By Lauren Lifke
Residents of the unincorporated community of Stanley, north of Moriarty, are initiating a grassroots effort to resolve ongoing water availability issues for the community.
Stanley residents met for their sixth meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at the Stanley firehouse, where several community members expressed their issues with accessing water in their homes and from their wells.
Stanley resident Joyce Orgass told The Independent that the issue has been going on for her household for nearly four years, when the well at her house ran dry. She’s been buying water from a nearby water station about five miles away, with the help of her husband.
“If my husband didn’t know how to do everything, I don’t know how we could have afforded for somebody to get us water,” Orgass said. “He’s disabled. He’s got one leg; he lost his leg to cancer. I have a daughter who’s very sick, and I feel trapped.”
Orgass and her husband built the house nearly 40 years ago, and she never expected that there would be an issue with water at the house, she said. She never plans on leaving the house or her community, she said, so she continues to do what she needs to do in order to get water in her home.
She and her husband attach water to a tank and haul it with a truck, which she said introduces a risk of injury for her.
“We’ve been doing it for three years. You’d think it’d get easier,” Orgass said.
At Tuesday’s meeting with a turnout of about ten people, more residents expressed similar issues. It isn’t affecting all Stanley residents, Orgass said, but she fears the issue could spread.
The residents are working on an online petition and an effort to go as a group to Santa Fe to protest during next week’s special legislative session.