El Paso Water broke ground on the first U.S. facility that will treat wastewater for direct re-use in a city water supply, using a four-step process to transform wastewater into clean, potable drinking water.
EL PASO—This desert city gets less than nine inches of rain a year and experienced the two hottest years in its recorded history in 2023 and 2024.
But El Paso Water started planning decades ago for this hotter, drier climate. On Thursday the utility broke ground on its latest project to secure water for the city of 700,000: an advanced water purification facility that will deliver 10 million gallons per day of purified water from the city’s wastewater stream directly into its drinking water supply.
El Paso’s Pure Water Center, which will go online by 2028, is the first direct-to-distribution reuse facility in the country. Treating wastewater for reuse as drinking water has long been controversial. But as the technology has advanced and water resources dwindle, more cities are exploring direct reuse.
El Paso is the first out of the gate, but Phoenix and Tucson are expected to follow suit. Elsewhere in Texas, communities from the Panhandle to the Hill Country are considering their own facilities. Colorado and California recently adopted rules to regulate the treatment technology.
“El Paso, Texas, is the center of the universe in water recycling right now,” said Gilbert Trejo, vice president of operations at the utility during the groundbreaking Thursday.
El Paso Focuses on Reuse
El Paso Water CEO John Balliew said Thursday that the Pure Water Center “is the culmination of our efforts so far to diversify the water supply of El Paso.”
The utility has spent decades securing a diverse water portfolio in the Chihuahuan Desert. El Paso historically relied on the Rio Grande, whose flows have diminished, and groundwater pumped from the Hueco Bolson, an aquifer shared with Ciudad Juárez across the border.
Alex Mayer, a civil engineer and director of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Center for Environmental Resource Management, said El Paso has been a leader in “drought-proofing” water supplies. “The utility has been very effective in putting together plans that make sure the water availability is there,” he said.
Read the full article here By Martha Pskowski / Inside Climate
