NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – If you’re driving along Bishop’s Lodge Road in Tesuque, just north of Santa Fe, you’ll come across yellow signs protesting the Bishop’s Lodge Resort. For more than forty years, Frank Morbillo has been a resident in Tesuque village and he’s worried about the resort’s request to the state for a wastewater discharge permit that they say would allow the lodge to release 30,000 gallons per day of partially treated sewage into a leach field just upstream from Little Tesuque Creek and the aquifer that supplies hundreds of private wells.

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Moribillo and many of his neighbors believe it will put Tesuque village residents and four neighboring native pueblos at risk. It has brought them out to protest each Saturday. “We all have the same interest in mind. Protecting our water, living in a community that’s safe for ourselves for our kids, for the food we grow, for our lives going forward,” said Morbillo.

This week, dozens against and for the permit met at the Roundhouse for a New Mexico Environmental Department public hearing. An attorney for Bishop’s Lodge argued that their wastewater system is state-of-the-art and safe. “The fact is, what they’re proposing and what they have built, this multi-million dollar facility meets all the requirements and exceeds them.”

Those against the project said they are not going to back down. “We’re going to stand and protest until Bishop’s Lodge comes to the table and starts negotiating in a way that works for the people,” said Joanna Angie, Community Engaged Artist.

A spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department said, “The matter is now in the hands of the hearing officer and the cabinet secretary.”