After 11 Years, Couple Still Lacks Water Service

Far East El Paso County seemed like the perfect place to settle down and someday have a ranch.

“But we just haven’t been able to,” said Christina Olivas, who purchased her dream home on five acres with her husband in 1999 at 14373 Sullivan Drive in Far East El Paso near Krag Street.

But almost 12 years later, she and her husband want to know why they have no water service in their home while everyone else around them seems to be connected to the service.

When the Olivases bought their home, there was no water service in the area, but the previous owners said water service was coming soon, and it did.

“Actually they installed (water service in one) of these blocks and just this one block, they just skipped it,” Olivas said.

After following the county’s orders to file for water service and paying a deposit, getting several excuses from various agencies and even hiring an attorney, there’s still no answer.

“We just haven’t been able to get any answers at all these eleven years,” Olivas said.

The couple still has to fill up a water tank behind their home every week, which costs about $200 a month to have the the water delivered.

“A lot of disposable plates and cups as well,” said Olivas, who has learned to be very conservative with water. “We do try to save some flushes here and there to try and save us some water.”

Olivas said that because she pays taxes to the county, she demands an answer.

“Taxes is not a matter in this portion because we’re not using county tax money to provide water service and or to maintain and support this system,” said Robert Rivera, El Paso County’s public works director.

He says state and federal grant dollars were used at the time to pay for extending water services to the area, but, “In 1999, there was nobody there so that area was never served.”

But the Olivases say they’ve always been there, watching from their front window as water towers go up.

“We just see all this progress. Obviously, you see a freeway on Zaragoza and Montana and we can’t be paved or get proper water service,” Olivas said.

“The county is not a utility, we are not responsible to provide utilities to people anywhere within the county. They’re responsible to extend that water line at their cost,” said Rivera.

Rivera says the cost to connect the water lines is about $30 to $40 a foot and said the Olivases will have to pay about $30 to $40 thousand .