A New Mexico Town Is Running Dry. An Immigration Detention Center Is Its Biggest Water Customer.
Key takeaways
- After declaring a water emergency last week, the small town in Torrance County is hauling in water to fill its pipes.
- In the midst of the crisis, Estancia Mayor Runnel Riley has taken a leave of absence.
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July 1, 2026 Share This Article Republish Last year, the town of Estancia, N.M., asked residents to conserve water because its wells were not producing adequately. Credit: Town of Estancia Related Texas’ Refusal to Plan for Climate Change Created a Crisis in Corpus Christi Blasting Begins For Border Wall On Cherished New Mexico Mountain Border Communities Remain in the Dark About Federal Government’s Billion-Dollar Buoy Project Share This Article Republish Most Popular Can Clusters of Human-Constructed Ponds in the Arizona Desert Save a Threatened Frog? A Pipeline Company Says It Will Protect the Environment in North Carolina. Its Record in Tennessee Says Otherwise. How ‘Mother Trees’ Nurture Our Forests Following years of drought, the wells in Estancia, N.M., are running dry.
After declaring a water emergency last week, the small town in Torrance County is hauling in water to fill its pipes. Estancia has also reduced water sales to the Torrance County Detention Facility, a federal immigration detention center run by the private contractor CoreCivic. The detention facility, Estancia’s largest commercial water customer, has resorted to trucking in water.
In the midst of the crisis, Estancia Mayor Runnel Riley has taken a leave of absence. During a Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday evening, Estancia’s elected leaders passed a vote of “no confidence” in the mayor. The state has provided funding to drill a new well, and Estancia will be opening the 30-day bidding process this month.