EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — A decades-old agreement that supplies drinking water to communities in Eastern El Paso County is getting renewed scrutiny as a proposed ICE detention facility in Socorro raises concerns about whether the area’s water system can handle a potential surge in demand.

For more than 30 years, the Lower Valley Water District has relied on El Paso Water under an arrangement that dates back 36 years.

In 1989, the two entities reached an agreement covering parts of East El Paso, including Socorro, San Elizario, Clint, Tornillo, and other areas of Eastern El Paso County.

Julia Spencer reports on El Paso Water to gather data from Lower Valley district on demand, board directs (Credit: KFOX14)

READ MORE: Detention center could draw 1M gallons a day, spurring El Paso water review

Under the agreement, the Lower Valley Water District provides water rights from the Rio Grande, while El Paso Water treats the water and delivers it through major supply lines to those communities.

“Basically, it’s the exchange of River water for drinking water, and it’s processed by El Paso Water for us,” said Gerald Grijalva, general manager of the Lower Valley Water District.

Grijalva said the original water allocation set decades ago may no longer be sufficient as the region grows.

“But the actual water allocation is still based on the acre feet that we gave them many, many years ago. The goal was to give them 6,000 acre feet to be able to supply water to the valley,” Grijalva said.

The 6,000 acre-feet refers to the amount of river water originally designated to supply drinking water for Eastern El Paso County. Grijalva said demand has increased as occupancy in the area grows, while river conditions have worsened.

“The 6,000 is no longer enough, and we have to acquire more, and we can’t because there’s a lot of developers in the valley that are willing to give us the acre feet of water that we need. The other problem we have is the river is running dry,” Grijalva said.

Grijalva said the Rio Grande used to run through the region for seven to eight months each year, but now it is closer to four.

The concerns are being amplified as the Department of Homeland Security is set to move into Socorro to operate a new ICE detention facility.

State officials say the facility could use up to 850,000 gallons of water daily.

READ MORE: Socorro residents question water capacity after DHS buys nearby warehouses for $122M

On Wednesday, the Public Service Board directed El Paso Water to collect data from the Lower Valley Water District to gauge demand in the area.

Gilbert Trejo, vice president of operations and engineering for El Paso Water, said the Lower Valley Water District is responsible for projecting customer demand and modeling how it will serve new or expanded development.

“So in this context, in terms of the facilities that are rumored or that are being talked about out there in the Lower Valley, it is their customers, they’re the ones who understand where they’re going to be, what are their demands, and they run the models to see how it’s going, how they’re going to serve them,” Trejo said.

Trejo said the contract is structured around the district’s river-water rights, with El Paso Water providing treatment and delivery, and groundwater used when river water is unavailable.

“They have a lot of rights to river water and they contract with us to clean the river water for them and then we provide it to them. When there is no river water, we do supplement with groundwater. That’s how the contract is set up,” Trejo said.

The current agreement between El Paso Water and the Lower Valley Water District is set to remain in place until 2032.

You can read the full agreement below:

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