U.S. Water News Online
EL PASO, Texas -- City councilors have sent a proposal to severely limit lawn watering back to the drawing board despite warnings that water shortages could hamper firefighting efforts this summer.
Instead, most council members supported a rate structure that would reward efficient users and punish water wasters.
``I'm really in favor of going to pricing rather than policing,'' said Rep. John Cook. ``I don't think we've given the voluntary compliance approach enough time.''
Ed Archuleta, general manager of El Paso Water Utilities, told the council that raising rates probably wouldn't save the needed amount of water and wouldn't kick in quickly enough to head off shortages predicted to start as early as April.
Some council members said they were concerned the restrictions would give the city a bad reputation.
``I do not even favor the use of the word drought,'' said Rep. Dan Powers. ``I think it's going to have a very serious effect on our economy.''
``I think we are in a very serious drought,'' Archuleta told the council in a presentation before discussion of the proposal. ``I think that is something that has not been adequately communicated.''
Archuleta warned the council that parts of the city could be without water during peak demand times this summer if action isn't taken. And he said low water pressure could hamper firefighting efforts.
The water restriction proposal included a limit of two hours of lawn watering one day each week and a requirement that people using evaporative coolers pinch off their overflow lines, used to wash away sediment.
An across-the-board rate increase of about 65 percent would be necessary to get close to the needed water savings, Archuleta said. Rates already were increased 10 percent in March and 6 percent last year, he added.
Only one council member, Rep. Larry Medina, voted for the proposal, which also was supported by Mayor Ray Caballero.
``This is a very wrong decision,'' Archuleta said after the council vote. ``We've done all our technical work and there's only so much groundwater we have.''
Wayne Treers, a hydraulic engineer with the federal Bureau of Reclamation, said in an interview that the flow of the Rio Grande, where El Paso gets more than a third of its water, is about 40 percent of normal.
``Things really aren't very good right now,'' Treers said. ``It means we're going to have less water to allocate down here ... and for Mexico.''
Treers said there is about 400,000 acre feet of water in Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico, which releases water for El Paso and other users. However, most of it is owned by New Mexico and Colorado. Meeting all water demands in southern New Mexico, Texas and Mexico would require 790,000 acre feet, he said.
He said that even if snow is heavy for the rest of the winter in Colorado and New Mexico, where the headwaters of the Rio Grande are located, it doesn't mean El Paso will have enough water.
Because of a warm winter, much of the snowmelt is expected to soak into the ground before it reaches Texas, he said. Treers said current estimates are that river water users will get between 35 percent and 45 percent of the water they claim.
``I'm not expecting a miracle,'' he said.
Other cities in the region already have adopted strict water regulations, including Denver, which has prohibited lawn watering this summer, and Santa Fe, N.M., which limited lawn watering to once a week and prohibited the filling of swimming pools.
Most of Texas will be short of water by about 2050, said Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Susan Combs, adding that the growth of cities is the main reason.
``Cities want water and the rural areas have it,'' Combs said, pointing to cities in Texas that already are buying nearby land, or condemning it if owners don't want to sell, to get the water rights.
``The things we've taken for granted like lawns, they just aren't that high on the (list) when it comes to human drinking (water) and livestock survival,'' she said.
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