New Mexico City is Dry. The Immigration Detention Center Is Its Largest Water Customer.
After years of drought, the springs in Estancia, NM, are drying up.
After declaring a water emergency last week, a small town in Torrance County is pumping water to fill its pipes. Estancia also reduced water sales to the Torrance County Detention Facility, a state immigration detention facility run by private contractor CoreCivic. The detention facility, Estancia’s largest commercial water customer, has turned to trucking water.
During the crisis, Estancia Mayor Runnel Riley took a break. 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 open the 30-day process this month.
Many residents attended Tuesday’s meeting in person to express their frustrations over water issues and the delay in digging a new well. When asked by a reporter from Mountainair Dispatch, the management of the board said that they do not have information on how much water in the city goes to the closed area. The Estancia is home to 1,400 people, and up to 800 people can be detained at the facility.
Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs at CoreCivic, said the company implemented emergency plans once it learned of the water emergency. He said the Torrance County Detention Facility brought in extra water, and the water emergency did not affect its operations.
“Drinking water is always available in our homes and bottled water is provided in addition to readily available drinking water containers,” said Gustin.
Roy Hubbard, Estancia’s deputy clerk, told Inside Climate News that the city will meet with CoreCivic on Wednesday to discuss next steps. This detention center has been complained about for sewage and water problems in the past.
Detention Center, Drought and Years of Delay
The current water shortage is not the first time at Estancia.
Last year the Estancia asked residents to save water because their wells are not producing enough. In 2024, the city issued a similar call.
Excessive water pumping has caused a significant drop in the groundwater level of the Estancia Basin aquifer, which the city relies on, according to the New Mexico Groundwater Alliance. The Office of the State Engineer, which manages water rights in New Mexico, has closed the Estancia Basin to new water rights. However, the office predicted that if existing water rights continue to be used, the groundwater level will continue to decline.
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New Mexico, including Torrance County, is experiencing severe drought. Government officials expect that groundwater supplies will be significantly reduced due to higher temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns due to climate change.
Estancia elected Runnel Riley to replace the incumbent mayor in November 2025 by just five votes. However, Riley stopped attending trustee meetings as the town’s water problems worsened.
State Rep. Stefani Lord, a Republican who represents Torrance and Bernalillo counties, said at Tuesday’s meeting: “I called the mayor in January.
“Just finish well. That’s a temporary problem,” he said. “There are all kinds of things we can do in the future. But for now, we have to focus on doing this.”
During the meeting, trustees also voted to ban fireworks over the 4th of July weekend. The town still plans to hold a fireworks display, but private residents will not be allowed to set off fireworks due to the ongoing drought and the risk of fire during water emergencies.
Hubbard, the deputy clerk, said that since Saturday, trucks have delivered 116,700 gallons of water to the city. He said the water supply to CoreCivic will be “slowly turned on” once more water is available. According to the Mountainair Dispatch report, more than 80 percent of the city’s water goes to retail customers. However, city officials have not yet specified how much of that share goes to CoreCivic.
During Tuesday’s meeting, in response to questions from a Mountainair Dispatch reporter, Mayor Pro Tem Albert Lovato said providing up-to-date information on the city’s water supply is difficult because of the changing population at the detention center. “Our numbers go up and down because of CoreCivic,” he said.
The detention center has been controversial for years.
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office documented unsanitary conditions at TCDF in 2022, including “clogged toilets, broken sinks, malfunctioning toilets, water leaks and mold.” Innovation Law Lab, an immigrant and refugee rights organization, has also documented complaints from TCDF detainees about overflowing sewage and restricted access to water.
“There are no sewer problems at TCDF as a result of this situation, and there are no sewer problems in 2025 related to any water supply problems,” said Gustin, a CoreCivic spokesperson. “There has never been a time when those we care for do not have water to drink.”
The New Mexico Department of Natural Resources (NMED) enforces health and safety regulations at TCDF. Agency spokesman Drew Goretzka said that, after the 2025 assessment, TCDF faced a potential shortage of sewage system.
“NMED is supporting the City of Estancia through emergency response coordination, including requesting assistance from other federal agencies to provide additional water sources,” said Goretzka. “The Department is communicating with the City and its contractors to resolve the existing water shortage problems.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred questions about the location to CoreCivic.
The federal agency has expanded its detention powers under the Trump administration. ICE has purchased several warehouses across the country to open new detention facilities this year for immigrants in deportation proceedings. ICE has been detaining an increasing number of people with active immigration cases who want to stay in the country. Many residents in these communities, from Texas to Pennsylvania, have expressed concern about whether local infrastructure can support the growing demand for water from detention facilities.
About This Matter
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Marta Pskowski
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Martha Pskowski covers climate change and the environment in Texas from her home in El Paso. He was previously an environmental reporter at the El Paso Times. He began his career as a freelance journalist in Mexico, reporting for outlets including the Guardian and Yale E360. Martha has a BA in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College and a master’s degree in Journalism and Latin American Studies from New York University. He is a former Fulbright scholar in Mexico. Marta can be reached on Signal at psskow.33.
