EPWU: Water Purification pilot facility vital to El Paso’s water supply

The Borderland has been in a drought since 2010. In recent months, heavy rains have only slightly replenished the water supply.

The area’s water comes from two sources: The Rio Grande and water pumped from underground. Both supplies are limited.

“This year we’re about half of the normal amount of water (in the Rio Grande),” said John Balliew, President and CEO of El Paso Water Utilities.

The Rio Grande has been below normal levels for about 15 years.

Balliew says the low levels in the ground water and the Rio Grande are pushing the agency to find other water resources.

ABC-7 was invited to take a tour of the advanced water purification pilot facility.

The pilot plant is small and might not seem like much but EPWU says the pilot plant is vital to El Paso’s future.

“To get a reliable drought-proof supply(of water), this is the way to go,” said Balliew.

Balliew said the state-of-the-art facility will produce water that “we like to think of it as being a better product than the water on the shelves,” he said, the water going into the water purification plant goes through four levels of purification.

First membrane filtration removes solids and bacteria so only water and salts will pass.

The second step is nano-filtration and reverse osmosis which removes dissolved organic molecules 50,000 times smaller than the smallest virus.

The third process uses ultraviolet light for disinfection.

Finally the water is pushed through granular activated carbon which acts as a barrier for any other micro-organisms.

“By the time it gets through all four of those it’s very highly pure,” Balliew said.

The water will then go into EPWU distribution.

If the facility is approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a full scale plant could be finished by 2018 at a cost of about a $100 million.

EPWU is seeking grants and loans for the project.

Users could also see a rate increase but officials say it would be spread over a five- year period.

EPWU will give a tour to elected officials Friday. Tours for the public are expected to begin in September.