On Friday, Las Cruces officials told KFOX14 that they held a ground breaking near the Griggs and Walnut groundwater plume Superfund site. The new facility will remove groundwater contaminants.

The project has been in the planning for over ten years and is expected to cost up to $4 million. _______________________________________

A Las Cruces family said they are moving out of their home, in great part due to dirty running water.

"It's nasty," Celmari Lopez said. "It looks like it just came out of the sewer and it smells like it just came out of the sewer."

"It's chocolate brown," Carol Soriano, Lopez's mother, said.

The family lives on Buchanan Avenue, just blocks away from the Griggs and Walnut groundwater plume Superfund site.

The city said the wells that were contaminated with a metal-cleaning chemical in 1993 are not being used, and therefore they said the drinking water isn't affected.

"They say it's absolutely safe to drink, but if we see it and smell it, it can't be," Soriano said.

Soriano said the water comes out dirty as often as two to three times a week.

"The other night, it's time to bathe the kids and I filled the tub and the older granddaughter goes, 'Did my sister just go potty in the tub?' and I go, 'No.'"

The city said a new water facility that will sit in the lot at the intersection of Briggs and Walnut will fix the contaminated wells that aren't being used right now.

"It's long overdue," Mario Fajardo, who lives with Lopez and Soriano, said. "It's about time. Hopefully the next home we go to is nice and better, cleaner water."

The city said the dirty water isn't because of the wells because the contaminated wells are not in use. The city recommended that anyone dealing with these kinds of problems contact Water Resources.

The city said construction for the facility will be complete by May 2012.