Construction has begun on El Paso Water's $295M Pure Water Center, the first U.S. plant to send purified sewage directly into the drinking water supply. It will diversify water sources, reduce Rio Grande dependence, and add 10M gal. of drinking water to the city's system by 2028. Funding from federal grants and utility customers will cover costs.
Carollo Engineers rendering
The advanced purification water plant under construction in El Paso, Texas.
Construction on El Paso Water's long-planned, $295 million plant to turn treated wastewater into drinkable water kicked off on Feb. 27, 2025, according to elpasotimes.com.
Officials said it will be the first plant in the United States to send purified sewage directly into the drinking water supply.
That's different than plants in Texas, California and other areas of the U.S. that treat wastewater to drinking water quality, then inject it into groundwater basins, where it ultimately flows into drinking water systems, elpasotimes.com reported.
"This is the culmination so far of our efforts to diversify the water supply for El Paso" to move away from Rio Grande dependence, John Balliew, El Paso Water CEO, said at the groundbreaking ceremony at the Lower Valley construction site.
To be called Pure Water Center, the facility will be located between the Roberto Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Jonathan Rogers Water Treatment Plant on Pan American Drive in an industrial area.
Carollo Engineers, a California engineering firm specializing in designing water-related projects, including water reuse, designed the facility. The plant will be built by a joint venture of Canada-based PCL Construction and Arizona-based Sundt Construction, according to elpasotimes.com.
The project is a long time in coming, as the city spent more than a decade of working with state regulators. That included operating a test project and designing the facility.
Balliew told elpasotimes.com that construction will take 2.5 years, with the Pure Water Center expected to begin supplying drinking water by 2028.
The facility will add about 10 million gal. of drinking water to the city water system, which is about 6 percent of summer water demand, said Gilbert Trejo, an El Paso Water executive overseeing engineering, operations and technical services.
Because the Rio Grande River is subject to droughts, the extra water might loom large, Trejo said.
Bart Weiss, president of the WateReuse Association, said water reuse, or water recycling, is important in areas where water resources are limited, according to elpasotimes.com.
"This will be the cleanest water, the healthiest and safest water that West Texas and this region has ever seen," Weiss said at the groundbreaking.
Treated sewage will be sent to the Roberto Bustamente plant, then go through a multi-step purification process that meets or exceeds state and federal drinking-water standards, according to El Paso Water information. That process includes using membrane and granular activated carbon filtration systems, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light and chlorine disinfection.
Other treated wastewater will be sent into the Rio Grande and into farm irrigation canals as in the past, Trejo told elpasotimes.com.
The facility will have a visitors' center to educate the public about the water purification process. Windows will allow visitors to view the plant's purification equipment.
El Paso Water has performed customer surveys and conducted focus groups to learn what customers think about using treated wastewater for the city's water supply, Christina Montoya-Halter, the utility's communications and marketing manager, told elpasotimes.com. The utility learned that most customers believe the purification process will make the water safe to drink.
One customer concern was the project's cost.
Although federal grants totaling $23.5 million funded the design and are helping to pay for construction most of the cost will be paid by the utility's customers. That's why water rates have increased, Trejo said.
An existing El Paso Water plant also treats wastewater to drinking water quality.
The Fred Hervey Water Reclamation Plant in northeast El Paso treats millions of gallons of sewage daily to drinking water quality. The 40-year-old plant sends the treated water to homes and businesses in special purple pipes for irrigation and industrial uses. It also injects it into the ground to replenish the aquifer. None of that water directly goes for drinking.
That plant pioneered the purification of sewage to drinking-water quality, elpasotimes.com reported.
Water from that plant also will feed into the utility's Enhanced Arroyo Infiltration project, being developed near the new Campo Del Sol housing community.
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