November 19 – At the entrance to a luxury resort nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Cathie Sullivan, a Tesuque resident since 1966, waved a banner that read: “Bishop’s Lodge, Keep Your Contaminated Water Out of the Groundwater of Tesuque!”
They and other concerned Tesuque residents are speaking out against plans by Bishop’s Lodge to discharge treated wastewater into an on-site leach field, while retaining the drain field, because the wastewater would be “immediately adjacent” to Little Tesuque Creek.
This comes just months after the resort changed course in response to community outrage over its previous proposal to divert wastewater from a new wastewater treatment plant – discharging the treated water directly into Little Tesuque Creek. Representatives of the Bishop’s Lodge argue that the new plans are environmentally friendly and will follow state and federal environmental standards.
They also say some Tesuque residents concerned about the resort’s former wastewater proposal requested a leach field.
But Protect Tesuque, an organization formed in response to the original water treatment plan, says the location of the proposed new leach field – so close to Little Tesuque Creek – would threaten “hundreds” of downstream domestic wells.
“From our perspective, this is no different than, and perhaps worse, than putting it in the creek, because it goes right into the aquifer, and that aquifer provides the drinking water for hundreds, if not thousands, of people immediately downstream.” , said Tesuque resident Rusty Day.
The New Mexico Environment Department disagrees.
Agency spokesman Jorge Armando Estrada wrote in an email: “Wastewater is expected to seep into the aquifer and if used properly, the wastewater will be discharged [by] Bishop’s Lodge is not a problem for NMED or downstream wells.”
So the months-long saga marches on.
Some of the resort’s neighbors routinely protest at the entrance on weekends, according to videos on social media.
Resort is running
Bishop’s Lodge filed an application with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposing to send treated wastewater from a new plant into the creek, sparking opposition over the summer. In an August statement, the lodge announced it would instead pursue an on-site leach field, in response to neighbors’ concerns.
Since then, the Ministry of the Environment has applied for a permit amendment and extension to discharge 30,000 liters of wastewater per day into a leach field.
Protect Tesuque steering committee member Eric Sirotkin, who said he lives “three doors down” from the resort, told The New Mexican in August that he celebrated the decision to change course.
“The community organized and listened to the community,” Sirotkin said. “They rejected a plan to dump in their neighbor’s yard — and that’s being a good neighbor.”
He sounded less festive this week. The new plan is problematic because of the leach field’s proximity to the creek, he said
“They were running, which is great. But you can’t turn around and pollute my well,” Sirotkin said. “I live on Little Tesuque Creek.”
Meredith Sestito of California-based communications firm Murphy O’Brien, which represents Bishop’s Lodge, did not answer several questions about the matter. Instead, she said in a statement: “Bishop’s Lodge and Bishop’s Lodge Hills & Villas Community have replaced their old wastewater treatment system, which dates back to the mid-1970s, by installing a new, state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant designed to meet the demands of water treatment plants to meet or exceed. water quality standards from state regulatory agencies, including the New Mexico Environment Department and the Water Quality Control Commission.
She added: “Furthermore, based on the requests of the local community, Bishop’s Lodge has taken the extra step of establishing a leach field on site.”
Neither Armando Estrada nor resort representatives provided information on the exact location of the leach field.
“The location of the disposal field is also not of concern to NMED and complies with the same permitting rules written to protect groundwater for current and future use as a domestic or agricultural water supply,” Armando Estrada wrote in an email.
The new system
The resort’s old treatment plant, built in the mid-1970s, has not been functioning properly for years, causing the owners to pump wastewater into trucks that transport it to the Santa Fe Wastewater Treatment Plant; the method is described as inefficient and expensive.
Bishop’s Lodge’s newly built wastewater treatment plant, a membrane bioreactor, can treat wastewater to produce a “much better” quality of wastewater than the current and outdated system, according to a document prepared by the Department of the Environment.
The new plant will treat wastewater from the resort, which has about 100 rooms, as well as the approximately 80 homes at nearby Bishop’s Lodge Hills and Villas.
Bishop’s Lodge requires approval from the Ministry of the Environment to construct a leach field, but not an EPA permit. If the state agency approves its permit renewal and modification request, the resort plans to withdraw its EPA permit application, according to a news release it issued in August.
The resort’s current discharge permit, issued in 2019, allows up to 14,760 gallons of wastewater per day to be sent to two underground disposal fields.
The Environment Department provided images for the new leach field, showing it would be 5,000 square feet with a trench length of 1,093 feet.
A public hearing on the permit amendment, including the leach field, has been scheduled but has not yet been scheduled. Armando Estrada wrote in an email that it will “provide multiple opportunities for members of the public to provide oral or written public comment.”
He noted that discharge into a leach field or underground disposal field has been included in every discharge permit since 1979 for Bishop’s Lodge, when the resort’s permitting began.
Santa Fe County spokesperson Olivia Romo wrote in an email that the county approved a permit in August for the development of the site and excavation of the leach field.
At the end of last year, the province approved a plan for the wastewater treatment plant.
“The scope of the province’s development review is limited to ensuring that construction and excavation meet the standards set forth in the Sustainable Land Development Code,” Romo wrote.
Persistent concerns
Day claims the resort should “do the right thing” and “find a healthy and safe place to build a leach field somewhere on their property that will not impact the stream and the aquifer.”
He also suggested the resort could pipe its wastewater to a municipal facility, although he acknowledged that could be expensive.
Viviette Hunt, who produces a weekly newsletter for Protect Tesuque, said about 400 people have signed up to receive it, indicating concern is widespread in the community of about 1,000 residents north of Santa Fe.
Susan Waldman, who lives on Bishops Lodge Road, also raised concerns. She has lived in the area for about a year and a half – the first time she has not been connected to a municipal water system.
‘It’s quite horrifying that someone on the road who has very different interests to ours can do something [what they] want, when it will have such a big impact on all the people in the community,” she said.
Bernadette Romero-Jaramillo, whose family has called the community center home since the 19th century, also opposes the resort’s plan.
“We’ve been coming here for many years,” she said. “So this is very dear to my family and the rest of the community about the importance of protecting our water.”
