Tijeras pushes water conservation

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE - Water is serious business in the Village of Tijeras just ask Rick Howe, he lives in the Village and runs a drinking-water business there called Turquoise Trail Electric Plumbing and Water.

"They monitor our water usage every month," Howe said.

They being the Village.

Each month Village leaders are given a list which lets them know much water everybody connected to the village's well is using.

"It raises a flag right away when there's a big increase on the water use," Mayor Gloria Chavez said.

Most recently it was the U.S. Forest Service's usage that raised a big flag.

According to the list of water usage, The U.S. Forest Services usage went from its typical 2,000 to 4,000 gallons in September to nearly 35,000 gallons in October.        

"At one point it was maybe they were washing trucks, but even there washing trucks, they would have to be washing trucks from the entire state of New Mexico to use that much water," Chavez said.

A U.S. Forest Service Spokesperson told News 13 they did not use village water to wash their trucks and to this point they have not figured out what caused the huge spike.

Neither has the village.

"We haven't been able to identify why they went up so high," said Chavez.

In an interview with News 13 Mayor Chavez said they may never know what happened to the water but she said the forest service's usage is back to normal now, a good thing considering how dry it's been.

"We need people in the village to be very conservative until we start to get some more moisture in here," She said.

It is a message Howe and others in Tijeras take very seriously.

Last summer the village cut his business off because the drought was so bad.

It has not come to that yet but Howe says the outlook is bleak.

The way its going its not a good picture in the future I tell ya with water," he said.

In fact he said in the last week alone he has worked with three different homeowners who's wells have gone dry.