Being Specific - Lower Valley Water

I wrote this piece a while back about the water boards, their elections, their staff, etc.

Well one Lower Valley resident gave me a call and said that I was being unfair and pretty much dared me to be specific about identifying a major mistake that has happened under the leadership of management of the water boards.

The caller must be related to one.

So I thought I'd oblige. I touched upon it but I'll go into greater detail. Jack Allayan is the general manager at the Lower Valley Water District. A few months ago there was a problem with the water in Clint, San Elizario, and Socorro. It was coming out brown.

This was a thing that was going on for several weeks. Imagine turning on your faucet and having water that wasn't clear coming out. Imagine caring for small children and that happening. Imagine trying to bathe in water like that.

It became a media story.

To be fair to Allayan, the water wasn't coming out that color because of anything they did. There was a change in pumps by the water utility, which is where the LVWD gets their water from. When the pumps get changed, the water level drops and the sediment that settles at the bottom of the pipes gets kicked up causing the discoloration.

The way that problem is solved is by voiding out the water in the system using the fire hydrants in the area. Well for whatever reason it took longer than usual to get rid of the problem. You'd think after a day or two, maybe three at the most, that Allayan would have decided that it was time to reach out to the customers, media, and elected officials that represent the area and let them know what is going on.

He didn't. It took several days before any outreach was done to the customers. It literally took weeks before any contact was made between the LVWD and any of the elected officials that represent the area.

Trust me when I tell you that ZERO effort was made to give the electeds a heads up. How do I know? I'm the vato that called them to find out why the water was coming out brown or red. After fielding several calls from constituents from Socorro I called the City of Socorro to find out what the problem was. After speaking with their elected leadership I quickly found out that none of them had been given a heads up about the problem with the water.

So I checked with my counter parts at Representative Gonzalez's office and Congressman Gallego's office. Nada. No one had been given a heads up.

So I called LVWD and after speaking to several very helpful staff members who explained to me what the problem was from a technical aspect, I was eventually transferred to Jack to find out why none of the elected leadership was made aware of an issue that affected so many residents.

He didn't really have an answer. Mind you, this is well into week 3 of the problem. I asked what kind of outreach was being proactively made to the residents to explain what was going on and that the water was safe?

Again, he didn't really have an answer, although he said they (I assume he and his staff) met the day before and were going to go send out leaflets to the residents to explain what the issue was.

Again, this is well after the problem initially started.

I very politely explained that the issue was a big deal because it would only be a matter of time before residents started calling up the local media. I specifically told him, "the last thing you want is a reporter doing a story on a weeks-old water problem that affects mostly low-income residents and have a glass full of brown water."

I was wrong. They used a bottle for the visual instead of a glass.

So to the resident who wanted a specific example, there ya go. Was the brown water his fault? Hell no. Was it his fault that it took so long to rectify the problem? Probably not.

Was it a colossal screw up to not make 4 four calls to give the local leadership a heads up about a problem their community was facing?

Hell yes. And one that could've been avoided. There's no reason it should've taken so long to inform their customers about why the water was brown. It was completely avoidable.

Sidebar: Allayan was previously the head of Community Development at the County at one point but left. I don't recall the circumstances of why or how he left. He was also a business associate of Jaime O. Perez at one point according to this article. 

Also according to this copy of the minutes of a budget hearing back in 2009, the department was actually eliminated during Allayan's tenure as the department head. According to the testimony of the then-Department Head of Public Works, it was being eliminated and the duties were transferred to Road and Bridge because "paper work wasn't being completed on time" among other reasons. The video of the meeting is archived and the conversation begins around the 4:45 mark. County Judge Anthony Cobos was the only member of the Court in support of retaining Allayan.