EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Residents in far east El Paso are expressing frustration after a third water main break in recent months left them without water.
The latest incident occurred late Tuesday night at Montana and Desert Meadows, according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.
Melissa Herrera reports on water main breaks (Credit: KFOX14)
Joe Uranga, a resident, described the inconvenience, saying, “I mean, I had to wipe my hands with wiping this morning just to take the kids to school. But I haven’t been able to shower or anything yet.”
Uranga said he woke up at 5:30 a.m. to find a weak stream of water from his faucet, adding, “I turned on the faucet, and I saw a weak stream coming down, and I said, well, there we go again.”
Another resident, Eddie Chavez Jr., echoed the sentiment, stating, “The water lines are not made to last that long…they can’t take it. We’re gonna keep getting more and more leaks.”
This is not the first time the area has experienced such issues. Two other main breaks occurred less than a mile away at the intersection of Montana and Krag Street, one in May and another in August.
El Paso Water previously acknowledged the aging infrastructure, stating that two projects are planned over the next five years to improve the water system in East Montana.
Residents are calling for immediate solutions.
Chavez emphasized the urgency, saying, “But the system is old,” while Uranga questioned, “I mean, when are they going to replace it so that we can be sure that it’s not going to happen again?” He added, “That last time it took nearly two days. And that’s too much.”
El Paso Water said:
Water service was restored at about 3:30pm. During the water outage, about 80 customers were impacted, including Red Sands Elementary School. The two projects will help create redundancy for that portion of the water system and will minimize water service interruptions. Until the proposed projects are complete, our crews will continue responding to any future emergencies and remaining on-site until service is restored.At this time, we do not have a cause for the main break.
KFOX14/CBS4 followed up with El Paso Water and asked if there are any plans to replace the line, and why three water main breaks have occurred in this area.
A spokesperson said El Paso Water inherited the line from El Paso County, and before it considers replacing anything, the utility is investigating why that area is experiencing issues.
El Paso Water added that the issues can be a result of several factors, including installation, pressure, or materials.
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