EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – The El Paso area water utility is being recognized across the state for its water conservation efforts – and for a project that aims to bring more advanced water recycling to a faucet near you in the next few years.

The August issue of Texas Monthly magazine looks at water use, waste and conservation efforts in the state. Specifically, El Paso Water is featured for its upcoming Advanced Water Purification Facility and other water use programs currently underway in our region.

John Balliew, president and CEO of El Paso Water, spoke about the “Recycle Like El Paso” article at the August board meeting. Copies of the magazine were also distributed to board members.

“El Paso is portrayed in a very positive light there,” Balliew said.

The August issue of Texas Monthly, titled “Who’s Wasting Our Water?”, looks at how maintenance problems and leaky pipes are affecting water capacity across the state, among other issues. Balliew discussed the local water utility’s efforts to curb leaks and waste in the distribution system.

“We (El Paso Water) have been paying close attention to our water loss for decades. That’s the difference between the water we put into the system and the water we deliver to customers,” Balliew said. “It’s always been about 8 or 9%, but about three years ago it started to go up. So we started looking into it and doing what we could.”

El Paso Water is taking numerous efforts to reduce leaks, including monitoring systems and satellite scanning.

“We have 12,000 monitors in the system looking for leaks,” Balliew said. “We’re replacing our pipelines and rehabilitating reservoirs. All of these things are designed to control the possibility of water actually leaking out of the system.”

Gilbert Trejo, vice president of engineering, operations and technical services for El Paso Water, says Texas Monthly was particularly interested in the El Paso article because of the programs planned for the region.

“A few months ago, the author contacted us and told us that Texas Monthly was going to do a feature on water-related issues across the state,” Trejo said. “She had heard that El Paso was on the cutting edge of some of the technologies being used to utilize recycled water.”

The Advanced Water Purification Facility has been in the works for years and is the continuation of a series of efforts to diversify and secure El Paso’s water supply, including storing purified water in natural underground reservoirs and the world’s largest inland desalination plant.

“The eyes of the country are on us, especially here in the state,” Trejo said. “Because we believe this is the future of several communities that have their own water problems.”

The advanced treatment pilot program has been running since 2016 at the Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant near the Rio Grande in the Lower Valley. That plant is currently undergoing renovations and expansion, and the Advanced Water Treatment Facility is being built right next door. The plant will take municipal wastewater and treat it to a standard that exceeds EPA requirements for drinking water, and is expected to be operational by 2027.

Visualizations from El Paso Water show the new plant, which will have four levels of purification – membrane technology, reverse osmosis, UV disinfection and granular activated carbon filtration.

“To produce drinking water, you would only need one of these,” Trejo said. “And we will chain them together to create multiple treatment barriers to ensure that we remove contaminants and pathogens from the water.”

Once fully operational, the modern plant is expected to deliver 10 million gallons of water per day. Given our region’s current per capita consumption of 131 gallons per day, that would be enough to serve more than 75,000 people. That’s currently about 6% of El Paso Water’s total water supply.

“I call it the ultimate water and the safest water that can be produced considering the level of treatment we will be applying,” Trejo said.