Water system planned for Hillcrest community

Several of El Paso’s local leaders are working on a water infrastructure plan to help hundreds of local residents in the isolated Hillcrest community.

For decades, Hillcrest has been without its own water system as low income families moved to the area in far east El Paso during the 1960’s.

Basic utilities including water were promised to those low income residents by land developers but never came to fruition.

Now 50 years later, Hillcrest has become what is known as a “doughnut hole community” as they are unable to develop their own infrastructure while new neighborhoods rapidly build up around them.

“We often take it for granted when we turn on the faucet, when we turn on the shower and there is water,” said El Paso County Commissioner Vince Perez. “For far too many people in our community that is still not the case. They are not sure how much water is left in the tank and so when you turn on that faucet and when you turn on that shower there is no guarantee for a lot of folks that that water is going to come out”

But all that could change in the near future as the county was recently given a $2.3 million loan to install 3 miles of distribution lines and 13 fire hydrants to help over 200 people in that community.

Perez is optimistic that the North American Development Bank will take on about half of the total lean leaving just over $1 million left for local taxpayers to handle.

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“It is very costly to provide utilities after the fact and that is what we have here,” said Perez. “We have residents who have lived here for several decades. It is expensive to go back and dig up and connect and provide not only the utilities there to the street but then also the connections to the homes.”

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Currently, the project is still a work in progress with at least another 6 months needed to line up the remaining funding and design details before construction can begin.