Where does El Paso get their water? (Dallas, Van Horn: lease, home)

[Prickly Pear]

Over in the Arizona forum the Central Arizona Project and our drought (how we get water from the Colorado River) is once again a hot topic because of Lake Mead. The Colorado River is a water resource for all the Southwestern states including Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. I know that El Paso is a little closer to me more similar to where I live (5 hour drive) than most populated parts of Texas and I know that El Paso does not get Colorado River water so I was curious how El Paso got H2O and if they are in a drought or risk of one now, since Texas might operate a little differently.

Is El Paso similar to Tucson and Phoenix in the sense that you have aquifers underground that you can drill up? Do you guys rely a lot on the Rio Grande? Does El Paso have a lot of water limitations? etc.

[joqua]

Everything anyone wants to know about El Paso's water resources can be found on this web site:

http://www.epwu.org/water/water_resources.html

[katzpaw]

Lithium: Does El Paso's low violence stem from it's water?
https://news.google.com/newspapers?n...5,984444&hl=en

"By legend Texans are a grandiose breed with more than the natural share of megalomaniacs. But University of Texas Biochemist Earl B. Dawson thinks that he detects an uncommon pocket of psychological adjustment around El Paso. The reason, says Dawson, lies in the deep wells from which the city draws its water supply.

According to Dawson's studies of urine samples from 3,000 Texans, El Paso's water is heavily laced with lithium, a tranquilizing chemical widely used in the treatment of manic depression and other psychiatric disorders. He notes that Dallas, which has low lithium levels because it draws its water from surface...
The Nation: The Texas Tranquilizer - TIME

[joqua]

Originally Posted by katzpaw

Lithium: Does El Paso's low violence stem from it's water?

Those articles date from the 1970s! Back when LSD was the new drug of choice
and water resources were only beginning to be significantly depleted.

[kidicarus89]

El Paso's in a far better situation than the Phoenix area because we know how to manage water resources. Look at the average lush green landscaping in Phoenix, compared with the native xeriscaping of El Paso. Phoenix is a city that forgot it was in a brutal desert.

[Horizonite]

Originally Posted by kidicarus89

El Paso's in a far better situation than the Phoenix area because we know how to manage water resources. Look at the average lush green landscaping in Phoenix, compared with the native xeriscaping of El Paso. Phoenix is a city that forgot it was in a brutal desert.

The water table in El Paso is at an all time low so it's not so much that we know how to manage our resources as it is El Paso Water buying up others resources. A buddy of mine just sold his ranch in Dell City to El Paso Water for $50 million, just for the water rights.

The utility was scheduled to sign the deal last Thursday, buying the 26,470-acre Chambers Lynch Ranch for $50 million, but advised El Paso Inc. that the closing was postponed and pushed into this week.
Once purchased, the land will be leased out for farming. El Paso just wants what lies beneath it.

“There are three principle pieces of property,” Balliew said. “There’s one in the Valentine area, one more or less in the Van Horn area and one that is southeast of Dell City that we generally refer to as Diablo Farms.”

Known for looking 50 years into the future, El Paso Water laid plans more than a decade ago to link the water ranches by pipeline running north to the Dell Valley and then down to El Paso, 95 miles away.
El Paso Water buying Dell City ranch - El Paso Inc.: Local News

[atrabilius]

Originally Posted by Horizonite

The water table in El Paso is at an all time low so it's not so much that we know how to manage our resources as it is El Paso Water buying up others resources. A buddy of mine just sold his ranch in Dell City to El Paso Water for $50 million, just for the water rights.

Desalinization plants, xeriscaping, not watering your yard in the daytime and/or so that the water runs into the gutter, and other water conservation measures would help, though.

[kidicarus89]

Originally Posted by Horizonite

The water table in El Paso is at an all time low so it's not so much that we know how to manage our resources as it is El Paso Water buying up others resources. A buddy of mine just sold his ranch in Dell City to El Paso Water for $50 million, just for the water rights.

Conservation and desalination has allowed the water utility to hold off importing groundwater from Dell City and other areas from 2030 to 2040. That's pretty impressive. El Pasoans also use about 1/5 water that the average American does.

Here's an article from the UK'S The Guardian lauding the city for its the successes in water conservation.

[Mass Transit user]

It comes from underground aquifers. Lithium is a mineral in the local earth. Not a bad thing.
Some El Paso water comes from water recycling plants in the area. The water is cleaned and pumped back into the ground where it comes from.

[nvhorseman]

Originally Posted by kidicarus89

El Paso's in a far better situation than the Phoenix area because we know how to manage water resources. Look at the average lush green landscaping in Phoenix, compared with the native xeriscaping of El Paso. Phoenix is a city that forgot it was in a brutal desert.

.

El Paso was not always "xeriscaped". As my home town, I remember the new golf course going in in the Cielo Vista subdivision and the neighborhood pools within Cielo Vista. I believe they are all closed now. Water became so expensive that residents were "encouraged" to do away with their green lawns and topiary and go to a more water frugal outdoor landscaping. You can still have those things you want like a garden and flowers, just not as many and as "traditional" as we knew them. I moved to N. Nevada and we ended up taking out our water hogging lawns and replacing them with rock gardens. The change was stunningly beautiful. Arizona on the other hand is a retirement state with a better retiree tax basis than Texas or Nevada at present and it is smaller and less diverse than Texas topography wise. Arizona is having severe water shortages and because of coal mining and other searches for energy production, once undisturbed elements and minerals are now common in water supplies throughout the state. If you live in a city or the "burbs" then the city filters out those things but if you are in a semi-rural to rural area...well, good luck. Arsenic, cadmium, uranium, thallium and lead are all in your water, more of one than the other depending on where you are trying to drill a well (good luck). I had to cross off AZ. as a retirement preference due to this across the state fact. Even if you are lucky and strike a good water source aquifer, you need to add to your drilling costs a post drilling water purification system costing $5-10K or try and drill deeper with no guarantees. Looks like moving south for the warmer weather is not in my future.