EL PASO- Ever wonder where your tap water comes from?
"The Hueco Bolson provides a large share of the water used by the City of El Paso," says Dr. John Walton, a groundwater expert at UTEP.
The aquifer, bolson in Spanish, was about 20% of the PSB's production last year.
It also sits directly underneath the McCombs Landfill.
If the council votes to send trash there once again, we have a question.
Will our tap water be safe? The city says yes.
"Trash is a very high level health and safety issue so it's incumbent upon the city and the state and the federal EPA to make sure that it's handled properly," says Ellen Smythe, Director of Environmental Services for the City.
Smythe says three measures are taken to ensure clean water.
The first line of defense lies underneath the trash.
"We put in a high density polyethylene liner which is a thick plastic so we put it in and it forms like a bathtub," says Smythe.
That keeps contaminated liquid from sinking into the aquifer.
Pipes pump it out from the bottom so it doesn't settle for too long.
Finally, the city tests groundwater around the landfill 4 times a year, checking for anything unhealthy.
"We make sure nothing, there's no escapes or chemicals or any type of contaminants," Smythe says.
On top of what the city is already doing, the PSB says it has it's own monitoring systems in place.
Which means the contamination risk is low and the tap water is just fine.
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