EP County experiencing extreme drought conditions, EP Water is prepared with Drought Contingency Plan and EPFD gives advice

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso County is experiencing extreme drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. El Paso Water approved a Drought Contingency Plan in April of this year. EP Water says this is a plan they have to have in place every year, just as a precaution and do not forsee activating it. In times of drought or water emergency, all customers would need to reduce water use to help meet demands.

However, El Paso water says at this time it will not be implementing any water usage restrictions. They also explained they do not depend on rain to meet the customers waters needs. Therefore, there is no shortage of water supply at the moment. The only measure El Paso water is taking is the annual watering schedule that is meant to help preserve water. The watering schedule lasts from April the 1st to September the 30th.

An El Pasoan shared her thoughts about how she would feel if water restrictions were placed:  "So for water restrictions, I think I don't really like it. I'm not for it because like I said, my plants need the water. So I'm definitely watering every day." Another one shared his opinion as well, "if the city would, you know, think of kind of hanging off on the restrictions and like doing something to try to keep the wildfires down, that would be nice."

ABC-7 also spoke with El Paso Fire department about the drought. Fire officials say droughts can be a contributing factor for brush fires, which is what they say we get the most this time of the year. Fire spokesman Enrique Duenas advices the community to be extremely careful:

"Especially when cooking outside. We know Father's Day just passed. There's 4th of July coming up. So just be extremely careful when you're going to be grilling outside. If you're going to be doing a campfire, a bonfire or something where we're we're approved. If you take it out, there, you are great, let's say. And after you are done, or if you're in a park and you're using one of those public grills, make sure you're extinguishing everything."

You can find the most updated drought conditions of El Paso county The drought map which can be found here shows the drought index in El Paso County. As you can see in that map, the western part of Texas is the only one in red for June 17th, which means it's at the highest level of fire potential.