Case Study: North Cleveland Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association

Location: North Cleveland, Mora County, New Mexico

Problem: This small community’s water system was out of compliance and lacked proper management 

Solution: With RCAC technical assistance, board members implemented strong management systems and brought their USDA loan reporting back into compliance.

The North Cleveland Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association is a small system in rural northern New Mexico, which serves approximately 85 people. A few years ago, several elderly board members who managed the system died in short succession, leaving the governing body with few if any records. This included the death of the board’s secretary/treasurer who had kept decades of records by hand, and had no backup information. Suddenly, the board was without the institutional knowledge crucial to effective management.

In response, two sisters in the community, Susana Lujan and Louise Burton, neither of whom had prior water system management experience, joined the system’s governing board, determined to improve the system’s management. They attended RCAC and the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) trainings on board duties and responsibilities and financial management, taking what they learned in the classroom and applying those lessons to their own system.

Lujan and Burton then asked NMED for help with their financial statements, and the community services coordinator approached RCAC for technical assistance. RCAC technical staff Laura Dubin helped with specific reports to bring the system back into compliance, including the Emergency Response Report, Operations & Maintenance Report, and the Revised Total Coliform Rule, as well as updating its reporting and financial records for the state and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

During this process, the two sisters also began pursuing greater collaboration with neighboring communities, exploring how regionalization might reduce costs. They have become vocal leaders among the 14 local water systems, and are working to increase collaboration amongst the group. In just a few years, North Cleveland went from a system on the brink of closing to one of the best managed systems in Mora County.