Pueblo’s Water Uses Could Cost Albuquerque Dearly

A dozen miles south of this city of 400,000 people, the Pueblo of Isleta sits on a bend in the Rio Grande amid groves of sinuous cottonwood trees, a quiet reminder of an ancient way of life.

Pueblo residents divert some of the river’s muddy brown waters to irrigate their fields. At certain times of the year, they also drink river water in traditional religious ceremonies.

Because of those uses, the community of 4,500 people has precipitated a legal confrontation over water quality standards that is likely to set a precedent for American Indian tribes all over the United States.

The pueblo has adopted a set of standards that could force Albuquerque and other upstream communities to build expensive new water treatment plants. Albuquerque alone could be forced to spend up to $250 million to comply, city officials say.

Unwilling to spend that kind of money without a fight, the city last month sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which has agreed to enforce the pueblo’s water standards, to try to get the standards changed. The pueblo itself is not a defendant to the suit.

This is the first time an Indian tribe has taken advantage of a 1987 amendment to the Clean Water Act that provides for tribes to be treated as states for the purpose of setting water standards, said David Bary, a spokesman for the EPA regional office in Dallas.

Isleta’s example has not gone unnoticed in New Mexico. Upstream from Albuquerque, the pueblos of Sandia and San Juan are also seeking state status and have proposed standards identical to Isleta’s, he said.

Isleta tribal Gov. Alvino Lucero, who took office earlier this month, said in a written statement that “we need to preserve and maintain the quality of our surface waters. . . . Our ceremonial activities make it essential that our waters stay as natural as possible. Also, the health of our tribal people is at stake.”

Officials from the previous tribal administration said last fall that they worried that ammonia from Albuquerque’s effluent could enter the pueblo’s food chain through irrigation. They also were concerned that the city might ease restrictions on dumping low-level radioactive waste water into the sewer system.

The city was already preparing to meet new state standards on ammonia discharges when the Isleta pueblo submitted its even more stringent standards to the EPA last fall. At the point of discharge, the city’s effluent contains more than 10 times the amount of ammonia allowed under the pueblo’s regulations.

The EPA had to adopt the pueblo’s proposed standards because they were based on the agency’s own recommended standards, said Jack Ferguson, chief of the regional EPA permit office.

The EPA is not allowed to consider how much it might cost to comply with the standards, he said.

The city has asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction keeping the EPA from enforcing the pueblo standards until they can be reviewed.

“We’re saying that the standards that were approved by the EPA are not scientifically provable . . . and that the burden that will be placed on the city financially far outweighs any benefit that will accrue to Isleta or any downstream user,” City Atty. David Campbell said.

Downstream from the discharge, Indian and non-Indian farmers have complained about gray foaming water in irrigation canals. But studies show that the city’s waste water accounts for only about 10% of the river’s flow at Isleta, Campbell said.

“The 100% of the river that enters Albuquerque is not drinking-water pure, and the river as it leaves Albuquerque is not drinking-water pure,” he said. “Our refining and distilling 10% of the flow will not materially contribute to a drinking-water standard at Isleta.”

Although EPA officials have said they think Albuquerque’s cost for complying with the Isleta standard would be in the neighborhood of $45 million to $50 million, Campbell said he stands by estimates from the city’s consultants that have placed the figure at close to $250 million.

The city would have had to build additional water treatment facilities to meet new state standards anyway. But city officials estimate that it would cost only $20 million to $30 million to comply with those standards.