EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Residents on Arizona Ave. in Central El Paso are frustrated over mud in the roadways after storms.
“When we moved here, we didn’t have these kinds of issues, you know, when there was rain there weren’t these mudslides. But then something was changed up there on this mountain. It’s just incredibly frustrating,” said Central El Paso Resident Isabel Latz.
The City of El Paso Environmental Services Department Director says El Paso Water is responsible for addressing flooding conditions on roadways caused by stormwater but says they will send someone out.
“From a site visit it looks like the majority of soil and debris runoff is coming from private property, we will send staff out to meet with the owners to try to prevent this in the future,” said Nick Ybarra the Environmental Services Department Director for the City of El Paso.
“I can imagine it’s quite expensive to do this huge cleanup every time it rains. But they seem to prefer that over fixing the actual problems,” said Latz.
The city does say that all city-owned streets are swept a minimum of twice per year but more so after severe weather.
“Following weather events such as heavy rain, some streets are swept after Streets and Maintenance clean-ups are performed to remove dirt and debris that may have washed up on the roadway. Crews have been sweeping streets in response to the recent rainfall. City of El Paso Streets and Maintenance assists after storms to remove large debris and soil piles that won’t get collected by the sweepers,” said Ybarra.
On Tuesday, city crews could be seen cleaning Arizona Ave. in Central El Paso.
The mud slides down into the street from a nearby hill where there is an empty lot.
KTSM 9 News asked El Paso Water if they had any unfinished projects in the area.
“EPWater does not have unfinished projects in the area. The debris is coming from private property (empty lot) located upstream. The utility is not responsible for maintenance of private property,” said El Paso Water officials.
Resident Latz says she just wants answers as to who is responsible.
“It’s just very frustrating that they leave us alone with this problem that keeps happening. Every time it rains, you know, rain in El Paso should be a great thing, right? It’s good news. But unfortunately for us, that means every time we wake up to a huge mess that we have to clean up ourselves,” said Latz.
Explaining that while crews cleaned up the mud on the streets, residents were left with mud to clean up along the sidewalk in front of their homes.
“It’s up to us to clear out the mud, up to us and my neighbors. And, you know, that can take up to two weeks to clean it properly,” said Latz.
