STORM 2006 THEN & NOW: New $24 million stormwater system would mitigate, not prevent flooding
In the decade since Storm 2006, El Paso’s Stormwater Utility has worked on more than $100 million dollars in projects, none as expensive as a $24 million system in Central.
Preventing flooding on I-10 near Piedras has been one of the biggest challenges for the Stormwater utility, which began testing the Magnolia Pump Station last week. The $11 million station is designed to pump water from I-10 to the Rio Grande.
I-10 is built on an elevated platform. When rain falls on the mountain, the water runs downhill toward the freeway. It cannot cross the elevated road bed to get to the river. The Magnolia Pump Station will transfer the water to a new “force main,” which will carry the water to the river.
“It’s the single biggest project the Stormwater Utility has built,” Alan Shubert, VP of Operations for El Paso Water, said. “It moves about 35,000 gallons per minute, which is around $50-million gallons per day.”
The new pump station is part of a much bigger $24 million system designed to address the flooding issues along that stretch of the freeway. “We’ve got the gateway ponds, that take care of one area, we’ve got the Magnolia Pump Station where we pick up the water at Piedras, and then we have the Dallas Pump Station up stream that picks up the water at Dallas,” Shubert said.
Shutting down the freeway to pump water out is no longer a feasible option. “It’s a huge economic burden, but more importantly, it’s a huge public safety problem and that’s not something we can tolerate,” Shubert said.
In August 2006, I-10 near Piedras was flooded for nearly eight hours. The Magnolia pump station would remove the water in a couple hours, the utility said.
Shubert, the city’s former chief engineer, said he expects the freeway to flood again if El Paso receives rainfall amounts similar to Storm 2006. However, the utility would be able to mitigate the situation, Shubert said. “I would say we’re far better off now than we were then.”
