EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso Water announced on Wednesday a timeline for the launch of a new app designed to help customers pay their bill, track water usage, and receive outage alerts.
During Wednesday’s Public Service Board meeting, El Paso Water officials said an app aimed at helping customers access their bill and track their water usage is now in the testing phase.
“It will combine two tools, one where customers can access their account or pay their bill, and the other is water tracking. But it’s a two-in-one. So it’s a mobile app that accomplishes both objectives,” said Lisa Rosendorf, Chief Communications and Government Affairs Officer at EP Water. “We are in testing right now. And the employees are going to have a soft launch and be able to try it and make sure there are no issues.”
According to Rosendorf, the app is expected to be available to the public in “about a month,” adding that they will let the public know when it’s available and how they can download the new app.
El Paso Water testing new app, expected to officially launch in the coming months (Credit: El Paso Water)
El Paso Water officials said the app will also help customers receive several alerts regarding not only their water usage, but also water outages in their area.
“Some of the benefits are ease of paying your bill, ease of tracking your water use, and you can even set alerts so that if you don’t want to go above a certain amount of water, you’ll get alerts in terms of when you reach certain thresholds. And then we are going to be able to send alerts to customers if there are issues in their area that they need to be aware of,” Rosendorf said.
While it is unclear if the app will allow geographic text messages to specific neighborhoods, KFOX14/CBS4 has reached out to El Paso Water for clarification.
Meanwhile, the app comes after El Paso Water said in June that it is developing a new app designed to send more targeted alerts during future outages or emergencies after customers raised concerns about communication in the aftermath of the 36-inch water main break in January, which left thousands of Northeast El Paso residents without water.
The water main break, which released millions of gallons of water into the area, drained 15 reservoirs and affected over 100,000 residents, has continued to raise concerns and questions over how the utility plans to prevent the incident from repeating.
While the app continues to go through testing and soft launches, water officials are urging the public to look out for the app.
“We look forward to sharing that information and encouraging people to take action to download the app,” Rosendorf said.
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