Early El Paso Water Systems

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to do it justice. You know, every great city is really just a long argument with thirst, and El Paso has been having that argument for a good long while. It starts the way a lot of Texas stories start: with people making do.

El Pasoans got their domestic water from acequias, open irrigation ditches, doing the work that rivers and gravity and a little ingenuity could manage together. Then came the aguadores, the water-carriers, hauling fresh water to folks who needed it. There's even a mural nearby that captures them, frozen mid-delivery, which is a fine way to be remembered.

But El Paso was growing, and a city growing that fast has a thirst that aguadores just can't keep up with. Enter Sylvester Watts. In 1882, he built the first El Paso waterworks.

He pumped water out of the Rio Grande and stored it in a reservoir right here at this site. That was the start. Then he dug a well near the river, and that well became the main supply source.

One man, one waterworks, one well, and a whole city drinking easier because of it. Now, nothing good stays in private hands forever when a city's got its eye on it. In 1910, the city purchased the waterworks and got to work.

Major renovations. They built a pumping unit right here at this site and expanded the Sunset Heights reservoir, because a growing city doesn't just need water, it needs water with room to breathe. Decades passed.

The system got bigger, the city got bigger, and eventually somebody decided that a resource this essential needed a board watching over it full time. In 1952, the El Paso Public Service Board was established to oversee the city's water system. From open ditches to water-carriers to Sylvester Watts to a city-run board, that is a long road to a glass of water.

And every drop of it earned.

What the marker says

El Pasoans initially obtained their domestic water from acequias, or open irrigation ditches, and later from the aguadores, water-carriers who delivered fresh water as depicted in the nearby mural. In 1882, Sylvester Watts built the first El Paso waterworks. He pumped water out of the Rio Grande and stored it in a reservoir at this site, then later dug a well near the river that became the main supply source. In 1910, the city purchased the waterworks and began major renovations to the system, including the construction of the pumping unit at this site and the expansion of the Sunset Heights reservoir. The El Paso Public Service Board was established in 1952 to oversee the city's water system. (2002)