Stormwater project near Scenic Drive expected to alleviate flooding

ABC-7 received an email from a viewer in Central El Paso asking about a huge storm water project in the area off Alabama Street.

A nearly $4 million improvement project for the Kentucky Dam started earlier this month.

The retention ponds at the center of the project are located near the corner of Kentucky and Wheeling Streets.

Several streets in the area have been torn up to make way for this project, which is expected to help mitigate flooding in the area and to the streets downstream.

“We used to play in there before they put the fence up for protection,” said Laura Stell, who has lived across the street from the Kentucky Street retention pond since she was a kid. “That was our sand lot. When we have a really big rain, since we’re right by the mountain, we get rivers both down the alley here and down the street. The river just keeps going down the street because it doesn’t all funnel in.”

The challenge is to get all the water that runs off the mountain to flow into the Kentucky retention pond down below. Currently a lot of the water escapes that area causing problems for those who live down below it.

“The issue is that it’s very much undersized and the second issue is the water doesn’t make its way into the dam,” said Alan Shubert, Vice President of Operations and Technical Services for El Paso Water. “We’re putting in inlets and pipes and we’re also deepening the dams to the extent we can with the real estate we’ve got. Our goal is to get that pond full when you have a big storm so you’re taking water off the street and not downstream.”

Downstream on streets like Elm, which turns into a river almost every time it rains, according to residents like Leo Martinez.

“Hopefully they do contain it up there because all the water from up there on the mountains comes down here and it rushes,” Martinez said. “It kind of gets scary at times, you can’t even leave your house.”

Shubert said it could even help as far downstream as Interstate 10, about two miles away.

“Everything eventually heads down that way,” Shubert said, “so this is just one more small piece of taking a little more water off of the freeway.”

El Paso Water apologized to residents for the inconvenience. Shubert admitted the project started a little late, but is still expected to be completed in time for monsoon season in July.