave, to be very honest. You are looking at growing communities with schools, they are having major issues with the contamination of the nitrates you know. It is not a matter of is our aquifer going to be contaminated by nitrates due to the dairies, in my opinion it is when, you know. Its not this week but when””

Uribe said.

The agreement for water monitoring by the dairies will require annual reports to New Mexico Environment Department, which is tasked with reviewing the data to ensure the groundwater contamination is contained.

Editor's note: This is one in a series of hometown heroes — southern New Mexico residents who complete acts of heroism or otherwise serve as an inspiration. We'll feature one hometown hero a month in 2023. To nominate someone, email reporter Leah Romero at [email protected].

LAS CRUCES – Elizabeth Carver, DVM, has practiced veterinarian medicine in southern New Mexico for 20 years. After the animal hospital she was working for reduced its staff, she decided to start her own practice – a mobile vaccination clinic.

Carver operates Mesquite Animal Vaccination Clinic in Don?a Ana County with the help of multiple technicians and assistants. Rather than making clients go to a clinic, Carver goes where she is needed. The work has taken her and her staff across the county each week for 20 years.

She has over 18,000 patient files, according to Janet Boutilier who has worked with Carver for many years.

Mesquite Animal Vaccination Clinic is not a full-service clinic. Vaccinations and chipping pets constitute a majority of the services Carver offers pet owners. She also handles basic examinations and home euthanasia. For more immediate concerns, she refers people to other area clinics.

For subscribers-Read more about pet care in Las Cruces:Animal Companions builds emergency animal care network

Prior to becoming a veterinarian

Carver has a storied professional and personal history. Carver and her husband relocated from New Jersey to Las Cruces when he took a job at New Mexico State University repairing electronic equipment.

She always knew she wanted to be a veterinarian – she said she was drawn to science, working outside and with people. But she wasn’t always a veterinarian.

Carver completed undergraduate and some graduate work before working for five years with Las Cruces Animal Control.

“I enjoyed working with the people, working with the animals, working outside and explaining to people how to take care of their animals basically,” Carver said.

Much of her work consisted of checking on loose animals and cases of rabies at a time when the department anticipated a rabies epidemic in the area. This did not come to fruition, but Carver said her work is influenced by her days in animal control.

“What I'm doing is taking care of animals and people,” Carver said. “In vaccinating the animals, we're protecting the population. That's why it's required by law that your dogs be vaccinated, your cats be vaccinated against rabies, is because we are basically protecting ourselves.”

Carver's experience also extends to firefighting – as a volunteer in Mesquite for many years and previously with a fire department in Pennsylvania. She was one of the first women at both departments.

In Las Cruces, she ran the emergency clinic at the Animal Hospital of Las Cruces. Two years later Carver was among a group of employees laid off.

“I said, ‘well, I can't afford to start a clinic,’ but because of the firefighting and because of animal control I knew there was a need there for mobile vaccination clinic,” Carver said. “When I first started it was affordable vaccinations. Within, what, a month I knew (the clinic) wasn't for vaccinations, it was education.”

Mesquite Animal Vaccination Clinic officially opened Feb. 1, 2003.

Serving Don?a Ana County pet owners

Carver and the clinic team typically visit sites across the county they have been invited to set up at on a three-week rotation – the timeline followed for puppy vaccinations. In recent months, she started setting up in the parking lot of the Mesilla Valley Mall outside the former Sears department store on Fridays.

People do not need to make an appointment for clinic days. Pet owners form a line and let the team know what their animal requires. Records are consulted before Carver administers the vaccines. Available vaccines for dogs and cats include rabies, distemper and parvoviurs, Bordatella, Canine Influenza, rattlesnake, upper respiratory and feline leukemia.

Carver also microchips pets, provides heartworm prevention and testing, roundworm and hookworm dewormers and basic antibiotics and other medications, all at prices lower than other formal area clinics.

Pattie Hartman has lived in Las Cruces for about six years and said Carver has always been the veterinarian she took her animals to for vaccines.

“That woman is dedicated to the community and the animals,” Hartman said. “Animals would not get vaccinated had it not been for her…. She’s just really selfless.”

Vaccination clinics are scheduled every weekend. The schedule is posted on the clinic's Facebook page. The clinic team is typically on site for at least six hours each day. Boutilier compared the team’s devotion to that of the postal service.

“Rain, sleet, hail, snow, you know, we’re there,” she said.

Tammy Muro has worked with Carver since their days at the animal hospital. She joined Carver when the mobile clinic started by driving around the county in an old pickup truck with patient files in the back.

“We had one of those little metal two-cabinet military file drawers and we carried that thing with us all the time. And then we got computers and now we would need a semi to carry all of her paper files,” Muro said.

Appointments can be made in advance for Carver to go to a patient’s house to perform services.

Julie Leonard has been a client of Carver’s for many years. She said Carver went out to her home to euthanize her elderly dogs.

“I remember meeting her then, and she put my animals down and sent me a condolence card. That was really cool of her because it's really hard with your animals to lose a pet, like a child,” Leonard said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Boutilier said wait times were upwards of three hours because other vet clinics in town were not vaccinating. She said Carver is also directly available over the phone. Clients who call into clinics are often encouraged to make an appointment before a veterinarian speaks to them. Alternatively, Carver speaks to her clients directly and give them recommendations, which Boutilier said particularly benefits low income and underprivileged pet owners. And someone is generally answering the phone 24/7.

“Most vets won’t talk to you. They’ll tell you make an appointment, come in and then you’re looking at a $65 office visit fee,” Boutilier said. “I can call and go, ‘OK, possible Parvo.’ … I call Dr. Carver and Dr. Carver will call you back and tell you what you can do.”

Leonard said she called Carver early one morning because a puppy she was pet sitting had seizures and Las Cruces does not have a 24/7 emergency animal center. She said Carver was able to give advice and stay on the phone with her while she dealt with the situation.

Carver said she does not see herself ever retiring. She also said it will be hard to ever find a younger veterinarian to pass the torch to because the hours the team works are demanding, and income is comparatively low.

“When do I think I’ll retire? I’m having too much fun. Never. I really am because I enjoy working. I’ve got some of the best clients – the best people, the best critters,” Carver said.

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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, [email protected] or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

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MESQUITE, N.M. – When Angela Silvaggio became principal at Mesquite Elementary School eight years ago, she said morale was low across the board and students didn't believe in themselves.

"The first step was to build a positive culture," she said.

Among the changes: Teachers began calling parents, sharing positive stories. That positivity transformed into trust and that trust led to better results.

Mesquite, which serves students living in southern Don?a Ana County between Las Cruces and Vado, is now a perennial "A" school in the state's rankings.

On Sept. 21, Mesquite was designated as a National Blue Ribbon School — one of three schools in New Mexico to earn the designation this year along with Mesa Verde Elementary School in Farmington and Coronado Elementary School in Hobbs.

The National Blue Ribbon School recognition is based on a school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps through school resources. This year, 325 schools nationwide were recognized.

"Being acknowledged as a Blue-Ribbon school is the highest honor recognized by the US Department of Education," stated GISD Superintendent Travis Dempsey in a message to the district. "This validates years of hard work and dedication this staff has committed to the communities they serve."

Silvaggio said she did not make this happen on her own and commends the hard work of the entire community in its efforts to make Mesquite a better place.

"For some of our students, we are everything. We are a parent, sister, counselor, brother, friend," Silvaggio said. "Receiving that honor will really validate their hard work. It will make them want to want to strive for more."

Building a positive culture

Teachers are asked to make two positive calls to parents a week. Silvaggio says this is to help build a stronger connection with families to show them that the school cares and that not every interaction with school has to be negative.

"It's not just to the best kids," Silvaggio said. "It could be to a kid who failed a math test last week, but he got a D this week. It's the small victories that are celebrated."

The goal is to take the fear out of reaching out to the school and make it a welcoming place for families.

Students are also heavily involved with their own grades to help boost accountability. Silvaggio said Mesquite focuses on intensive tutoring and regularly checks in with students to make sure they are on track.

She said the biggest key to success for educators and students has been making them feel valued.

"We're about hard work in the classroom, respect and dignity everywhere we go with everyone," Silvaggio said. "You have to build relationships before anything else can happen .… It's not my school. It's their school. It's the community's school."

Silvaggio said the students may not yet understand what the Blue Ribbon designation means, but she's sure it will boost their confidence even further, which is the school's biggest strategy.

"It's just a wonderful thing to have at this school because I don't think anyone ever thought that it would happen," Silvaggio said. "I think New Mexico gets a bad rap .… It's a good thing for the district, for the state, for the community, to realize that we are as good as anywhere else in the country. I'm hoping it will inspire our students to continue (believing in themselves)."

Mesquite will be celebrating the designation on Oct. 8, bringing students, staff and families together with a blue-themed festival with food trucks and music.

An official award ceremony will take place at an in-person event on Nov. 4 and 5 at the Gaylord National Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Miranda Cyr, a Report for America corps member, can be reached at [email protected] or @mirandabcyr on Twitter. Show your support for the Report for America program at https://bit.ly/LCSNRFA.