Research Project Developing Cheap Filter Systems

UTEP students & professors team with NMSU, EPA to provide colonia residents with drinking water

Past the city limits in east El Paso County lies Hueco Tanks, a sparsely inhabited area where residents coexist with the harshness of the Chihuahuan Desert and where drinkable water is as scarce as cellphone reception.

The water they get is not drinkable and can pose certain health dangers, including rashes and illnesses caused by algae or over-chlorinated water.

Isaac Campos, a doctoral civil engineering student at the University of Texas at El Paso, and a team of students and professors from UTEP and New Mexico State University are trying to change that.

The group built a filtration system that can be made with less than $50 to about $300 worth of supplies that can be found at any hardware store.

The project is funded by an Environmental Protection Agency's Science to Achiever Results grant of about $500,000.

Campos said the issue of having clean drinking water hits close to home because growing up in Juárez he was told not to drink the water from the faucet.

"A lot of the problems people have right now in the colonias with the water are some of the ones I dealt with growing up," Campos said. "What we found is that they have an innate fear of drinking the water from the faucet, and that is something I can very much relate to."

The filtration system is a cartridge filter that can cost anywhere from $10 to $50. An additional filter can be added for $200. The secondary filter would remove bacteria, algae and viruses from the water.

Shane Walker, assistant professor of civil engineering at UTEP and lead investigator for the project, said the project is aimed at helping residents who live in areas that will not have a water system any time within the next five years. Those areas include Hueco Tanks in El Paso County and colonias in Berino, San Miguel, Chamberino and east and south of Las Cruces.

About 30 families from those areas are participating in the research project. UTEP officials said they could not disclose the participants' names because of a confidentiality agreement.

Walker said research for the study began in 2012 and test results showed that residents wanted a water purification system that was easy to maintain, affordable and would allow residents to have safe drinking water.

"Our research study has focused exclusively on the communities that are not expected to receive that water any time soon," Walker said. "So we are trying to develop alternatives and an intermediate solution so that people have reliable, clean water in their household."

Unlike other colonias in east El Paso County that are serviced by the El Paso Water Utilities or the Lower Valley Water District, residents of Hueco Tanks don't have a water authority to service them. Instead, they depend on private companies to haul the water.

Depending on water usage, a typical 2,500 gallon tank can last a family of four about two weeks. To refill the tank, the cost ranges from about $50 to $60. Because the water isn't drinkable — but can be used for washing and bathing — more money is spent on bottled water. The trucked water can be boiled to purify it.

Abel Rodriguez's family has four horses, several chickens and four dogs living on their lot. The cost per month to take care of the animals and the household can amount to $180 to fill the tank and get drinking water. Rodriguez said to save money, the family fills up on drinking water when they visit his sister once a month in the city.

"But that's gas money, so my parents are looking at actually moving back to the city now because it's too expensive for them," Rodriguez said. "In fact, this house and my house are for sale right now."

With the use of the filtration system, Campos said residents would only need to invest about $3 to $6 a month to replace the filter.

"More than anything, I hope that this will raise awareness to the water utilities that it's not as expensive as they may think to give residents clean water," Campos said.

Just 10 miles west of the Hueco Tanks area is the Montana Vista subdivision of Homestead Meadows North where residents have running water provided by El Paso Water Utilities.

Hueco Tanks resident Maria Garcia said she finds this frustrating.

"There is much need for water out here," Garcia said. "But the hope of bringing water for this area is very far away."

The frustration grows as residents learn of running water becoming available in other areas. In 2013, the Lower Valley Water District provided water to 2,400 residents in the Ascenscion, Colonias de El Paso, Darrington Park, College Park, Dairyland and Vista Larga colonias. Without a water utility to service Hueco Tanks, Garcia said it's unlikely water will be in the area soon.

"It's very costly," said Saul Trejo, district engineer of the Lower Valley Water District. "The PSB (Public Service Board) needs to consider the cost-benefit ratio."

In the meantime, residents of Hueco Tanks use chlorine tablets and bleach to purify the water. The amount of bleach or chlorine tablets used isn't an exact science — too little and the algae remains, causing rashes on the skin, too much and it causes dry skin and animals who drink it to become ill.

"That's part of the research," Walker said. "And the question is giving those people a basic understanding of how much concentration of bleach is necessary to provide a comparable chlorine dose that we have in our plumbing systems in the city, provided by El Paso Water Utilities, that we take for granted."

Colonia residents in New Mexico already have running water through wells. The problem there is metal sediments, particularly arsenic, found in water. Those who have shallow domestic wells of 400 feet or less may find it harder to use the water because it is more susceptible to contaminants, said Karen Nichols, projects manager for the Lower Rio Grande Public Water Works Authority in New Mexico.

The public water works authority provides drinkable water to 5,000 homes in 14 colonias south of Las Cruces. Current projects include a $10 million water system improvement project that will replace aging pipelines in the Berino and Mesquite-Del Cerro communities that will provide residents with arsenic-free water.

"Some domestic wells are better than others; it just depends on where you are," Nichols said. "The deeper community wells are fine. But it's the shallower wells that tend to be saltier and have more minerals. If you are closer to a dairy, there are more dangerous nitrates that could be in water."

Walker and Campos said they expect to install the filtration system at 10 homes by September in El Paso and New Mexico. Afterward the team will monitor the cleanliness of the water for six months.

Source: El Paso Times

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Taxonomy

• Purification
• Filtration
• Research