New pump station should solve freeway flooding
One of the biggest recurring flooding issues in El Paso is at Interstate 10 and Piedras.
It washed out again Wednesday night, leaving it looking like a parking lot and hundreds of drivers venting their frustrations.
The new Gateway West Pond helps a little, but once the that and the existing ponding areas overflow, the freeway starts to flood near Piedras.
The Cebada Pump Station, near the Bridge of the Americas, isn’t powerful enough to pull all that water out of the area quickly. However, ground was recently broken on massive new pump station and pipeline at Magnolia and Texas streets. That should fix the problem, but not until its finished in 2016.
“At a certain point, around 8:30 p.m., everybody was at a standstill,” said East El Pasoan Andrew Lozano, who was stuck on the freeway for three hours Wednesday night on his way to work along with hundreds of other drivers. “It got to the point where everybody started shutting off their vehicles and getting out of their vehicles and walking around because no one was moving.”
Lozano said that’s when many started to vent their frustrations with the Stormwater utility.
“We’ve had these problems since 2006 and again there’s no sense of urgency,” Lozano said. “We understand it takes money and it takes time, it takes resources, but you’ve got to weigh the pros and cons and it seems like right now to get this done isn’t a priority and it should be.”
Right next to the Bridge of the Americas is the Cebada Pump Station, where all the water from the freeway ends up. However, it fills up quickly and gets a big overwhelmed with the amount of water and that’s why the new Magnolia Pump Station and pipeline is needed at a cost of $23 million.
“From the day we took over the Stormwater system this was our top priority,” said John Balliew, president of El Paso Water Utilities. “
Work on the Magnolia Pump Station, featuring four 500 horse power pumps, started about a month ago.
“The reason it takes so long to get here is because of real estate issues, finding a place where we need it and getting enough real estate put together,” Balliew said. “What we’re is splitting it so we can take a good chunk of it here at the Magnolia station and get it down to the river as safely as possible.”
Balliew said El Pasoans pay about $15 million in Stormwater fees every year, but half of that goes toward operating the system and another big chunk to open space and debt service. That leaves only about $2 million to $3 million per year for new projects like the Magnolia Pump Station.
