Aging water lines burst near-daily in Truth or Consequences, but funding for repairs has run dry.

Michael Benanav
Michael Benanav is a writer, photographer and digital storyteller based in northern New Mexico. In addition to Searchlight, his work appears in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Sierra Magazine, and other publications. He's also the author of three books, most recently the award-winning "Himalaya Bound: One Family's Quest to Save Their Animals — And an Ancient Way of Life."
Helter shelter
New Mexico cities resist building encampments, despite one’s success to the south
Seven years after a spill turns a river yellow, Navajo farmers still seek justice
The 2015 Gold King Mine spill sent a toxic plume through the Navajo Nation. Why isn’t restitution in sight?
‘I could go missing tomorrow’
A Navajo woman is walking from Arizona to Washington, D.C., as a call to action for her aunt and thousands of other missing or murdered Indigenous people.
Redlined and reeling
Here’s what happens when rural New Mexicans are priced out of homeowners insurance. Or denied it altogether.
Against the flow
For centuries, Picuris Pueblo says its water has been stolen and shunted over a mountain to the Mora Valley — where irrigators claim rights to it, too. Can anyone win this battle?