Of the two primary water wells for the Town of Estancia, one is not producing as much water as the town needs.
According to Mayor Nathan Dial, it’s not the critical situation it was last week, but it is tenuous.
The mayor said the tanks are still not full, but town residents no longer need to conserve water. Dial also said that the hope is the town will get approval from the state water board to build another well soon.
“So as of right now the town is okay, but hopefully next year we will be approved to drill another well,” he said. “Once you start having well problems, you’re always gonna have well problems.”
Last week, the Town of Estancia told residents that the town well was running low, and urged residents to take steps to conserve water.
In a Facebook post, town officials said water for parks was running low because they were trying to save water for resident usage.
Dial emphasized the urgency of conserving water and said the town has limited water resources.
“Water levels have been going down,” he said. “As far as storage tanks within the town, we probably had four to five days’ worth of water.”
According to Dial, in 2017, the town was supposed to get a new well. At that time, the Torrance County Detention Center was in critical need of water and a new well, and the resources were diverted to the prison.
“The prison here uses the same amount of water as the town does on a daily basis,” Dial said. “Decisions had to be made.”
Dial said if the town does run out of water they will contact the state and coordinate a plan to get an emergency supply of water to residents.
“We call the emergency manager and he coordinates with the state,” he said. “They bring pallets of water and a water truck to the fire department. And then people can come to the fire department to pick up bottled water and fill up containers.”