A local septic company and Taos' Public Works Department independently confirmed the contents of an underground vault off Kit Carson Road to be sewage. A sample obtained June 18 by Taos News is depicted in this still life by artist Zoë Zimmerman.
Leonardo Ortega, board chair for the Assembly of God, left, and Jim Schlarbaum, Burch Street resident, discuss an underground vault the town confirmed in June is an underground cesspool, as seen in 2023. The town said the vault is likely not the last of its kind.
An 8,000-gallon underground vault, which the state repeatedly said did not contain sewage, is filled with murky, odoriferous water and is located adjacent to the Assembly of God Church on the corner of Burch Street and Kit Carson Road, as seen in 2023. The town said the vault is likely not the last of its kind.
An 8,000-gallon underground vault, which the state repeatedly said did not contain sewage, is filled with murky, odoriferous water and is located adjacent to the Assembly of God Church on the corner of Burch Street and Kit Carson Road, as seen in 2023. The town said the vault is likely not the last of its kind.
Burch Street resident Jim Schlarbaum points to where the unpermitted tank should be located but is missing on old property records June 18. "The property should be inspected and up to code every time it changes hands," said Joey Apodaca Jr., who helped pump out the tank. "Somebody likely looked the other way, and here we are today."
Burch Street resident Jim Schlarbaum has labored for years to remediate what he long suspected was an unlawful cesspool off Kit Carson Road, combing through town codes and old property records. Smelling the rank effluent through his bedroom window every morning for seven years, he said, "We just want this fixed."
A local septic company and Taos' Public Works Department independently confirmed the contents of an underground vault off Kit Carson Road to be sewage. A sample obtained June 18 by Taos News is depicted in this still life by artist Zoë Zimmerman.
NATHAN BURTON/Taos News file photo
Leonardo Ortega, board chair for the Assembly of God, left, and Jim Schlarbaum, Burch Street resident, discuss an underground vault the town confirmed in June is an underground cesspool, as seen in 2023. The town said the vault is likely not the last of its kind.
NATHAN BURTON/Taos News file photo
An 8,000-gallon underground vault, which the state repeatedly said did not contain sewage, is filled with murky, odoriferous water and is located adjacent to the Assembly of God Church on the corner of Burch Street and Kit Carson Road, as seen in 2023. The town said the vault is likely not the last of its kind.
NATHAN BURTON/Taos News file photo
An 8,000-gallon underground vault, which the state repeatedly said did not contain sewage, is filled with murky, odoriferous water and is located adjacent to the Assembly of God Church on the corner of Burch Street and Kit Carson Road, as seen in 2023. The town said the vault is likely not the last of its kind.
EMERY VEILLEUX/Taos News
Burch Street resident Jim Schlarbaum points to where the unpermitted tank should be located but is missing on old property records June 18. "The property should be inspected and up to code every time it changes hands," said Joey Apodaca Jr., who helped pump out the tank. "Somebody likely looked the other way, and here we are today."
EMERY VEILLEUX/Taos News
Burch Street resident Jim Schlarbaum has labored for years to remediate what he long suspected was an unlawful cesspool off Kit Carson Road, combing through town codes and old property records. Smelling the rank effluent through his bedroom window every morning for seven years, he said, "We just want this fixed."
After weeks of concerted effort and over a decade of neighborhood organizing, the murky tale of a cesspool on Burch Street is drawing to a close. With the contributing property hooked into the town's sewer system and the vault due to be filled in, nearby residents are finally breathing clean summer air.
Located less than a mile from Taos Plaza, the underground vault overflowed raw sewage into a seldom-used desague for untold years. The tank itself is at least 80 years old, though its original purpose isn't clear — it isn’t documented on any property records.
The Town of Taos Public Works Department determined in July the vault had a direct line to a private manhole, where it connected to a duplex off Kit Carson Road. It's unknown how long the property's sewage had been draining into the tank.
Neighbors complained for years about what they held was raw sewage, the stench of which wafted across their yards and into their windows, and said it lowered property values.
The persistent black pool of water, roughly 25 feet long, bred mosquitoes and occasionally burbled in summer. Burch Street resident Tanya Lowry said it steamed in the winter.
But town, state and federal agencies tossed responsibility around like a hot potato, asserting by turns the smelly liquid was not sewage and denying jurisdiction over it because it was on private property.
“It’s the old pass the buck system,” Burch Street resident Jim Schlarbaum said in June, when neighbors pooled their resources to pump three septic truck loads of black liquid and sludge from the vault. J&J Septic and Taos' Public Works Department concurred: It was sewage.
“Yes, that was raw sewage, and that was not leeching properly,” said Bill Evans, the town's Planning, Community and Economic Development Department director.
New Mexico Environment Department’s Onsite Wastewater Program is responsible for overseeing septic systems in the state.
In multiple visits over a span of six years, the department said it was “very certain that it’s not a cesspool,” according to then-Communications Coordinator Matthew Maez, who spoke to the Taos News in 2023.
“Because there is no evidence that effluent is actively entering the tank, there is no harm or threat to the environment and thus not a current or active violation of NMED regulations,” he said. It's not clear how regulators reached that conclusion.
And in a July 7 Notice of Warning, NMED notified the Assembly of God Church, which owns a home and parking lot adjacent to the vault, that they were in violation of multiple liquid waste regulations.
“During the inspection [on June 4] our staff observed an overflowing septic tank in the Los Pandos lateral ditch,” Goretzka said. “Nobody was aware of what structure was feeding the septic tank at that point.”
The church had appealed to the state — and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — before, but nothing was resolved.
“It’s been a long, long time,” said Leonard Ortega, chairman of the Assembly of God's board of directors. A congregant brought the black pond to his attention a decade ago. Until then, Ortega said he was unaware the vault existed.
The church property is tied into the town's wastewater system and never contributed to the cesspool. But because the vault sits primarily underneath their property, they’re responsible for mitigating it. Ortega said they will fill the pit with gravel and cement the hatch shut by Sunday (Aug. 10).
Children will again be permitted to use the basketball hoop next to the once-rank pit.
Neighbors are frustrated about the thousands of dollars they paid to pump out the vault multiple times, which the town holds is a private matter to settle.
“It’s wrong, after all that,” Schlarbaum said. “We’re the ones that were proactive in asking for assistance.”
Why the state didn't act sooner is an open question.
“I don’t understand why NMED is letting this go, because this is unlawful septic, this is under their jurisdiction,” Public Works Director Reynaldo Vasquez said in June.
“We did the physical effort to figure it out,” Evans said, adding the town “went above and beyond” by running smoke and dye tests, and going “out of its way” to clean out a private manhole. Evans' department ensured the contributing house was hooked up to the town's sewage system — all at no cost to the property owner.
“It really is hats off to public works, because they went and figured the whole thing out, and when it’s on private property,” Evans said.
But who put the vault there in the first place? Built by hand with cinderblock and surpassing 8,000 gallons — septic tanks max out at about 2,000 gallons — it might be a remnant of the Burch Camp or a 28-room Adobe Wall Motel that once sat across Kit Carson Road.
In an old community like Taos, the Burch Street cesspool is likely not the last surprise code violation waiting to be discovered, Evans said.
“I believe there are more that we don't know about — things that were put in place long before documentation was in place for the town,” he said.
