In southern New Mexico along the Rio Grande and the Texas border, the small City of Anthony is no stranger to the benefits of partnering with USDA Rural Development. The small community of less than 10,000 residents is a designated colonia, making it eligible for grants and loans created specifically for colonia communities.

A colonia refers to a rural community with a population of 25,000 or less located within 150 miles of the United States and Mexico border. A colonia lacks a potable water supply, adequate sewage systems, or sanitary housing.

In 1978, a USDA loan helped create the Anthony Water and Sanitation District. The loan helped the city acquire a private water system for the area and allowed the district to build a wastewater treatment plant in 1980.

Unlike most water districts, the Anthony Water and Sanitation District takes an active role in supporting the community more broadly. Before the City of Anthony incorporated in 2010, the water district building also housed a community library and the district had a charter school at one point. The district currently hosts a veteran’s group that meets weekly, offers GED and citizenship classes, and started a youth group focused on farming.

“The previous superintendent had the vision that this was for the people,” shared Jose Terrones, the Anthony Water and Sanitation District superintendent. “La gente, he would call it. That is why there are a lot of other functions here. We do a lot for the community, but water and sewer, that is our main business.”

In 2014, the water district that now accommodates over 2,000 connections and serves about 8,000 residents realized it would need to eventually update the old water treatment plant. It started to have trouble fixing problems as the older replacement parts became harder to find.

“We knew our wastewater treatment plant was back from 1980 and it was showing signs that it was getting tired,” Terrones. “We started the process back ten years ago looking for funding to do the planning.”

When the district went looking, Rural Development was there to help with the “Water and Waste Facility Loans and Grants to Alleviate Health Risks for Colonias Program.” The program helps get safe reliable drinking water and waste disposal services to low-income communities that face significant health risks. The initial estimated cost for a new sludge treatment plant that mirrored the current plant was $20 million.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and prices rose drastically.

“We went out to bid and all of the contractors were hesitant to give good numbers because the market was very volatile with material,” said Terrones. “Wastewater treatment plants have very specialized equipment and blowers. They didn’t know how long it would take for that material or that equipment to come in, so we got some really high numbers. Our project went from that 20 million all the way to 37 million.”

Luckily, the district was able to work with Rural Development to get an additional loan and grant funding awarded to start construction.

“We are not just refurbishing the old one, but we are expanding too,” said Terrones. “As the city grows, we’ll be ready for that future growth. There are areas that are unserved right now and we will be able tie in and do more collection systems within the surrounding areas to give sanitary sewer to those folks.”

Once the project is complete, the district hopes to add additional customers who will receive help from the Environmental Protection Agency and the North America development bank to connect to the system.

Refurbishing the old plant and adding the new one will mean the facility can treat 1.6 million gallons of water a day as opposed to the previous 0.9 million gallons. Treating over 1 million gallons of wastewater categorizes the treatment facility as a major treatment plant, which brings along additional regulations and testing.

“Going from a minor to a major is a big, big change,” said Terrones. “There’s a test called a wet test that basically makes sure you are not killing any live habitat. We used to do that test once a year, now we are doing it every three months. That was the biggest change. A lot of the tests stayed, but now we are doing them more often.”

Without help from Rural Development, Terrones shared the district likely could not afford the updates, which became even more important recently. The plant failed a test and fell under administrative order from the Environmental Protection Agency to make upgrades. Not making the updates would eventually result in fines increasing the costs even more.

“The only other thing we could do would be raising the rates, and customers would have to pay for that,” said Terrones. “It would be very expensive for them to pay their monthly bill. In a low-income community like this one, it would be very hard, almost impossible, to do. So it was our job here at the district to make sure we found some money to be able to do this.”

The new plant started treating wastewater this month. All of the project construction is set to be completed by November. 

In May, a major component needed to keep the old treatment plant working collapsed. The old plant is still met EPA standards until the new plant came online. Now the district can start making updates to the older half of the system so it can be used in the future.

“We are very grateful to USDA Rural Development for how they have supported us and what they have done for our community,” shared Terrones. “We really wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”

To learn more about how USDA Rural Development might be able to help you or your business, visit the programs page.

View more photos of the project on the Rural Development Flickr page.