Problem:  Located in a desert area, El Paso, Texas faces the 
continuing problem of finding an adequate water supply.  The 
current primary aquifer in the city is becoming depeleted.  
Although water from the Rio Grande could be treated and used 
fairly easily, the appropriation of virtually all available water 
rights for agricultural use leaves this an unworkable alternative.

Proposed solution:  The court decisions involving the Rio Grande 
water gave the city the right to its sewer effluent; farmers, 
however, were unwilling to exchange river water for this effluent.  
As a result, the city decided to build a treatment plant to 
convert the sewer effluent into drinkable water.  Using additional 
funding from the EPA and the state of Texas, the city built a 
municipally owned water treatment plant for this task.  This plant 
is capable of meeting about ten percent of total water needs.  In 
addition, the city has programs to decrease water use.  Graduated 
rate structures, plastic-lined storage reservoirs, regular water 
line maintenance, and promotion of native vegetation in 
landscaping all help encourage less water use.

Evaluation:  The treatment plant is successful in providing a new 
source of clean, usable water.  In addition, the conservation 
efforts have reduced the average per capita water use.  Efforts 
continue to find additional sources of water, but the treatment 
plant provides a significant and lasting way to increase the 
availability of necessary water.

Contact:  City of El Paso

Citation:  "Putting Wastewater to Work."  EPA Journal, v. 11 
(April 1985), pp. 5-6.

Keywords:  environment water treatment

Disclaimer: The file contained in the box above or displayed in a separate window from a link in the box above is NOT owned nor implied to be owned by BeYoND THe iLLuSioN. Most files at BeYoND THe iLLuSioN are originally from public Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) which were popular in the days before the Internet or from gopher, web, and FTP sites from the early days of the Internet which no longer exist today. Essentially, all files were acquired from the public domain in one for or another.

However, there have been occasions when copyright protected material has appeared on BeYoND THe iLLuSIoN without permission of the copyright holder. In these instances, we have and will continue to remove the copyright protected file as soon as it is brought to our attention. This can now be done using our Report Copyright Material form. Fill out the form, and the webmaster will be notified of the situation.

There are also times when files found on BeYoND THe iLLuSioN have a real home somewhere else on the Internet. In these instances, we will gladly replace the file with a link to its true home whenever it is brought to our attention. If you know of the true home of any of these files, you can use our Report Original URL form to bring it yo our attention.