Doña Ana County commission announces official leadership for troubled water utility

Juan Carlos Crosby, the interim director of the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority speaks with Doña Ana County Manager Fernando Macias after the CRRUA presentation Tueday, April 9, 2024. Crosby was named full director on April 24, 2024. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)

Juan Carlos “JC” Crosby is losing the “interim” in his job title at the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority, and is now the full-time director of the water utility under scrutiny for sending water with high arsenic to its 19,000 customers in Southern New Mexico.

Susana Chaparro, a Doña Ana county commissioner and chair of the utility’s governing board, made the announcement at the commission meeting Tuesday, during comments from members.

“We’re going to pound out the contract, but that new executive director, who we hope will be at CRRUA for a long time, is Juan Carlos Crosby,” she said.

The Camino Real Regional Utility Authority board held a special meeting on Monday that had the hiring of the next executive director on the agenda. Chaparro said Crosby accepted the offer to lead the utility full-time.

Crosby worked as CRRUA’s assistant director for a year and a half. Prior to that, he was a city planner at Sunland Park.

His tenure in that role at the utility included the one-year period, where state regulators say the utility failed to remove arsenic from drinking water for the 19,000 residents living in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, when three of four of their arsenic treatment plants were out of commission.

The Camino Real Regional Utility Authority faces further scrutiny from state officials – including the attorney general and auditor’s office – and distrust from residents about the safety of their water.

According to the most recent tests conducted by the New Mexico Environment Department on April 4, the utility’s arsenic levels in the water are now under federal legal limits, but are still present.

Crosby assumed the interim position after the abrupt departure of former director Brent Westmoreland following a series of water quality issues.

Westmoreland’s position at the utility was already tenuous, as the CRRUA board declined to renew Westmoreland’s contract at the Nov. 30 meeting, prior to the water quality disasters.

Westmoreland left his position at the utility abruptly, calling it a retirement in interviews with Source NM. His resignation on Dec. 8 came just two days after the state had sent a notice that the utility provided residents with water containing high levels of arsenic.

In addition to a new director, CRRUA will have a new board later this year, after the state approved an agreement to change the make-up of the board last week.

That agreement had been ready for months, but Doña Ana county officials hadn’t sent the paperwork to the state for approval, despite saying otherwise in public meetings.

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