Water lines to be replaced in Montana Vista neighborhood

Water in one neighborhood in Far East El Paso County will soon be cleaner.

County Commissioners unanimously voted to approve a $500,000 grant agreement with the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC) to improve the water distribution system in the Vista Del Este neighborhood in the Montana Vista colonia.

This project is expected to affect 335 homes and about 1,100 people.

“Financially, it helps because we don’t have to buy anymore bottled water,” Montana Vista resident Laura Ordaz said. “I think [it’s important] because of the health of the kids, for us, for everybody.”

County Commissioner Vince Perez, who represents this neighborhood, said this is a big win for the neighborhood.

“We’re providing improvements as it pertains to the drinking water and modernizing the piping, which will help with the delivery of drinking water, which will help with the quality of the drinking water,” Perez said.

The project is expected to begin within these next 90 days. It should take approximately 12-18 months to complete.

Officials with the BECC say some of these water lines are over 20 years old, and are starting to erode. They will be replaced with PVC pipes.

Perez said there’s still additional sewage work that needs to be funded in that area.

“Many of the residents in this part of the County, in the Montana Vista area, don’t have waste water,” Perez said. “They rely on septic tanks. That’s another project that the County has been working on for sometime — to bring waste water. There’s currently an application going through.”

Perez did not give a timeline for when this grant application will be completed.