A cesspool less than a mile from Taos Plaza may finally stop overflowing sewage after more than a decade of complaints and activism by neighbors and congregants of a church next door.
Who bears responsibility for the tank has remained murky since at least the 1940s.
“The water’s a little purer the further you come down — pure nasty,” said Jim Schlarbaum, who lives and owns a short-term rental business next door to the smelly vault.
Located on the corner of Kit Carson Road and Burch Street, the vault has filled and overflowed with murky, rank water for at least 12 years, according to residents. It visibly overflows and pools in the lower part of the emergency overflow drainage ditch of the Las Cruces Dam.
The vault was built by hand with concrete block and surpasses 8,000 gallons — septic tanks typically max out at about 2,000 gallons. Some neighbors speculate it is a remnant from the Burch Camp or from the 28-room Adobe Wall Motel across Kit Carson Road.
Neighbors have been frustrated over the stinky state of affairs for years.
The Assembly of God Church, part of which sits above the tank, has worried for the safety of children playing on the property, where an abandoned basketball hoop directly overlooks the murky pit. The church won’t hold summer camps anymore because of the risk associated with the sewage and the large topside port to the tank, which is capped by a removable cement plug.
Kit Carson Road resident Hillary Shaw, whose property borders the cesspool, said her backyard is “hell.”
“My property value is suffering. My quality of life is going down,” she said.
When Tom and Tanya Lowry bought their two-story home just north of the tank, their realtor had to formally disclose the smell in the transaction.
Town, state and federal agencies tossed the issue around for years like a hot potato, repeatedly agreeing on one thing: The vault was not under their jurisdiction.
Theories ranged from groundwater filling a cistern to raw sewage filling a cesspool. The church and residents pumped the tank out several times over the years, only to see it refill within a week.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency visited the site twice, reporting it had no jurisdiction over the vault and declining to take a sample for testing.
“They told me: ‘This is a catchment tank because the first person who came out said so,’” Schlarbaum said. “They said, ‘We know the difference in smells; this is not sewage.’
But, he said, “The EPA agreed it was a public health hazard and said they were gonna do some things about it in the next few days — never called me back.”
Former Public Works Director French Espinoza told the Town of Taos Council definitively in 2023 the tank was a cesspool. But the town conducted dye tests and couldn’t pinpoint the source of any sewage.
The New Mexico Environment Department, the agency responsible for regulating septic systems, repeatedly deemed the vault non-hazardous. The department conducted site visits in 2019 and 2021.
In 2023, NMED Communications Coordinator Matthew Maez told the Taos News the department was “very certain that it’s not a cesspool,” because “NMED staff and Taos officials determined that the structure is a tank that did not contain sewage.”
“Its likely from the 1940s or 1950s when there was a camp at the site,” Maez said at the time, referring to a campground now long gone. The camp was owned by the Burch family, who rented cabins and also operated a petrol station and store near the vault.
Bill Evans, the town’s new Planning, Community & Economic Development Department director, begged to differ after a visit to the site.
“You have raw sewage coming up in your community. That’s a hazard,” he said.
Evans updated the Taos News Wednesday (June 25) that the water appears to be black water, not raw sewage, which may be leaking from a wastewater line.
Fed up with agencies passing the buck, and with the rank smell growing stronger this year as the weather warmed, residents regrouped to answer another key question: whether or not a house was hooked up to the tank.
J & J Septic was called to pump three septic truckloads of thick, black liquid out of the vault Wednesday (June 18). Owner Joey Apodaca Sr., who’s worked in the industry for 27 years, noted what appeared to be human feces floating on top.
“It’s definitely sewage,” he said.
Whatever it was when it was built, the vault is now an underground cesspool: a tank with no leech outlet made to store sewage temporarily.
If it were a septic tank — which the town and state initially admitted it may be — liquid would seep below ground into a leech field rather than rise above ground.
“The water wouldn’t be black coming out of a well-functioning septic system,” Town Public Works Operator Gilbert Lopez said.
Within two days of pumping the tank, over 1,000 gallons had refilled in.
Neighbors were willing to pool resources to fill the tank with cement, at the state’s suggestion. But it wouldn’t staunch the issue at its source: Where was the sewage coming from?
The public works department performed a smoke test in the emptied vault last Friday (June 27) to determine which houses may be feeding into it. Everyone within sight was definitively on the town’s wastewater system, a secondary smoke test in a nearby sewer maintenance hole confirmed. Pumping smoke into town’s main line through a manhole filled the street with smoke from household sewer vents.
Huddled around the vault, listening to water pour into the tank, Public Works Assistant Director Lupe Leyva performed one final smoke test on Kit Carson Road, noting one non-smoking house, then did a dye test to confirm it: The water in the tank immediately ran pink.
“The basic rule is, once [a septic tank] doesn’t work anymore, you gotta hook in,” Evans said. “Within the codes, that’s illegal.”
NMED’s Onsite Wastewater Program is responsible for ensuring septic systems are adequately installed and maintained in a manner that protects public health and the environment.
Director of Communications Drew Goretzka told the Taos News this week the case is “complicated.”
“The New Mexico Environment Department has repeatedly confirmed the site is not a cesspool, but instead an underground tank located on private property connected to the Town of Taos’ sewage system,” Goretzka said Tuesday (June 24). “The Department is currently working with the property owner and Town of Taos to determine where the sewage is coming into the tank from, and how to prevent more from flowing in the future.”
On June 4, in a handwritten note left on Shaw’s door, the state urged her to contact them regarding an “imminent public health hazard behind your home.”
Goretzka said the note was left in response to the tank overflowing. Now that it’s pumped, the tank “is no longer an imminent public health threat.”
“Although not technically under their jurisdiction, Town of Taos responded to residents’ and NMED’s concerns and pumped the sewage out of the tank, remedying the situation,” Goretzka said.
Public Works Director Reynaldo Vasquez said, “I don’t understand why NMED is letting this go — because this is unlawful septic, this is under their jurisdiction.”
Some of the jurisdictional mystery has come from the fact that whoever constructed the tank is likely dead. The state and town estimate it’s at least 80 years old. It’s not indicated on existent property records Schlarbaum has dug up.
“Either they did it on the sneaks, or this was built before they started building septic tanks with special forms,” Vasquez said.
“The property should be inspected and up to code every time it changes hands,” Joey Apodaca Jr. said.” Somebody likely looked the other way, and here we are today.”
The fate of the large vault remains uncertain.
“I can’t give any recommendations on this one,” Vasquez said.
“We just want this fixed,” Schlarbaum said. “I’m sick of this [expletive].”