Although farmers depend on Rio Grande for irrigation, much of El Paso’s drinking water comes from deep water. underground. These critical sources are also at risk.
In 1979, the Texas Water Development Board announced that El Paso would run out of groundwater on 2031. At that time, the average person used over 200 gallons of water a day. Most of that water was extracted from the city’s two water sources — Hueco Bolson to the east and Mesilla Bolson to the west.
For the next two decades, the Water Association introduced a program to encourage people to use less water, among other things, instead of lawns and to plant their own plants. Today, water use drops to about 134 gallons per person per day. This is still higher than the US average 82 gallons but lower than that used in other parts of the dry country, such as Arizona (145 gallons) and Utah (169 gallons).
The water has a better shape – somewhere. “The water is going down, but it’s not going down like a rock,” said Scott Reinert, El Paso Water’s weapons manager. However, more water comes out of the well than returns.
El Paso Water pumps between 40,000 and 50,000 acres of water from Hueco Bolson each year and supplies about 5,000 acres annually. (An acre-foot is a fixed measure used by water – with enough water to cover one acre of land, or more than half a football field, by a foot of water.) There is also extra natural water from other ground and groundwater. river, but not enough to continue with the pumping.