Water Returns To The Borderland, But Is It Safe? Restrictions Lifted Monday Night

Now that most of the city has or will have water again, a lot of people are asking if it’s safe.

ABC-7 visited the International Water Quality Laboratory on Monday, where they have been testing hundreds of samples from all over the city to makes sure the water supply hasn’t been contaminated.

So far, tests have been coming back clean.

“In this last week, we’ve had no positive results. Everything is clean so far. We have crews out right now, today, all day long collecting samples. We hopefully are going to get a whole bunch of samples in this afternoon. We’ll have those tested and everything should come back good tomorrow,” said Paul Rivas, El Paso Water Utilities Laboratory Services Manager

Rivas said the lab has been testing samples for contaminants and bacteria for the past week. Each sample takes 24 hours to process. If at any time the samples were to come back contaminated, the lab would immediately alert state officials.

What is keeping the water safe?

Rivas said it’s the chlorine additive that keeps bacteria from growing. Even while stagnant in frozen pipes.

“The chlorine is obviously a disinfectant which prevents bacteria from growing. even though the water levels got very low in the reservoirs, we’ve been able to maintain the chlorine residuals in the distribution. I’m very confident that there is no problems and the testing will prove it,” said Rivas.

ABC-7 asked Rivas if he would drink the water out of the tap.

“I drank it this morning,” he said.

Still, just to be safe, officials said to continue boiling drinking water for at least one minute until the boil alert has been lifted.

City officials said if the tests remain clean, the boil alert should be lifted in a couple of days.

As for area restaurants, special precautions must be taken to prevent the public from coming in contact with tap water.

L&J Cafe owner Leo Duran Sr. told ABC-7 the has shut the ice machine off and has been buying safe ice to use in the restaurant.

For other drinks like ice tea, Duran said they have been boiling the water for each batch to ensure it is safe.

As for other restaurants around the city, larger chains such as Applebees have special filtration systems that allow them to use their water.

City officials told ABC-7 that many home filtration systems do not filter out bacteria and other microbial threats and that water must still be properly treated.

To find out if your filtration system protects against bacteria and other threats, city officials said the owners’ manual should indicate if filter protects from those kinds of contamination.

Water Restrictions Lifted At 10 p.m. Monday El Paso’s mandatory water restrictions that started Saturday afternoon were lifted at 10 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7 after El Paso Water Utilities’ (EPWU) depleted reservoirs were filled up to adequate levels. EPWU was still asking the community to refrain from outdoor irrigation through Saturday to help ensure that reservoirs remain at adequate levels.

The restrictions were originally set to last 24 hours but were extended indefinitely.

Under the water restrictions, the public was asked to refrain from washing cars, showering, using dishwasher or clothes washing machines, or anything else that uses a large amount of water. The only exceptions are for water used for public safety purposes like hospitals and other emergency medical facilities.

On Sunday, Mayor John Cook declared a water emergency in the city of El Paso pursuant to the city’s drought and water emergency code, title 15.13.120 which allows EPWU to enforce mandatory water restrictions currently in effect. EPWU officials said all businesses asked to comply with the restrictions did so.

Area schools and universities, which were closed Wednesday through Friday last week because of rolling blackouts and bad road conditions due to weather, were closed Monday because of the water situation. Schools, universities and government institutions were set to reopen Tuesday.

EPWU officials said on ABC-7 Xtra Sunday night that 15 reservoirs had five feet or less of water Saturday, which led to the restrictions. According to EPWU’s, the utility has 55 reservoirs.