Small Waterworks Navigate ‘Once in a Generation’ Flood of Money

One of three drinking water wells for Llano Quemado, N.M, began pumping sand instead of water a few years ago.

Normally the $350,000 repair on top of other needed upgrades would be a fortune in the rural, largely Hispanic part of Taos County, a community of 800 people tucked between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Rio Grande River gorge.

But the federal government is handing out $11.7 billion earmarked for drinking water system improvements under the new infrastructure law, and it’s prioritizing such underserved, drought-stricken areas.

It’s a “once in a generation” opportunity to “cure nagging problems that ...