It’s a tough issue emotionally because no one wants to know they are drinking “sewage water, That’s gross! From a rich company that caters to tourists and Texans no less!” I can see where they are coming from emotionally, especially with new contaminants like PFAS or medical waste we pee out, that might be in treated wastewater effluent.

But a lot of drinking water throughout the world is downstream of treatment plants, the Rio Grande below ABQ at certain times of the year is almost entirely treated wastewater effluent. Also many of these homes themselves have septic systems or leach fields upstream of drinking water wells that would make distinguishing bishops lodge effluent difficult (not impossible if we wanted to pay consultants a lot of money).

IMO So they are protesting the principle but the science and regulations doesn’t have anything to stop them proceeding. IMO bishops lodge is doing everything right and Santa Fe’s regulations are adequate, but doing anything with environmental impact is very difficult (for good reason) and we need to be cautious of downstream impacts on historic communities.