El Paso Water Restrictions To Be Lifted At 10 p.m.

El Paso’s mandatory water restrictions will be lifted at 10 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7, 2001, according to an email sent Monday morning by an El Paso Water Utilities vice president to city leaders.

“We made significant progress last night. The majority of reservoirs are at adequate levels,” El Paso Water Utilities Vice President Nick Costanzo wrote in the email. “We still have low reservoirs levels affecting the downtown and Mission Hills area. There are still people in the Mission Hills (Mission Hills/Piedmont) area without water. We hope to have that corrected today. It will take several days to lift the boil water notice once TCEQ gets the lab results on water quality. The water quality has tested fine through the last few days and is fine. As you know the boil water requirement is a precautionary measure.”

Costanzo said at a news conference Monday afternoon that there are about 500 customers with no pressure or low pressure and that he expected the problem to be fixed by Monday night.

Although the water restrictions were to be lifted at 10 p.m. Monday, EPWU was still asking the community to refrain from outdoor irrigation through Saturday to help ensure that reservoirs remain at adequate levels.

“We still want to be very cautious,” Costanzo said at the news conference. “Our 55 reservoirs are now at adequate levels. We ask people to still conserve water today.”

Costanzo said people can go ahead and shower or bathe before the restrictions end, he just asked that people adhere to the water restrictions until 10 p.m.

EPWU instituted mandatory water restrictions Saturday afternoon because water levels at several of its reservoirs were below necessary levels. The restrictions were originally set to last 24 hours but were extended indefinitely.

Under the water restrictions, the public was asked to refrain from washing cars, showering, using dishwasher or clothes washing machines, or anything else that uses a large amount of water. The only exceptions are for water used for public safety purposes like hospitals and other emergency medical facilities.

On Sunday, Mayor John Cook declared a water emergency in the city of El Paso pursuant to the city’s drought and water emergency code, title 15.13.120 which allows EPWU to enforce mandatory water restrictions currently in effect. If car washes, laundromats and industrial users do not comply their water supply will be shut off, EPWU officials said.

Area schools and universities, which were closed Wednesday through Friday last week because of rolling blackouts and bad road conditions due to weather, are closed today because of the water situation. Costanzo said schools were notified it was OK to open Tuesday for classes.

Costanzo said on ABC-7 Xtra Sunday night that 15 reservoirs had five feet or less of water Saturday, which led to the restrictions. Costanzo said Sunday night there were now seven reservoirs that have five feet of water or less. According to EPWU’s, the utility has 55 reservoirs.

On a normal winter day EPWU pumps 71 million gallons/day (MGD) into the distribution system, and Saturday about 115 MGD was pumped into the system.