Challenge tossed to Bishop’s Lodge discharge permit

Hearing expected to be set for mid-May

A hearing officer has rejected a motion to deny the Bishop’s Lodge resort’s application to discharge treated wastewater into an on-site leach field.

The motion was filed in February by Protect Tesuque, a citizens group opposed to the resort’s discharge plans. It was denied last week, not based on the merits of the draft permit but rather because liquid waste disposal and treatment regulations do not apply to the application, wrote hearing officer Felicia Orth.

A public hearing on the lodge’s draft permit, requested by members of the Tesuque community, is scheduled for the week of May 19.

The state regulates all liquid waste discharges, state Environment Department spokesperson Muna Habib wrote in an email to The New Mexican.

For any discharges of 5,000 gallons or less, the liquid waste program applies. But for discharges over 5,000 — including at Bishop’s Lodge, which anticipates receiving and treating up to 30,000 gallons of wastewater per day

— the ground and surface water protection regulations apply instead.

A spokesperson for Bishop’s Lodge had no comment on the motion denial.

But Protect Tesuque members were quick to condemn it.

“This ruling sends a clear and unequivocal message: rules only apply to the people without lobbyists,” Protect Tesuque board member Mark DeCamp said in a news release.

“It tells communities like ours that the State’s much bally-hooed clean water protections are illusory and selectively applied based on your power and influence,” he added.

An aging wastewater plant at the lodge had been malfunctioning for several years.

The new plant — known as a “membrane bioreactor” — can treat wastewater to a higher degree than the old system, according to information published on the Environment Department’s website.

The resort originally planned to dispose of treated e±uent by discharging it into Little Tesuque Creek.

The plan prompted pushback, and Bishop’s Lodge announced last year it would be change course and build an on-site leach field instead.