Aging pipeline failure caused multi-day water outage for El Paso

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- A massive water main break in January left approximately 100,000 El Paso residents without water or facing low pressure for several days.

"I think for the residents in the Northeast, we failed them," said Gilbert Trejo, vice president of operations and technical services at El Paso Water. "Unfortunately, the impact to our customers was great that week, but from a financial standpoint, we anticipate these types of events to occur."

Utility officials attributed the failure to aging 70-year-old infrastructure and faulty valves that prevented them from isolating the leak.

Despite repair costs totaling $877,000, El Paso Water confirmed that the incident would not result in any customer rate increases. EPWater officials also said they know it was a situation that affected many people and understood what they were feeling during the water outage.

"It's fair that they're upset," Trejo added.

Watch the special report: "After the Break," Thursday on ABC-7 at 6.