EP Water: Water smelling like chlorine in far East El Paso is safe to drink

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – El Paso Water told media outlets on Wednesday that the heavy chlorine smell being reported by residents in the far East El Paso area is an indicator that river water is finally reaching their homes and nothing to be concerned about.

“The occurrence of chlorine smell in the distribution system is actually a good thing, that means that the water is fully disinfected and is safe to drink. We are transitioning from groundwater to river water right now,” said EP Water Vice President of Operations and Technical Services Gilbert Trejo.

On Monday, KTSM began receiving calls and emails from concerned viewers, who shared that their water had a strong chlorine smell. Those reports came from homes in the far East El Paso area.

With the start of the river water season, the Borderland’s river water supply began flowing in over a week ago from the Caballo Dam, just south of Elephant Butte.

On Wednesday, March 13, EP Water told KTSM that the river water was officially being processed at both of their water treatment plants, where they were beginning to disinfect it before distributing it to customers.

Trejo explained that river water requires higher concentrations of chlorine than water to be disinfected.

Regarding the reports coming mainly from residents in the further areas of East El Paso, Trejo said that their water distribution system in that region is much larger, therefore, they have to pump more chlorine into the water to ensure that it reaches the homes in their furthest service areas.

“Give it a couple of weeks and as our pipes and the tanks get accustomed to this new water chemistry that we have in the system, that chlorine smell will dissipate,” said Trejo.

EP Water expects to have 30 weeks of river water supply this year, amounting to nearly 20 billion gallons of water, which is nearly half of EP Water’s annual water supply.

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