las cruces wants state funding for ongoing septic system upgrade

In an effort to move away from the use of private septic tanks, the City of Las Cruces is making plans to build a new waste water system in one of its northeast neighborhoods.

Work has already launched on the building of one such system in the residential section of Hacienda Acres, some nine miles to the northeast of downtown Las Cruces.

Now, city officials have announced plans to request $1 million in captital outlay funds from the New Mexico State Legislature to complete phase three of that project.

That $1 million request is part of a total $31 million capital outlay request the City of Las Cruces is submitting to state lawmakers for their approval.

In the last decade, Las Cruces has made a concerted effort to do away with individual septic systems that are not connected to the city's waste water collection and treatment system.

Those individual sysstems are often times decades old and, through leakage, contribute to ground water contamination from household wastes.

A reporter earlier issued by Las Cruces identified more than 1,800 individual parcels in the city where private septic tank systems were still in use.

The city's Council District 5, which includes Hacienda Acres, was identified as having the greatest number of private septic tank systems in the city.

The number has since been significant reduced through the city's Septic Tank Identification and Prioritization Plan.

New modern systems have since been built not just in a portion of Hacience Acres but also the Salopek/Sunrise subdivision.

By Garry Boulard

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