County says single water pump enough to refill Ascarate Lake

El Paso County paid nearly $20,000 recently to replace a water pump at Ascarate Lake that helps replace the lake’s evaporated water. But lake visitors said the water level is still alarmingly low.

A viewer wrote in recently, explaining that the lake’s single pump wasn’t strong enough to keep up with evaporation. But the County Public Works Department told ABC-7 that the pump is refilling the lake at about 250 gallons per minute. Officials said that in the past three years, that rate has been enough to keep water levels normal.

“The amount of water that we’re putting in — it’s not comparable to the amount of water that’s evaporating off,” said Public Works Director Ernie Carrizal.

He said the replacement pump the county ordered — it broke, too. So last week, crews installed yet another replacement pump.

“We’ve adjusted it,” he said. “It was going at the maximum. We’ve reduced the frequency, because we don’t want it to burn out. So we’ve reduced it to a rate that’s pretty normal for what it needs to be doing.”

Carrizal said that means the lake will take longer to refill. And it’s difficult to estimate a timeline, because evaporation from triple-digit temperatures slows down the process as well.

“The lack of respect this lake gets — it’s really the only lake El Paso has that’s close by,” said Armando Reyes, who was fishing at the lake Monday with his friends.

He said shallow water levels make it easier for their fishing lines to get tangled.

“They have the shade and everything set up for people who want to fish, but there’s no point in having all this shade if we have to go deep down into the shallow area of the water to cast out the rods and stand out here,” Reyes said.

“I’ve always said Ascarate is a jewel in the desert here in El Paso,” said County Commissioner Sergio Lewis.

Lewis said Ascarate Park Director Rey Chavez didn’t notify his office about the issues at the lake.

“I had no idea,” Lewis said. “If he had called or let the court know, maybe we could have expedited things a little bit quicker. But we’re doing everything we can in order to fill the lake. The pump is now working, and things are moving forward.”

ABC-7 attempted to visit Chavez on Monday to ask about what Lewis calls a lack of communication between the park and the county. Chavez wasn’t in his office and hasn’t yet responded to our email.