Sen. Luján hails rural water projects in southern NM stop

ANTHONY — U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján paid a visit to a rural water utility near the border Tuesday, addressing an event room snugly packed with local workers, many wearing muddy boots and fluorescent work vests, whom the senator called “heroes in our communities.”

The Anthony Water and Sanitation District marked a new stage in ongoing work to replace aging and outdated water lines serving the rural city close to El Paso, Texas, and the U.S.-Mexico border. The city’s water system was pioneered by a private developer in the 1960s and acquired by the public utility in 1978.

At a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is pressing for drastic cuts across federal government, it was also an occasion for Luján, a Democrat who frequently speaks of his own rural upbringing in northern New Mexico, to underscore the necessity of federal investment in drinking water and waste treatment systems for underserved areas.

“When we’re solving problems in communities, we should always remember that it creates jobs and makes a difference,” he said. “If someone just takes a little bit of time to understand the magnitude of what these projects mean, they won’t get cut.”

In Doña Ana County, two recent projects invested nearly $7 million in Anthony and Vado to decommission old septic tanks, build new sewer collection systems and connect homes to service, plus expanded water distribution and hundreds of new connections in Anthony.

The projects were funded by the federal Environmental Protection Agency via the North American Development Bank through programs such as the Border Environment Infrastructure Fund.

“These are life-changing investments that safeguard public health, provide access to reliable water and wastewater services, and basically ensure a high-quality life for residents,” NADBank’s managing director, John Beckham, said during Tuesday’s event.

Yet in Washington, the president and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin have suggested the department, with a budget of $11 billion in fiscal year 2025, might slash spending by 65% or more, possibly endangering grant programs like BEIF.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Luján expressed optimism that Democratic and Republican representatives in Congress would work together to preserve programs benefiting their own constituents, saying they fostered local construction and engineering jobs while keeping communities safe in low-income areas—particularly small towns and colonias spanning the border.

“I’m not seeing the elimination of these projects right now, which is encouraging to me,” Luján said.

Yet he admitted that with cuts on the scale being pursued at the EPA, “everything’s on the table … Some of these local governments that don’t have a financial tax base of revenue that’s coming in—does that mean that they just do without when it comes to safe water or wastewater projects? That’s not right.”