City of Sunland Park not at risk of flooding due to Cement Lake’s conditions, mayor says

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (KVIA) -- The City of Sunland Park held a news conference today, where Mayor Javier Perea, Fire Chief Danny Medrano and District Five Councilor Maria Burciaga addressed some rumors and worries the community had.

According to Mayor Perea, the city wanted to clarify rumors about a possible threat to the Anapra community of being flooded, which he says is not true.

"I do want to clarify that the city of Sunland Park has been in constant contact with emergency personnel with El Paso, and at no time during this incident with the dam on the El Paso side did we identify any threat to property or people within the city of Sunland Park," Mayor Perea said.

He also said Fire Chief Medrano has been in constant contact since Wednesday, and he's been in contact with El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson.

"I want to commend their team for identifying the issue there within El Paso and communicating with us about the possibilities of what could happen," Mayor Perea added. "Right now, what we have seen is that any effect of the breach of that dam would have stayed on the El Paso side and would have fed into the Rio Grande, posing no real threat to the city of Sunland Park."

ABC-7 also asked about other worries the city of Sunland Park has with the potential risk of breach still being in place.

Watch the full story on ABC-7 at 4 and 10 p.m.