Weather Affects Water Utilities In Odd Ways

While many were affected by and complied with the mandatory water restrictions, there were some in the county who had few or no issues.

El Paso County has several water districts. There were a few that didn’t have any problems because they have their own water system.

“Since they were experiencing difficulties, they would come and eat over here,” said Krista Popham, who works at Pop’s Better Burger in Fabens.

She said business has been booming. That’s because their water comes from the Fabens Water Company, which didn’t have any issues, unlike other water districts.

For example, El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU), which covers the city of El Paso.

It suffered major problems with busted water pipes after officials there said they were asked by El Paso Electric to participate in rolling blackouts.

That also affected the Lower Valley Water District and the Paseo Del Este Municipal Utility District, both of which get their water from EPWU.

Those in Fabens and the El Paso County Water Authority had little to no issues because they are self sufficient.

Still, officials at grocery stores in Fabens said they haven’t been able to keep bottled water on their shelves.

Frank Quezada, manager at San Eli Supermarket said people from around the area have come to Fabens to buy water and plumbing supplies.

“It impacted everyone in all points of industry,” said Quezada.

The town of Tornillo was hit last.

Water officials there said there were no problems over the weekend, but due to more usage, their system wasn’t able to keep up with the demand.

Water officials in Tornillo implemented water restrictions like those El Paso Water Utilities asked of its customers.

They asked residents to boil their water for about a minute before drinking it.

Officials said they’d like residents to restrict their usage for 24 hours — until Tuesday afternoon — to allow their reservoir to fill up.

Back in Fabens, Popham said it’s situations like this that make people realized how simple utilities shouldn’t be taken for granted.

“We should kind of be more conservative and only use what we need to use, instead of being greedy and using everything,” said Popham.

ABC-7 spoke with County Judge Veronica Escobar who said she tried to declare a state of emergency within the county, but there wasn’t enough damage to qualify under the state’s strict guidelines.

The Lower Valley Water District asked residents to continue to boil their drinking water until further notice.