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El Paso's average residential water and sewage bills will probably rise 60
percent to $53 in the next 10 years, but that's less than many other Texas
cities are paying today.
At the fourth annual State of the Water report Wednesday, El Paso Water
Utilities General Manager Ed Archuleta outlined the city's water future and
announced that drought-driven water restrictions may come early next year.
He said he will suggest, perhaps in the next two weeks, that the city
propose voluntary water restrictions.
He warned that Stage 2 water restrictions limiting outdoor watering to
once a week may be imposed as early as April.
That announcement came at the very end of a presentation to about 140
people, most of them government and water agency officials, at a
presentation recognizing the Public Service Board's 50th anniversary and 14
former PSB members.
Among the utility's major accomplishments, Archuleta said, is that water
service has been extended to more than 53,000 colonia residents outside the
city since 1992.
"Only about 3,500 people don't have services today," Archuleta said.
Lawyer Nancy Heydemann, a PSB member from 1992 to 1995, said she was
proud to have had a hand in getting water to the colonias and is now
impressed by the PSB's new land development planning strategy.
"The land policy is breathtaking. I wanted to stand up and applaud," she
said after hearing it explained.
That policy will apply to the 27,000 acres the PSB owns and will -- in
cooperation with the city and school districts -- set down specific and
binding sites for parks, schools, fire stations and major streets on parcels
of PSB land before they are sold for development.
Teodora "Teddy" Trujillo of Socorro, a leader in the church-based El Paso
Interreligious Sponsoring Organization that has pushed hard for colonia
water, said the city's water utility deserves a lot of credit.
"They have been able to offer us water and they kept their rates low,"
Trujillo said. She added that she and others get PSB water through the Lower
Valley Water District for about twice what El Pasoans are paying.
"I pay more than what they will be paying in 10 years," she said.
David Crowder may be reached at
dcrowder@elpasotimes.com
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