EL PASO – Crews have been working through the night to repair a broken large water main that led to 15 water reservoirs being drained in the early morning hours of Jan. 11. Efforts to refill water reservoirs have been successful, with nine reservoirs now at healthy levels.

“It’s encouraging that several neighborhoods now have water service, but a large number of customers are still without service,” said Vice President of Operations and Technical Services Gilbert Tejo. “We are doing everything in our power to expedite full restoration of the system as soon as possible.”

Crews used alternative strategies and methods to divert water flowing through the large main so that repairs can be completed. The damaged main, which connects to several smaller distribution lines, caused water reservoirs to drain quickly and further complicated the repair. Although some areas have had their water service restored, we are anticipating 72 hours from the time of this news release for the full restoration of the system.

Customers in the affected area are asked to minimize water use, even if they currently have service. Please limit all discretionary and nonessential water use until the system is fully stabilized.

Precautionary boil water notice remains in effect Because of low water pressure and drained reservoirs, EPWater issued a precautionary boil water notice for customers in the impacted area (see map). EPWater has been coordinating closely with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on both the outage and boil water notice.

“EPWater is gaining and making progress in the impacted areas as sampling efforts show improvement in the water quality,” Trejo said. “However, the boil water notice cannot be completely lifted until water quality tests show the water is safe to drink, and results are not expected until Tuesday morning at the earliest.”