Coronado High school dealing with sewage line issues, line underneath Mesa collapses

El Paso Independent School District officials confirm there is an ongoing sewage problem at Coronado High School that could lead to the closure of Mesa Street as crews work to repair a line.

“Our workers have been out there trying to unclog this line, there’s been a blockage in that line and they were able to unblock in three areas,” said Melissa Martinez, spokesperson for EPISD. “There was a fourth that could not be unblocked and so that was the one causing the issues Friday.”

Martinez told ABC-7 a portion of the line underneath Mesa street collapsed while crews worked to repair it.

“You can imagine the difficulty in repairing that, so there’s coordination that has to happen with TX-DOT, as well as the water utility, PSB to get that taken care of and repaired,” Martinez said. The district would not confirm if lanes on Mesa would need to be closed in order for work to proceed.

Students were released at 1:30 pm Friday because crews had to turn off the water service at the school while they worked on sewage lines. All after school activities were canceled, district officials said.

ABC-7 received a call from a “concerned citizen” Friday morning who said “all week long” students and teachers have been dealing with the sewage issue. The caller, who declined to be identified, said administrators told students not to use the restrooms.

“Coronado is one of our oldest campuses,” Martinez said, “Rocky terrain in that area makes it difficult for the lines to be repaired.” Martinez said Coronado High was built more than 50 years ago. Some of the sewage lines, she added, are so old there aren’t repair parts available to fix the problems.

Martinez said 10 porta-potties have installed throughout campus. Students were not receptive to the temporary measure.

“They’re just not working at all, can’t flush the toilets,” said Coronado Sophmore Amanda Trudeau, “They put the porta-potties but I don’t see the reason why because no one is going to use them.”

“I think that’s really gross,” said Coronado Sophmore Ximena Salais, “I’ll just hold it and wait for lunch to use the restroom elsewhere.”

A nearly complete rebuild of Coronado High School is expected to be part of the recently passed $669 million EPISD bond. Martinez said bout $70 million has been designated to rebuild Coronado.

“Over the weekend, taking advantage that we don’t have a large population of students there, they will be working on the lines during the day,” Martinez said.