EPWU president addresses flooding issues El Pasoans experienced Wednesday and Thursday
“The president of the El Paso Water Utility said decades of inaction during Central El Paso development is the root cause of the severe flooding issues the area sees.
“We’re where we are today because this is the central core of the city and this is about sixty years’ worth of development that took place without any consideration of stormwater, so we’re trying to play catchup at this point,” John Balliew said. “It’s an ongoing process.”
Balliew said if the Morenci and Gateway West ponds hadn’t been built, flooding on Interstate 10 would have lasted six hours instead of three.
“We’re making progress,” he said.
Balliew described the new Magnolia pump station project as a game changer.
Located at the intersection of Texas Street and Magnolia Street, it has a price tag of $22 million and won’t be ready until 2016.
Balliew said if the pump station had been up and running Wednesday night, I-10 wouldn’t have had flooding issues.
“You probably would’ve seen at most six inches of water on the Gateway, nothing on I-10,” he said. “The Magnolia station is a result of a long effort to acquire the site, there were about eight different pieces of property that we had to purchase, and demolish the buildings, not one of these properties was for sale when we started down this road.””
Melugin, Bill. KFOX14 18 September 2014.