More than 150 million gallons of sewage from the West Side of El Paso flows into the Rio Grande River. Wastewater, including waste from toilets, showers, and sink drains, is untreated.

Although this amount is only a small part of the Rio Grande’s capacity, El Paso Water’s plan to use this river to transfer wastewater to the West End will affect the environment in the coming months, although the long-term consequences will still be Fuzzy.

The river usually dries up at the end of the irrigation season because the water supply from the upstream Xiangqiu Reservoir ends on August 31.

Officials at El Paso Water, which manages the city’s municipal sewage and storm system, said the “unprecedented” catastrophic failure of the two sewage lines meant that waste normally stored and processed at the Hixson water recycling facility would be transferred there. Ogrande.

Gilbert Trejo, Chief Technology Officer of El Paso Water, told El Paso Matters that the utility company must choose between the impact on public health and safety, whether to back sewage to roads and homes, or to discharge waste into rivers .

"Discharging to the river is not something to be taken lightly. It will have an adverse effect on the river, and it is a pity that we have to do such a thing," Trejo said. "But it is the only water system that can absorb such a large amount of water, but you know, unfortunately, this will have an environmental impact on rivers and ecosystems."

Trejo stated that the plan is to complete the replacement of fiberglass pipes in December instead of March 2022. This means that, Trejo said, the wastewater will still be transferred to the river "until October, and possibly even November."

The El Paso Water Company is discharging wastewater from the riverbed near Paisano Avenue and Racecourse Avenue.

El Paso water officials and the Texas Environmental Quality Commission require the public to avoid contact with Rio Grande River water and to disinfect shoes and clothing that come in contact with the water.

Christina Montoya, spokesperson for El Paso Water, stated that this measure will not affect drinking water because El Paso Water stopped taking water from Rio Grande in mid-August as a preventive measure when the first pipeline broke . Sewage treatment services throughout the city will not be affected.

Lori Kuczmanski, spokesperson for the International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees the water treaty affecting the Rio Grande River, said that the two agencies receive daily updates from the El Paso Water Authority. And is reporting current river conditions to Mexico. IBWC postponed further comments on the utility.

At a public service committee meeting on Wednesday, a seven-person agency responsible for overseeing El Paso Water, Trejo said that other customers who rely on treated wastewater had to cut expenses.

He said that the utility company is providing drinking water for Coronado Country Club, schools and parks to meet the needs of landscape irrigation and cooling equipment for customers in various industries.

John Balliew, President and CEO of El Paso Water, said that waiting for repairs is the only solution.

"There is no choice but to discharge this wastewater into the river," Balliew said. "We are trying to reduce it as much as possible. But it will happen for a while until we solve this problem."

The pipe that broke last month was a 25-year-old welded steel pipe wrapped in anti-corrosion material, called Frontera Force. They collected garbage from 17,500 people living in the West End, collecting an average of 10 million gallons a day. They are buried 20 feet underground, span three and a half miles, and are more than three feet wide. Trejo referred to the installation of two pipes as a "belt and sling situation" to prevent serious damage to the wastewater infrastructure.

Trejo said that measures to prevent pipeline corrosion were the most advanced in the 1990s, but soils ranging from moderately corrosive to highly corrosive have damaged the pipeline.

Trejo said that after the disconnection in March 2020, the utility's management committee approved a project to design and build a fiberglass replacement pipeline, which is 60% complete. The pipeline will be completed in December 2021 instead of March 2022 because the contractor tripled its staff after the August break.

Trejo said that the wastewater transfer will not stop completely until the new pipeline is completed and the southern Frontera Force main pipeline is repaired. The Beiguan, which suffered five fractures in August, will be scrapped.

"It is very unlikely that things like this happen," Trejo said. "The reason for what happened is still being understood."

Shane Walker, associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the utility company is correct from an engineering perspective.

"The design of these pipes is 100% redundant, which is excellent engineering practice," he said. "It's really impossible for two parallel pipe sections to break."

Walker said he is not worried about the long-term impact on the environment. He said that El Paso Water's disinfection method can treat any remaining microorganisms or pathogens.

"This is a very powerful disinfection process. As a drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment staff, I am not worried at all," Walker said.

El Paso water officials said that sewage from the broken pipeline flowed back onto the street, affecting about 40 households in the River Bend Drive and Esperanza Circle areas.

Balliew said that most of the backup is contained in the sink, bathtub and front lawn, calling it "relatively small."

"On a few occasions, we did have more extensive backups. For those that we remedied, we cleaned up and had a damage claim procedure. In addition, I expect that we will get the two hotels that are severely affected, we will also get them from them. Some kind of claim," Balliew said.

Anthony Montez, general manager of Holiday Inn El Paso West, said that when the Doniphan Park Circle was resting at the end of August, the hotel received negative reviews for negative smells.

"We have a lot of dissatisfied customers, although we can't do anything about it," Montes said.

He said that as the area was cleaned and disinfected immediately after the break, the situation has improved. El Paso Water closed the road connecting Sunland Park Drive to allow workers to continue working during breaks.

Management of Best Western Sunland Park Inn in Doniphan Park Circle could not comment on Wednesday.

Chief Engineering Officer Trejo said that the utility company is investigating the exact cause of the outage and will continue to monitor the impact of sewage on the river.

He said that before that, one of El Paso Water's first tasks was to keep the microorganisms that filter waste from the water alive and prepare the sewage treatment plant for operation. He said that for most of the three weeks, the utility company used trucks to feed the microorganisms by transporting fresh wastewater from other factories or reservoirs that currently contain wastewater.

El Paso Water stated that it will not treat the water injected into the river under the order of TCEQ. Trejo said the utility company is using a diluted bleach solution to deodorize and disinfect affected roads and reservoirs.

TCEQ spokeswoman Tiffany Young said that once El Paso Water completes repairs and repairs to the pipeline and affected areas, national agencies will “determine whether their response is adequate” or whether the utility company will be Quote or fine.

TCEQ did not comment on the agency’s expected negative environmental impact in the region or downstream.

TCEQ requires all residents affected by the wastewater leak to contact the complaint hotline or regional office: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/compliance/complaints.

Cover photo: Rio Grande downstream of the El Paso Water discharge outlet. (Danielle Prokop/El Paso Matters)

Danielle Prokop is a climate change and environmental reporter for El Paso Matters. She reports on climate, local government and communities in Scottsbluff Star-Herald and Santa Fe New Mexican in Nebraska. You can contact her at dprokop@elpasomatters.org.

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Danielle Prokop, El Paso Matters September 9, 2021

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