EL PASO, Texas — El Paso Water is growing the output of its Kay Bailey Hutchison Desalination Plant, the El Paso, Texas, facility that ranks as the largest inland plant of its kind anywhere in the world.
The utility is close to installing a sixth reverse osmosis skid alongside the five units already in service. Once that unit is running, the plant can turn out as much as 33 million gallons of drinkable water a day, up from its current ceiling of 27.5 million gallons.
The plant draws salty, or brackish, groundwater from the Hueco Bolson aquifer through a network of wells. Water once written off as too salty to use now passes through sand strainers and cartridge filters before the membranes pull the salt out. The facility opened in 2007 and was built as a joint project of the utility and Fort Bliss.
Utility officials say the extra capacity matters most in peak season. On a hot summer day the plant could cover about a fifth of the city’s demand, and in winter it could meet close to half.
Desalination is one piece of a broader water plan for the desert city that also leans on Rio Grande water, fresh groundwater, conservation and advanced purified water made from treated wastewater. The plant’s leftover concentrate is sent by pipeline to deep injection wells about 22 miles northeast of the site.
Longer term, the utility has said it intends to keep expanding the plant in the coming years, with a target of as much as 42 million gallons a day to keep pace with growth in El Paso and at Fort Bliss, the Army post that shares in the project.
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