Category: kvia-local-news

Nina Gallegos

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – Monday, El Paso Water addressed ongoing community concerns regarding the water demand of Meta’s new data center under construction in Northeast El Paso.

During a City Council work session, officials from El Paso Water said the facility’s water usage is projected to be lower than many residents believe, ensuring existing customers will not be negatively impacted.

The data center, being built near the state line, prompted worries among some El Pasoans about the strain it could place on the region’s water supply.

El Paso Water shared details on its long-term water planning, which focuses on population, supply and demand.

El Paso Water gets its supply from four primary sources: the Hueco Bolson, the Mesilla Bolson, the Rio Grande and reclaimed water.

John Balliew, president and CEO of El Paso Water, explained when the city developed its master plan in 2006, large data centers were not anticipated. The plan projected daily water use of 2.3 million gallons for residential development and 3.7 million gallons for high-density residential and commercial development.

Balliew noted the Meta data center’s maximum allowable water use of 2.5 million gallons per day falls within these original projections. Balliew clarified Meta would only reach its maximum water use if temperatures in El Paso hit 117 degrees, a temperature the city has never recorded.

He estimated the project’s expected daily water use to be closer to 480,000 gallons — a figure he said is comparable to other large commercial water users like golf courses, large hospitals, industrial laundries, housing authorities and the Marathon Refinery.

“If this were a residential development or even if it was a golf course, nobody would be complaining about it even though it was the same amount of water. So in terms of the of of taxing the overall water supply for the future generations of El Paso, tiny tiny impact on that,” Balliew said in the meeting.

However, El Paso City Council Member Josh Acevedo expressed concerns in a statement:

“While El Paso Water maintains they have sufficient water resources to accommodate the Meta data center, I continue to be concerned. Current demand may not account for major changes in the climate as we continue to face drought conditions.

My issue is not with El Paso Water, but rather with Meta as they have the ability to change the size and scope of their project with almost zero oversight by the city.

The agreement between the City and Meta also fails to address environmental concerns that I share with the public around the inefficient gas power plants for the demand induced by the hyper scale data center, including negative impacts to our air quality and noise pollution. The project has already surpassed its original scope, and the agreement with El Paso Water only serves to benefit them further.”

Meta plans to use a water-efficient, closed-loop, liquid-cooled system that recirculates the same water and will use zero water for a majority of the year, according to background information provided by Meta.

This design aims to minimize water use in their data centers. Meta has a goal to be water positive by 2030, meaning the company intends to restore more water than it consumes.

In El Paso, Meta plans to restore water consumed by the data center to local watersheds by supporting local projects that boost water supply, enhance water quality, provide safe drinking water and help restore local habitats.

These projects include deploying irrigation technologies for agriculture in the immediate area and supporting initiatives to bring safe, clean, affordable running water to underserved Colonias.

Meta said it worked closely with El Paso Water to plan for and meet its water and wastewater needs. Agreements with El Paso Water govern Meta’s operations and ensure the company pays the full costs associated with serving its data center, to avoid negatively impacting other customers or the local water supply.

Meta plans to disclose the water withdrawal for the El Paso facility annually once it becomes operational.

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Gabrielle Lopez

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — A two-year low of type O blood prompted Vitalant to ask the community to donate the most-needed blood type.

The nonprofit is asking all blood donors, especially those with type O, to make an appointment. It said since May, type O blood supply decreased.

According to Vitalant, someone in the U.S. needs a blood transfusion every two seconds, and type O is the most-transfused type.

Type O-negative blood can help anyone, Vitalant said. O-positive can help anyone with a positive blood type.

“When there is a shortage, doctors may have to decide who can receive it immediately and who can wait. That is why maintaining an adequate supply of all blood types is essential to ensure every patient gets the blood they need, especially when seconds count,” James Dugger, Vitalant’s vice president of the Texas area, said.

Around the Fourth of July holiday, Vitalant said it sees less donors. 

“More travel, you know, more auto accidents because of more people on the roads. So just things like that in that takes away from the already needed blood for people who have surgeries and illnesses that require blood transfusions,” Vitalant’s Carla Alexander said.

Vitalant said donors who give blood by July 11 can get a special T-shirt while supplies last.

You can make a Vitalant appointment here.

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Gabrielle Lopez

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Tuesday, Juarez firefighters reported and contained an overnight fire at a tire storage facility across the border.

An official report said the fire was reported at 11:53 p.m. Monday. Six fire engines and a tanker helped with the response by cooling the area with water jets. Crews also sued heavy machinery to smother the flames.

Officials said the fire went under control, but wasn’t fully extinguished, by around 4 a.m. Tuesday.

Between 250,000-300,000 used tires were damaged — out of an estimated 3.5 million stored at the site, according to officials.

Authorities continued to extinguish the fire throughout Tuesday and will stay on site until any risk of the fire reigniting is gone.

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Gabrielle Lopez

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Todd Rundgren, known for “Bang the Drum All Day” and “Hello It’s Me,” will perform at the Abraham Chavez Theater in El Paso come November, according to a news release Tuesday.

Hardin’s Music Saloon said tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. for the Nov. 7 concert. El Paso Live’s website said there will also be a pre-sale Thursday at 10 a.m.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and Rundgren will play at 7:30 p.m.

The 78-year-old singer-songwriter rose to fame in the late 1960s when he was in the psychadelic pop band Nazz.

His El Paso show is part of his “Damned If I Do” tour — and is the only stop scheduled in Texas so far.

You can find tickets here.

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Gabrielle Lopez

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KVIA) — Las Cruces Public Schools scheduled a new school for grades 6-12 to open in the fall of 2027. Monday, the district asked students, families staff and community members to share ideas for the new campus.

LCPS said the new school will be smaller since it’s only serving middle and high school grades, which is intended to better support students. It said by getting rid of the transition from middle to high school, students will build stronger relationships.

The district is gathering public feedback and ideas through a survey. Questions focus on student opportunities and values.

Participants can take the survey until July 30, according to LCPS.

The district said it will also host meetings about the new school, but haven’t shared a schedule yet.

You can take the survey by clicking here.

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Nina Gallegos

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) – Tuesday, El Paso City Council unanimously voted to advocate for sustainable state funding for the Emergence Health Network (EHN) new Behavioral East Campus. It will provide crisis behavioral health care for youth and adults and include the first space of its kind for kids in the city.

The funding would support the facility’s operations, staffing and services. It would also help expand crisis behavioral health care for youth and adults and ensure the long-term sustainability of the facility.

City Council member Ivan Niño proposed the item.

“We often talk about how important it is to prioritize public safety, affordability, quality of life components including economic mobility. However, I’ve also shared how all of these priorities are defined differently by many different individuals based on our perspective districts. You know, currently in the far east of El Paso or in district five, within district five, there is no direct access or branch,” Niño said in Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

He said the new behavioral health center in Far East El Paso (District 5) would change that. EHN was able to secure state funding for the full construction of the project, nearly $50 million from the state legislature, according to Niño.

That project will include a crisis center and an outpatient space. According to Niño, it will include:

16 diversion adult chairs

16 extended observation beds

16 residential crisis beds

8 beds for kids

The center will include the first beds for this type of care for kids in El Paso. Niño said that was important for him.

“This space is going to have eight beds for kids, which is going to be something that is going to be super impactful for our entire community and for the Far East side of Paso, specifically, how fast it’s grown and it continues to grow,” Niño said in the meeting.

Now that state funding has been secured for the building, Niño said it’s important for the council to advocate to ensure EHN has operational cost to provide services for the entire city and county.

“This will be the first dedicated youth crisis observation and stabilization service in the county. This will also directly support law enforcement officers, including CIT teams, by giving them a dedicated place to bring someone in crisis,” EHN Chief Operating Officer Crystal Davis said in the council meeting.

Davis said the facility means instead of a person in crisis being routed to jail or the emergency room, they will be met with clinical staff. She said that means less waiting times in emergency rooms and faster return in the community for officers.

EHN is asking for the city to advocate for sustainable funding to support the facility operation and staffing long-term, according to Davis. The request is detailed in this item:

Item 23: Discussion and action to direct the City Manager, in coordination with the City Attorney, to amend the City of El Paso’s 90th Session State Legislative Agenda to include advocacy for sustainable state funding during the upcoming biennium to support the operational costs, staffing, and service delivery of the recently announced Behavioral Health East Campus, a community-based crisis behavioral health facility to be operated by Emergence Health Network (EHN) and located within the City of El Paso. Such advocacy shall support the expansion of crisis behavioral health services for youth and adults and help ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the facility.

The item passed unanimously.

ABC-7 has reached out to Emergence Health Network for comment.

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Heriberto Perez Lara

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Estrella del Paso, a local immigration legal clinic that operates as a ministry of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, is accusing the federal government, specifically the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, of not paying them around $765,000 owed in reimbursements for the past six months.

These reimbursements come under the Unaccompanied Children program, in which Estrella del Paso has hundreds of pending cases.

Melissa M. Lopez, the executive director of EDP, says it is a frustrating situation because they need to look for other means to provide those legal services to the migrant children they are currently representing.

ABC-7 reported that last year, the federal government tried to terminate the program for unaccompanied children to keep them from receiving legal representation, in which Estrella Del Paso, along with other plaintiffs, went into court last year to fight this termination.

“This feels like another form of trying to terminate the program now by not paying us money that we’ve earned under this contract,” executive director Lopez said. “The way this contract works is we provide the services, we provide proof of that to the government, and then they reimburse us, so then they pay us the money that we’re owed based on the services that we provided.”

The last time the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families paid Estrella Del Paso was late last year and it has been operating for six months without those reimbursements.

“We’re definitely struggling financially because when we don’t have the cash flow coming in, then it makes it hard for us to be able to meet the obligations that we have, whether that be bills that need to be paid, but also paying salaries for staff, so we are struggling financially and that’s why we’re trying to do what we can to raise funds as quickly as possible to avoid a possible worst case scenario and avoid coming to that,” she added.

“It is getting to a critical point where it’s getting harder and harder to make that work and that’s why we’re we’re making this plea for financial donations to the community and also to our philanthropic partners to try and increase our cash flow so that we will get to a point where we can focus on the work that we need to do, which is really difficult as it is,” Lopez also said.

For Estrella Del Paso, this only affects all the people they serve and represent, because if they don’t have the resources the legal clinic offers, they face immediate deportation.

“I have tried to be as transparent with the entire team as I can be in terms of what’s going on and sharing with them information as I have it, especially critical information, because I would hate for them to find out about something important through the media or because somebody mentioned something to them, so I’ve tried to be as transparent with them as I can as to where we are right now and the circumstances and what we’re facing,” Lopez also said.

The ongoing lawsuit is limited exclusively to this program, given that it receives federal funding and the government can decide whether or not to award the grant to another organization.

“For us, the bottom line is making sure that these children receive legal representation; that’s the most important part,” Lopez added. “If the program were to be given to somebody else, which would be essentially what could happen if we aren’t successful in the lawsuit and as long as children are receiving the services that they’re entitled to, that’s really what we’re fighting for.”

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar posted a response on social media Tuesday to the Trump administration’s alleged refusal to pay more than $765,000 owed to Estrella del Paso.

Congresswoman Escobar issued the following statement on Instagram:

“Estrella del Paso has been a lifeline for immigrant families in our community, providing the legal support that makes our justice system fairer and more accessible. The Trump Administration’s decision to withhold funding for unaccompanied minors has placed that mission in jeopardy, created unnecessary uncertainty for the people who depend on it, and deliberately attacked due process. Every day these funds remain frozen puts essential legal services for children and the future of Estrella del Paso at greater risk – reimbursements should be released now.”

ABC-7 reached out to the White House and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

HHS provided us with the following statement:

“The Administration for Children and Families does not comment on matters subject to ongoing litigation.”

Executive Director Lopez says they have several hundred unaccompanied children cases pending and some have lasted years, so for them, they still have a legal obligation to those children and want to find the means to be able to keep representing all of them moving forward.

Estrella Del Paso invites those who wish to donate to programs for unaccompanied children to do so; for more information, you can click here.

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Gabrielle Lopez

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Thursday, El Paso County asked residents to attend a special Commissioners Court meeting at Ascarate Park to share their thoughts about the park’s proposed future improvements. Part of those plans include a proposed removal of the park’s duck pond.

The County said a Capital Improvement Bond voters approved in 2024 will fund the proposed improvements. Nothing has been officially decided yet, and plans are only concepts on how to improve the park.

Other plans include engineering and environmental assessments, the county said. Officials have to look at water quality, algae growth, water loss and other maintenance challenges.

The County wants the public to share their input to guide their plans.

Residents who attend the meeting can ask county staff and project consultants questions and give feedback, according to a news release. Meetings ran through mid-July, with the last one scheduled for Thursday.

The meeting is at 6900 Delta Dr. at the park’s pavilion. It will start at 6 p.m., according to the county.

To sign up for public comment, there will be forms available upon arrival at the meeting to fill out, the county said.

You can also sign up ahead of time to speak in person, through Teams, phone or a written comment through the county’s website.

The county said there won’t be a gate fee to enter the park and attend the meetings.

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Olivia Vara

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — At Raynor, a busy intersection in central El Paso, this pole has been broken for months.

“The thing is, that the post, as you see it being held with just those cables, the pole is practically just hanging in the air,” says Carlos Muñuz. He’s the owner of Pipo Barber Academy, just down the street. 

He says if you look closely at the pole, you can see, it is not supported by the concrete. It’s being held from up by wires.

Carlos and others near Raynor first reported the broken pole about four months ago.

Yet the pole still stands, barely.

Carlos says the pole has become a growing safety concern for El Pasoans living and working in the neighborhood.

He says that at any given time, this street sees a lot of traffic, vehicles, and people because there are other businesses around here in the 5 Points Area. He says yes, there is the risk of someone getting hurt and it’s been months.

I reached out to El Paso Electric and they told me the pole doesn’t belong to them either. 

But they did said in an updated statement, quote, “We have identified the pole belonging to AT&T/Time Warner. As mentioned earlier, if we do not hear a response for them soon, we will work to assist with removing the pole on our end.”

Until then, some El Pasoans are still walking past the damaged pole every day.

Carlos says, that they need to come address the problem so they can help avoid an accident before it happens.

Some El Pasoans even say they have called the El Paso Fire Department and the El Paso Police Department.

Still, no one has come to fix it.

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Nichole Gomez

El Paso, TX (KVIA-TV)- El Paso Public Libraries is inviting everyone to join in the summer fun by donating candy and getting a free book at the Summerween Candy Drive.

The candy drive happens from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, June 12, at the José Cisneros Cielo Vista Branch Library at 1300 Hawkins Blvd.

Everyone is welcome to donate individually wrapped candy for the library’s upcoming Summerween event. As a thank you, you’ll get a free book while supplies last. The books were bought with support from the Friends of the El Paso Public Libraries.

Families can also enjoy library services during the event. The El Paso Public Library Bookmobile will be there, offering library card sign-ups, summer reading registration, and information about programs and resources across the library system.

The candy drive helps support the library’s new Summerween celebration, which is set for 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, July 10, at the José Cisneros Cielo Vista Branch Library. Summerween will include trunk-or-treat, a costume contest, crafts, family activities, games, and more.

To find out more about El Paso Public Libraries, visit www.ElPasoLibrary.org

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