El Paso Water fined $2M by TCEQ for sewage discharge in Rio Grande; cleanup pays penalty

The Texas environmental agency fined El Paso Water $2.01 million for the utility’s illegal discharge of 1.2 billion gallons of sewage into the Rio Grande in 2021 caused by breaks in sewage lines in West El Paso.

However, the city-operated utility won’t have to pay the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, any money because the commission agreed Wednesday to let a portion of El Paso Water’s cost of cleaning up the sewage discharge be used to pay the fine.

El Paso Water officials estimate the cleanup cost at about $7 million.

The TCEQ agreed order shows that disposing of almost 74,000 tons of contaminated soil from the Rio Grande and other areas into the Camino Real landfill in Sunland Park, New Mexico, cost the utility $2.08 million.

Heavy equipment moves soil in the Rio Grande in the Sunland Park, New Mexico area April 4, 2022 as part of El Paso Water’s cleanup of a sewage discharge into the river.

That’s part of the total $7 million cleanup cost, which included cleaning a portion of the Rio Grande, the American Canal, and stormwater ponds in West El Paso and the Upper Valley, said Gilbert Trejo, El Paso Water vice president of operations and technical services.

The cleanup money comes from revenue generated from customers’ rates, but the $7 million cost will not cause rates to increase, Trejo said.

It’s important that TCEQ agreed to let ratepayers’ money remain in El Paso instead of going to the agency to pay the fine, Trejo said.

This was “an unexpected catastrophe that happened while the (sewage) pipelines were under construction,” Trejo noted.

Also, the utility is fighting the New Mexico Environment Department over its proposed $1.2 million fine for the sewage discharge. El Paso Water officials have said the New Mexico agency has no jurisdiction in the matter because the discharge occurred in Texas.

Untreated sewage drains into the Rio Grande in the Sunland Park, New Mexico area on Oct. 7, 2021.

The Frontera Force sewage pipelines broke in multiple places in West El Paso in August 2021 as the utility was in the middle of a three-phase project to replace the corroded pipelines.

The utility determined that diverting the untreated sewage into the Rio Grande near Doniphan Drive was the best way to keep the sewage away from homes and businesses. Sewage was diverted from August 2021 until January 2022, when a major portion of the sewage pipeline replacement project was completed.

The utility’s yearlong environmental monitoring found no lasting environmental problems on the Rio Grande from the sewage discharge, Trejo said.

“Discharging wastewater into the Rio Grande was not a decision we took lightly, and we put forth great efforts to make this right,” John Balliew, El Paso Water chief executive officer, said in a statement.

“We are fully committed to doing everything we can to improve our wastewater system and reduce the likelihood of this happening again.”

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The last phase of the Frontera Force pipelines project is expected to be completed in about eight months, Trejo said. That phase is completing the pipelines from Doniphan and Racetrack drives to the sewage treatment plant at Interstate 10 and Executive Center Boulevard. That portion of the pipelines pass through mountainous terrain, which makes construction difficult, he said.

The pipelines carry about 10 million gallons of sewage daily from about 110,000 West Side and Upper Valley homes to the sewage treatment plant.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421, vkolenc@elpasotimes.com and @vickolenc on X.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Water cleanup pays $2M fine for Rio Grande sewage discharge