EPWU:Water Purification pilot facility vital to El Paso.

drought since 2010. in recent months, heavy rains have only slightly replenished our water supply. so how does our water supplier – el paso water utilities– deal with a dwindling water supply? they build a sustainable water source. abc- 7’s jerry najera gets a first hand look at a new facility that will produce purified water. it’s a story you’ll see only on abc-7. rick estela we get our natural water supply from two sources: the rio grande and water stored in the ground below both are limited if you take at look at the rio grande right now the levels seem high and the water is flowing. “this year we’re about half of the normal amount from the river” john balliew is president and ceo of el paso water utilities. the rio has seen below normal levels for about 15 years now. balliew says the low levels in our ground water and rio grande are pushing the agency to find other options. on this day we are taking a tour of the advanced water purification pilot facility. it might not seem like much but el paso water utilities says this pilot plant is vital to el paso’s future. “to get a reliabl drought proof supply this is the way to go” ballie tells me the state of the art facility will produce purified water. “we like to think of it as being a better product than the water on the shelves” it works lik this: the water going into the water purification facility is treated water or put simply: sterile water. it goes through four levels of purification. first the membrane filtration this removes solids and bacteria only water and salts will pass. the second step is nano filtration and reverse osmosis. this removes dissovled organic molecules 50- thousand times smaller that the smallest virus. the third process uses ultraviolet light for disinfenction. and finally the water is pushed through a granular activated carbon wich acts as a barrier for any othe micro organisms “by the time it gets through al four of those it’s very highly pure” the water will then g into el paso water utilities water distribution. the facility is in a test mode. once approved by texas commission on environmental quality- a full scale facility will be built by 2017-2018. the price tag is about a hundred million. e- p-w-u is seeking grants and loans for the project. we could also see a rate increase but officials say it would be spread over a 5 year period. el paso’s streetcar project is moving forward! the companies that will build