Las Cruces Utilities (LCU) – a City Department – provides four essential utilities every month to more than 40,000 residential and business customers in and around Las Cruces. Customers are billed monthly for the utility services they receive (gas, water, wastewater, and solid waste services), and those payments fund ongoing utility operations.
Your tax dollars do not fund LCU; this City Department is funded by customer payments for utility services.
“LCU operates as an enterprise fund,” explains Jose F. Provencio, business services administrator. “Very much like a private business, LCU takes in payments from customers and then pays the costs of operations, employees, and all service-related expenses with annual revenues of more than $62 million annually.”
“To be clear, there is also no subsidizing that comes to LCU from the City’s general fund,” adds Provencio.
LCU does apply for grant funding from the State of New Mexico to carry out some major construction projects, such as ongoing septic-to-sewer projects, which make city sanitary sewer available for the first time to some older Las Cruces neighborhoods.
An example is the Doña Ana Sewer Extension project, for which construction is set to begin late summer 2017. The project is now moving forward thanks to grant funding now available from the State of New Mexico, and because of the efforts of City Manager, Stuart C. Ed.
LCU Regulatory Environmental Services/Technical Support Administrator, Carl N. Clark, P.E., explains the urgency of the project: “This is a top priority project; it needs to happen because of the large number of septic systems within Alameda Acres Estates within 1,000 feet of a City well. The proximity of the aged septic systems runs the possible risk of contaminating our drinking water well.”
Knowing that LCU is solely funded from utility payments may also help explain why the mission of the Utility Customer Advisory Group (UCAG) is so important.
The process has just begun reviewing water rates for the first time in almost a decade. Mayor and City Council appointed the UCAG Ad Hoc committee, to manage the review process. The five committee members are resident volunteers who are knowledgeable about rate and utility issues and are also LCU customers.
It will likely take a couple of years for UCAG to review the rates for all four utilities. However, committee members are already encouraging customer participation in the process. UCAG members are available to speak to civic groups, churches, or any group asking for more information about the utility rate review process. Interested groups may email their requests to ucag@las-cruces.org.
Suzanne Michaels provides this content on behalf of Las Cruces Utilities
You can reach Las Cruces Utilities at 528-3500 from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Las Cruces Utilities provides GAS – WATER – WASTEWATER – SOLID WASTE services to approximately 100,000 Las Cruces residents and businesses.