EPWater schedules public meetings for feedback on proposed budget
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso Water scheduled nine community meetings to get feedback on the proposed fiscal year 2027-28 budget. The Public Service Board received a presentation of four budget scenarios.
On Sept. 30, EPWater said it has four approaches to investment and risk: accelerated reliability, strategic, lean and high risk.
According to the utility, at the lowest end, the combined water, wastewater and stormwater budget is 27% lower than the current year’s $1.2 billion budget.
At the higher end, the combined budget is 25% higher than the current year’s budget
The utility said with accelerated reliability, it would make the largest capital investment, such as faster pipeline replacement to reduce the risk of breaks and outages.
Its strategic approach would prioritize the highest-needed capital projects while balancing the system's reliability, affordability and financial risk.
The lean approach reduces capital and operating expenses by delaying 21 projects and eliminating 140 positions, the utility said.
Lastly, the high-risk approach makes the lowest level of capital investment. EPWater said the approach would include: significantly deferring or canceling capital projects at four treatment plants, including the Pure Water Center, and two other locations and eliminating 300 positions.
The public can attend the meetings, which are all planned for the evening across the eight El Paso City Council districts. There will be an all-community meeting at the TecH2O Water Resources Learning Center.
The meeting structure starts with an open house, a presentation from an EPWater official and ends with a Q&A session.
Attendees can give feedback, which the utility will use for its presentation to the PSB as they consider the proposed budget.
The PSB will vote on the fiscal year budget, rates and fees on Jan. 13. If approved, they will take effect March 1, according to EPWater.
All budget community meetings will take place 5:30-7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
| Oct. 13 | District 2 - Central/Northeast | Memorial Senior Center, 1800 Bryon St. 79930 |
| Oct. 13 | District 5 - Far East | Upper Eastside Command Center, 14301 Pebble Hills 79938 |
| Oct. 15 | District 3 - Lower Valley | Valle Bajo Rec. Center, 7380 Alameda 79915 |
| Oct. 15 | District 4 - Northeast | Northeast Command Center, 9600 Dyer St 79924 |
| Oct. 16 * (10 – 11:30 am) | All Districts - East | TecH2O Center, 10751 Montana 79935 |
| Oct. 20 | District 8 - Downtown | Armijo Rec Center, 700 E 7th Ave 79901 |
| Oct. 21 | District 7 - Lower Valley | Mission Valley Command, 9011 Escobar Dr 79907 |
| Oct. 22 | District 6 - East | Marty Robbins Rec Center, 11620 Vista Del Sol Dr. 79936 |
| Oct. 22 | District 1 - West | West Side Command Center, 4801 Osborne Dr 79922 |
You can learn more about the proposed budget here.
