Sunland Park, El Paso residents frustrated by months-long noise from aging vacuum station

SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (KVIA) – Residents on both sides of the Texas–New Mexico state line say they have been dealing for months with a loud, intermittent noise coming from a building in a Sunland Park neighborhood.

Keith Pannell, who lives on the El Paso side of the border with his wife, said they first noticed the sound over the summer.

“We heard this very loud noise, and it would come and go,” Pannell said. “My wife was annoyed by this. So we went to look for it.”

The couple initially believed the noise came from irrigation equipment behind their neighborhood. But after driving into Sunland Park to investigate, they traced it to what looked like an abandoned building. 

When they parked nearby, the noise stopped, then suddenly started again.

“We waited maybe a minute, and then all of a sudden that loud noise came on, and we thought, what is this?” he said.

Pannell said Sunland Park residents he spoke with told him they heard the noise regularly but had not filed complaints.

When Pannell’s wife contacted the City of Sunland Park, she was initially told it was unlikely they could hear the sound from across the river. 

But the couple later learned the source was an aging Camino Real Regional Utility Authority vacuum station.

A CRRUA spokesperson confirmed the vacuum station is set to be replaced with a new lift station using $400,000 from a New Mexico Colonias Grant awarded to Sunland Park in September. 

The spokesperson added that Sunland Park City Council executed the funding at a meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 3.

CRRUA will seek construction bids in January, with work expected to begin in March, according to the spokesperson. 

In the meantime, the utility says it is “currently working on a way to eliminate the noise until the vacuum station can be replaced.”

Pannell said it’s a relief to know a fix is coming, even if it won’t be immediate.

“At least I know that something is being done,” he said. “The timetable is not optimal.”

Other residents have recently voiced concerns as well. Pannell said his next-door neighbor in El Paso approached him about the noise, and the neighborhood association president has received additional complaints.

Because Pannell lives in El Paso, he said his city representative told him the issue falls outside Texas jurisdiction.

Despite the months-long nuisance, Pannell said he and his wife don’t plan to move.

“Not because of this,” he said.