City Looking To Beef Up Plumbing Ordinances Following February Freeze

When the borderland was hit by last February’s freeze, plumbing problems and water line ruptures were the headaches in many El Paso neighborhoods.

“We were very upset,” homeowner Jennifer Rosales told ABC-7 at the time. “Being our first house, it’s just not something that we wanted to deal with right off the bat.”

The city of El Paso is hoping to remedy any future pipe issues before they happen through beefed up city ordinances.

Thursday afternoon, members of the city’s Legislative Review Committee voted unanimously to send recommendations made by the city’s Engineering and Construction Management department to the full city council for a final vote.

The ordinance amendments, which would affect El Paso’s residential, plumbing and existing building codes, include the following requirements:

?Water service entrances must be on the heated side of a home or business

?Plumbing must be insulated and/or placed near heating

?Exterior water lines must be at least 6 inches below the frost line

Other requirements ask that builders use alternative plumbing materials such as cross-linked polyethylene pipes, known as “PEX.”

Ray Adauto, Executive Vice President at El Paso Association of Builders, told the committee that the revised ordinances should meet little resistance from the local construction community.

“Some of our folks are already doing this to avoid future catastrophes,” he said.

In the days following the freeze, the city waived the $72 emergency plumbing repair fee for homeowners.

When asked how many residents were allowed to skip the charge, Victor Morrison-Vega of the Engineering and Construction Management department told ABC-7 that figure would be hard to pin down.

But Morrison-Vega said he estimates 15,000 to 20,000 El Paso homes were affected, in some way, by the freeze.

El Paso City representatives Ann Morgan Lilly, Susie Byrd, Steve Ortega and Cortney Niland serve on the Legislative Review Committee.

All were in attendance Thursday afternoon.

The revised ordinances would take affect following a signature by Mayor John Cook and would only apply to new permit applications.