Horizon City Sues Socorro Over Wastewater Extension

Representatives from the cities of Horizon and Socorro were in the El Paso County Courthouse Monday, pleading their cases surrounding a wastewater treatment plant in Horizon.

Horizon is suing Socorro, claiming that city is holding up its legal procedure to build an extension of its wastewater treatment plant that would send three million gallons of treated sewage water to a canal in Socorro.

“There’s a part of a residential neighborhood that it goes behind, and a school and other areas where there could be potential contact with humans,” said Yuri Calderon, an attorney representing Socorro in the lawsuit.

Socorro officials claimed they were not notified of the project, which began in 2006. The attorney for Socorro said to ABC-7 a city councilman started asking questions when he came across construction in the canal in the summer of 2010. Socorro is now sending a petition to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, asking the state agency to revoke Horizon’s permit to extend the plant.

“The city (of Socorro) just wants … the respect of having the process complied with and the regulations followed,” said Calderon.

Horizon officials told ABC-7 over the phone Tuesday that the city filed all the proper paperwork with the TCEQ to receive the permit. Horizon officials said they even included the published ad in the El Paso Times as proof of notification to the public.

Look for more on this developing story in ABC-7’s afternoon and evening newscasts Tuesday.